Go As A River

Go As A River has a lot of buzz surrounding it and has been likened to Where The Crawdads Sing - which are really big shoes to fill! So, I picked up a library copy to see what the fuss was about.

This is a quiet read with descriptive writing that follows Victoria (Torie) Nash, a teen whose life revolves around her family-run peach farm and her relationships with the men in her life: her father, uncle, and brother. Her life changes when she meets Wilson Moon, a kind-hearted Indigenous teen drifter whom she falls madly in love with and their bond results in both their lives changing dramatically. 

I was immediately drawn to Read's writing and the first third of the story drew me in as Read introduces Torie's small world. But then things started to fall into a lull and the pacing from then on felt disjointed. We were given a good antagonist for Torie, but nothing really comes of it - no big confrontation or satisfying conclusion after their decades-long issues. 

The story introduces themes of racism, loss, motherhood, and familial bonds. That's a lot of intense issues and yet despite these weighty issues, the story wasn't nearly as emotional as I had been expecting, nor the ending as impactful. 

This was a good historical fiction/coming-of-age debut that lives up to the publisher's comparison to Where The Crawdads Sing with its descriptive writing and a story that follows a young girl who lives a lonely life full of hardships, with no guidance from the adults in her life and yet she endures and finds solace in an unlikely friendship, forbidden love and her connection to nature. 

My Rating: 3 stars

Author: Shelley Read

Genre: Historical Fiction (US)

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Publisher: DoubleDay Canada

First Published: March 7, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: In the spirit of Where the Crawdads Sing, and set amid the beauty and wilderness of the Colorado mountains, an unforgettable and deeply moving story of a young woman who follows her heart

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family's peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado--the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land but determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria's chance encounter with Wil on a street corner profoundly alters both of their young lives, igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known, fleeing into the nearby mountains. Taking shelter in a small hut, she struggles to survive in the wilderness, with no clear notion of what her future will be. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the natural world the strength and meaning that set her on a quest to regain all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River rises to submerge her homeland--its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations.

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the midst of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and finally, home--where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river--gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when the river is dammed.