Sometimes literary writing styles can be frivolous, pedantic, or over-done—more of an exercise in seeing how long sentences can be or how opaque one’s meaning can be. That’s not the case here. Read’s style is lyrical and paints a scene rich in color, shapes, and sounds. The story arc is simultaneously familiar and surprising, a rare treat. It has all the feels. It's satisfying. It's cinematic. I highly recommend it.

Oh my goodness, what an amazing debut by Shelley Read! I really didn’t know what to expect with this read, but I was blown away.

This coming of age novel tells the story of a young girl whose life was changed forever when her path crossed with a newcomer. The story beautifully depicts the struggles she faced and the bravery and resilience she embodied as she went through life.

I would not be surprised if this book becomes a top seller in 2023!

I want to thank the publisher and the author, for this advanced copy… Not since Where the Crawdad Sings have I found a book as descriptive and hauntingly, devastatingly beautiful.

This coming-of-age story begins with a 17-year-old, who knows no boundaries when it comes to the first love in her life… The pull is so strong, warnings from family be damned… However, when she finds herself in a situation that she cannot escape, we experience one of the most gut-wrenching, written stories that only come around about once a year.

The writing is beautifully crafted from about a quarter of the way in until the end. The reason I gave four versus five stars is that the beginning of the story was extremely disjointed. We kept going from one situation to the next without a period in between sentences or a timeline. I almost gave up, but I am now glad that I stuck it out. (I’m hoping this was just due to it being an eARC, and that some tighter editing was done for the final product.)
This novel is certain to make all of the celebrity rounds, and I wouldn’t doubt if this becomes a movie as it would make for gorgeous cinematography.

Thank you to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. This is a beautiful debut novel that I started recommending before I even finished reading - I just knew it was going to be that good! It follows 17 year old Victoria Nash, growing up in a small, rural town in western Colorado. A coming of age story that delves into themes of family and home/place, Go As a River is hard to put down once you begin reading it. I had to pick up a copy of my own to hug (literally) when I finished my digital version. I think the various themes will resonate with many other readers, like they did with me. Fans of dramatic fiction will enjoy this one.

Go as a River was a stunning story of resilience and perseverance. Family history pushes and pulls the main character, Victoria, to forge her own path. At each crossroads of loss and pain, she must move forward. As she grieves, she also becomes new, seeking to hold onto truths and memories of her family, yet also discarding the pieces that don’t allow for growth. This book truly drew me in from the first page and kept me reading in every spare minute until I finished it.

I really enjoyed this book! The writing was very beautiful and the story was heartbreaking and lovely. The book follows Victoria Nash from the 1940s though the 70s on her families peach farm in Colorado. As many tragedies befall her and her family she preserves to find the strength to survive and to carve out her place in the world. I would definitely recommend this book especially to people who enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing.

DNF @50% I couldn't get into this story with how overly dense the writing style was. Just wasn't for me! Could not make myself pick it up knowing there would be so many extra paragraphs about descriptions to get through.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the eARC, I hope others enjoy it!

Such a stunningly beautiful story, in the way that you get beauty from grief, hardship and struggle. I'm blown away that this is a debut novel; the author brilliantly uses words to paint vivid images in the reader's mind. The writing in this book is both lyrical and rhythmic, and it envelops you in a comfortable cocoon of beauty (this sounds cheesy, even to me, but I can't quite describe it any other way). I found myself completely absorbed into the descriptions of the geographical landscape of Colorado in the 40s and 50s.

Victoria is an amazing character, one of the best I've read in a very long time. I was pulled into her story as though I didn't have a choice. Her resilience and strength through everything she struggled to overcome was truly inspiring.

This is one of those books where you are torn between wanting to keep reading, and not wanting to ever finish it. I can't recommend this one enough!

Such a powerful story, about losses piled upon a teenager in rural Colorado. The people who made a difference in her life were acquaintances who became friends.

This is a story of survival, of just getting through, of refusing to be defeated. I did not want to put it down.

In my Instagram post, I compared it in part to a few of my favorite books, The Heart’s Invisible Furies and A Place for Us.

Beautifully written and emotional debut novel that follows a the journey of a teenage Victoria through her adulthood. This story is a coming of age story as well as a story of grief, loss, perseverance and love. The writing makes you feel one with nature and I could imagine the mountains, fresh air, and the cold waters of the rivers of Colorado. At first I thought this story was going to be just another romance story but it turned out to be so much more with themes of loss, difficult choices, motherhood, and family drama. This book will having feeling so many rollercoaster of emotions and will leave you heartbroken and devasted at some points and yet will warm your heart at other points.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

This coming-of-age book is absolutely beautiful. Read’s descriptions are so wonderfully written that I could smell the flowers. And, the taste of those ripe peaches amazing. Victoria Nash is a young girl when her mother dies and leaves her alone to care for her father, bother and disabled and disgruntled Uncle. It is Victoria’s job to care for the house, the garden, the animals and the meals each day. This is her life until a strange boy comes to town. Their relationship is destroyed by a violent act of hatred. Victoria must navigate her emotions and make a heartbreaking decisions that will change her life forever. This novel that stays with you a long long time. Great book discussion material.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
A lyrically written, emotionally engaging coming of age novel. I expected the flooding of Iola and other small Colorado towns to be more than the backdrop of the story but this fact was ever present and made a decided contribution to the novel. So powerful. This book will stay with me for a long time.

Back in January, 𝗚𝗢 𝗔𝗦 𝗔 𝗥𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥 by Shelley Read was the first ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book I read in 2023, and I can almost guarantee it will be among my Best Books of 2023. It’s that good. Better than that good. ALL the stars for this beautifully written debut. Bravo!⁣
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I’m not going to tell you much because this is a story you’ll want to sink into as it unfolds. It’s 1948 and Victoria Nash is 17. She’s already lived a tragic life between devastation from WWII and a tragic car accident that took three of the people she most loved. Victoria is the sole woman left on her family’s Colorado peach farm. She has a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders when she meets a boy/man, Wil, who others deem an outcast, hated for the color of his skin. Victoria has her own ideas, follows her heart and steers her own life down unexpected paths. ⁣
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Told in first person, Victoria is a character I came to both admire and adore. She’s tough, yet vulnerable, selfless, yet willing to fight when she’s able, and remarkably resilient. Some have compared her to Kya in 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘥𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨 and I would agree, but I cared for Victoria even more. I liked 𝘎𝘰 𝘈𝘴 𝘢 𝘙𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 even more. This is a MUST read book. Please, don’t even hesitate.⁣
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Thanks to @spiegelandgrau for an ARC of #GoAsARiver.

Seventeen-year-old Victoria lives a simple and repetitive life as part of her father’s peach farm in the small town of Iola, Colorado. When she falls for a mysterious drifter to town, their short love will shape the rest of Victoria’s life. We follow her into adulthood through love, loss, friendship and growth.

Shelley Read has crafted a beautiful story that spans individual lives as well as generations. We see and feel the way Victoria grows and changes as her circumstances, surroundings and relationships change through the years. Additionally, she tells the story of the region alongside Victoria’s story, giving the location room to grow into its role as a character itself.

I connected to this story in particular because of the location. I grew up traveling to my family’s cabin in this part of Colorado multiple times a year. I never knew as we crossed the Blue Mesa Reservoir that we were traveling over the destroyed town of Iola. I can picture the mountains, feel the air and taste the peaches!

Thanks to NetGalley and Spiegel & Grau for the advance copy of this book!

Four and a half stars. I live in Colorado but at the other end of the state from where this book is set. The towns and places that the author describes are real and Iola was in fact submerged when a dam was built in the mid-twentieth century.

The book starts when Torie, the daughter of a family that owns a peach orchard, runs into Wil, a transient young Indian man, while she's running an errand in the small town of Iola. Wil sees Torie and she isn't accustomed to being seen. Her desire to continue being seen sets the book in motion.

Torie spends much of the book without Wil- this is not a romance. Because of the prejudice and violence visited upon him, she makes some decisions that separate her from her family, where she had taken on the housekeeping role after her mother died. Up until now, Torie had cooked, cleaned, picked peaches and picked up after her thoroughly unpleasant brother and uncle and distant father.

Torie finds independence and strength within herself that she had not previously suspected. Her growth is one of the pleasures of this book.

Another pleasure is the setting. The author lived and taught in Gunnison, Colorado for most of her life and the love that she has for the place shines through. Although you might not think it, Colorado is known for peaches, and I love them myself. Peach season is much appreciated by me but I don't have a direct connection to the people who grow them. If you are drawn to the outdoors you'll really enjoy this aspect of the book.

I think this book has the potential to be a real hit and I hope that it's marketed successfully. I'll be recommending it to my friends for sure.

I don’t even know where I heard about this book but I’m glad I did because it was absolutely stunning.

The writing was beautiful, the characters were complex and the story left me speechless. I’ve seen a few reviews comparing this to Where the Crawdads Sing and I can definitely see the comparison — specifically in the solitary character and nature vibes. I would also recommend this book to fans of Kristin Hannah as this one is gut punch after gut punch and is definitely a tear-jerker. Mind you, I *love* an emotional and heart-breaking novel, but if that’s not your jam, consider yourself warned. 😆

This book is definitely one I’ll be thinking about for a long time and might just be my favorite read of the year so far.

This book is a wonderful example of lyrical, beautiful writing and excellent storytelling.

I love coming of age stories and the main character here, Victoria, demonstrates so much resilience as she grows from a 17 year old in love for the first time to a capable, independent woman. This is not a light, flowery read. This is a tragic story with a lot of trauma and heartache but it still manages to be hopeful.

While I enjoyed the whole story, I especially liked the last quarter of the book. The voice changes and my heart was really touched by that change.

This was not a propulsive, I can’t put this down kind of book for me. Instead it slowly and steadily moved through Victoria’s life and I really enjoyed that slower pace and think it matched the life she was living.

Shelley Read's debut GO AS A RIVER is a layered story of one woman finding her own path in a harsh time and place.

1940's western Colorado is where Victoria Nash is growing up on her family's peach orchard. One day a different boy comes to town and she is transfixed. This young man happens to be a Native American and her family will not approve. When a terrible event transpires, it sets Victoria off to find her own path even while shouldering a heavy secret.

This was a coming-of-age and a tribute to resilience story that had me trying to find its place. I struggled at first, possibly due to the format of the digital copy and the audiobook, or maybe it was me. I couldn't quite connect to the story at first and felt like there was heavy foreshadowing that didn't ultimately present what I expected.

As a tragic family drama, this fits in a lot of themes dealing with loss, grief, racism, and adoption, while also introducing the very real political and social struggles of imminent domain/government buy outs of this community. I found her relationships with certain characters fascinating, while I really appreciated how her relationship with her dad evolved.

I found myself more engaged after the tragic events of Victoria's youth. Again this seems odd to me, and I can't speak coherently to the why, but if you read this and find yourself feeling similarly, push on and I believe it will be worth it. The ending felt raw and real and right. The ending is what lifted this to a 4 Star for me. I really look forward to discussing this more with @kellyhook.readsbooks
& @beachesbooksnbubbles this spring.

If you enjoy family dramas that have a heavier rawness, this will be a winner. You will discover a heroine who is forced to find her strength through harsh and lonely circumstances.

Thank you to @spiegelandgrau and @NetGalley for both the digital ARC and advanced listening copy of the audiobook. I went back and forth and loved having each throughout. The narration definitely kept me going in the story!

As a lover of nature and a lover of Colorado, I was excited to read Go as a River, a beautifully written historical fiction set near the Gunnison River. The female protagonist begins her life in a small farming town in a valley that will become the Blue Mesa Dam.

The novel takes the reader through decades for Victoria’s life, which is full of tragedy and loss. In the novel the readers see Victoria learn the reality of the danger of cruel and violent racism in her community. The fear Victoria feels for her own brother is palpable, and the reader will root for her escape from his influence.

Victoria has a strong connection to nature and seeks refuge in the mountains. The novel is heavily descriptive of the setting, which I appreciated, but some readers may lose interest if looking for more action and less description.

I love the role of the peach trees in the novel, as well as the vivid descriptions of the fate of Victoria’s childhood home. The bond between women and mothers in Go as a River is also one of the more beautiful pieces of the story.

I have seen this novel compared to Where the Crawdads Sing, and the strong, independent female protagonist making her own way in the world, as well as detailed description of the natural setting of the novel can be compared, but beyond that they are unique stories.

This review is posted on Instagram @beginandendwithbooks and Facebook and Goodreads Michelle Beginandendwithbooks

This is more than just a coming-of-age story. This is a story of a metamorphosis. It is about a girl who gains a level of fierceness, wisdom, and independence that doesn’t occur under normal circumstances. It is exquisitely written.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read the work of an author who made me feel everything she had written quite so deeply before. As I experienced this novel, I could see the mountains and feel the rain on my skin. I could taste a peach after a long period of starvation, and I could feel the agonizing, numbing heartache that vibrated off the page. Anger, terror, love, sacrifice—it is all there, and every bit of it envelops the reader and draws them in. Torie’s story was so well told I became a part of it as I drank in every word. It was an absolutely beautiful, sorrowful pleasure to read. Now I’m going to tell you this is Shelley Read’s debut novel. Yep. A star is born. And I’ll be looking forward to her next book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.