A River Runs Through It

This week, I am reviewing two books which both have a river as a character in the book. Both are five star reads.

Hello! Welcome to all of our new subscribers. Lovely to have you here! Here you will find reviews of all of my five star reads, and the occasional rant.

Firstly, a little yarn about reading goals. When I was reflecting back on 2022, I did feel that I had become a little obsessive with my reading, shocking I know! I wasn’t mad about all of the reading, I just didn’t feel as though I had a good balance. If any of you are on Good Reads, you will get a lot of encouragement at the start of a calendar year to set yourself a reading goal. For 2023, I decided to set this at 64 books - one book each week, and then an extra one each month (52 + 12), if you would like to know the strange way my mind works. I read 142 books in 2022 so this was quite the reduction, and my attempt not to read at the expense of other things. Long story short, I well exceeded that target by mid-May. I then revised the target to 143 (one more book than last year.. growth and all that!). But then I got to talking to the wonderful Nancy who said she doesn’t set reading goals, but in the same breathe almost challenged me to up my goal and read 15 books a month. This comes out at 180 books per year - more than I have ever read before in a year. Challenge accepted Nancy! Let the obsession continue!

I do actually feel that my life is back to a good balance so it doesn’t bother me to set this goal. Mr Matilda will also tell you that he affectionately calls me “Mel to the Max” because I can’t just do something to a ‘normal’ level of commitment. I do acknowledge that I am not normal, but I am fully accepting of this. And if I didn’t read so much, I wouldn’t be able to select the good ones to recommend to you would I? So we are all winning!

On to the reviews!

This week I am reviewing two books which both have a river as a character in the book. Please check the trigger warnings for these, especially the second one.

First up we have Go As A River by Shelley Read. This is Read’s debut novel and if you have been following my reviews for a while, you will know that I love an outstanding debut. This book is a coming of age, historic fiction novel and it is simply beautiful. I would also put this in the literary fiction category.

“On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family’s farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a dishevelled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives. So begins the mesmerising story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength. Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever.”

This book is beautifully written, has exquisite character development (love a kick ass female protagonist!), and is one I recommend to fans of Where the Crawdads Sing. Dare I say it, but I think this is better than Crawdads.

Here is a small taste of this beautifully written book:

“My home is at the bottom of a lake. Our farm lies there, mud bound, its remnants indistinguishable from boat wreckage. Sleek trout troll the remains of my bedroom and the parlor where we sat as a family on Sundays. Barns and troughs rot. Tangled barded wire rusts. The once fertile land marinates in idleness.”

Honestly! Exquisite. Five stars from me - my top pick from those I read in May 2023.  

I saw somewhere online the genre of book that I tend to gravitate toward (you know the ones that rip your heart out and then stomp on it) being referred to as ‘trauma porn’. I see this term quite often being used to describe A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, which just so happens to be one of my favourite books. Now, A Little Life is definitely not for everyone. It is harrowing, and there is no happy ending. If you do not like books like this, then the next book I am about to recommend is not for you. But if you do gravitate toward ‘trauma porn’, then let me introduce you to On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel.

I am going to say it again. Before you embark upon this one, please check the trigger warnings.

I cannot stop thinking about this book. It was one that I had to stop and tell my family about as I was reading it. (The adults in my family, not the small children). It really hit me. I really wanted to have someone to talk to about the book as I was reading it, to unpack it, to debrief, to process. On the Savage Side is loosely inspired by the Chillicothe murders in Ohio, and tells the story of twin sisters, their friends who go missing, and all of the ways women suffer in the world.

The story follows twins Arcade and Daffodil (Arc and Daffy) who are born to heroin-addicted parents. Their parents struggle with their addiction, and life is pretty tough (to put it mildly). Their father dies from an overdose when the girls are 6, and their beloved grandmother Mamaw Milkweed steps in and is the one shining light in the young girls lives, showing them what it means to be loved and cared for. Mamaw Milkweed teaches the girls that life has a beautiful side and a savage side, and the key to life is to make the savage side beautiful. There are some beautiful moments in the book when the girls use their vivid imagination to reinvent the various situations they find themselves in. You will fall in love with these characters.

This book is about poverty, addiction, and murder. It is also about resilience, hope, strength, and seeing the beauty in the ‘savage side’.

The writing in this one is also simply beautiful. At times it felt like I was reading poetry. McDaniel is a captivating storyteller. There are chapters in this book which are written from the perspective of the river. The river itself has a beautiful side and a savage side. It is both a place of salvation for Arc and Daffy, and a place where the murdered women are found. At first the chapters told from the river’s perspective seemed a little odd to me, but it soon fell into place and I thought it was very well done, as well as being unique.  

This book is horrific. It is not for everyone. There were times when I had to put this book down because I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t think I will be able to stop thinking about it for some time. I already want to re-read it. Does this sound like your type of book? Do you have any books that you can’t stop thinking about long after you’ve finished them? I’d love to hear about them.. because life is too short to read bad books.

P.S I have now read 118 books in 2023 which is apparently 8 books ahead of schedule. I got this Nancy!