Member Reviews
This book will break your heart and put it back together over and over.
A coming of age tale in which a young girl’s life is forever changed when she befriends a Native American wanderer in the small Colorado town where her family owns a peach orchard.
The trees and landscape are as much a character as the people in this story and now I’m longing for peach season.
Full of women with quiet strength, I just loved everything about this book.
Go as a River is a beautifully written first person novel told by Victoria Nash. Set in the 1940's Victoria (Torie) is the only woman left on her family's peach farm in Colorado. She has taken on the role of homemaker after her mother's death and most days leave left to do but work. Until one day she goes into town and meets Will and they become involved in a forbidden romantic relationship. Shelley Read's writing is so beautiful and Cynthia Farrell does a remarkable job narrating. For fans of Where the Crawdads Sing, Go As A River is a gorgeous story of the strength of one young woman.
Victoria Nash lives a small quiet life on a peach farm with her father, brother, and uncle. But a chance encounter with a young drifter changes the course of her life. She is forever changed by Wil, a Native American displaced from his tribal land.
From the get go you know that this is going to be an epic story of a heartbreaking life. But I was “ready to be hurt again.” 🙃 We follow Victoria’s coming of age years and the decisions she makes that are out of love and sacrifice and survival. There is love, hardship, grace, injustice, hope, sacrifice, redemption…
Shelley is very descriptive and immersive in her writing. I could vividly imagine the beautiful Colorado setting and the taste of the ripe peaches.
Read if you like:
-coming of age
-first love
-resilient and strong FMC
-set in the 1940-1970s
-beautiful and heartbreaking storytelling
-The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
I requested this book purely based on the recommendation quote on the cover by Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry). It is a beautifully written debut novel. I will be recommending this to my mom and just about anyone. Pick it up and give it a go. Let me know what you think.
Spice level: 🌶️
Audiobook: 🎧🎧/5
The narrator spoke a little too much like a news anchor and her male voices were not great. This may or may not be why this isn’t a five star read for me. 😬
Thanks to @netgalley and @orangeskyaudio for the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review!
I am DNF-ing this book at 50%.
Now I want to start this review off by saying the narrator was perfect. I did not have any qualms with her narration, and i'm actually excited to listen to some of her other audiobooks in the future. She was probably the main reason I kept listening to this audiobook to be honest because her voice is quite soothing and animated.
But otherwise my feelings for this book were pretty "meh." Victoria, the protagonist, is living in a post-WWII Colorado, and she's the only woman left in her household. She's treated horribly by both her father and brother. But all of her expectations for herself wither into love when she meets Wilson Moon, an Indigenous person. Pretty quickly they develop a romance, and while I was excited for their relationship in the beginning, Wil pretty much stays a one-dimensional character. He hardly talks, and before we can even see more of his personality, he's dead. He basically becomes synonymous with sex to Victoria, and she runs away just to be able to have intimacy with him. Victoria actually hears multiple other people in her town be raging racists towards him, and she hardly bats an eye. Their relationship just feels as if Victoria used him and never truly cared. She definitely doesn't sympathize. Thus, this book immediately becomes one of those copy and paste examples where a white woman utilizes her BIPOC lover's death for her own personal growth—not to mention her getting pregnant with his baby. It's just upsetting to see his character used as a plot device when it could've been so much more. This moment was pretty much my breaking point. I did read to the 50% mark where Victoria journeys into the wild, but I couldn't get over how fast she got over his death. Also, the fact that her brother killed him (at least its implied), and she never stands up for Wil... it just angered me.
This review is for the book not the audiobook. The narrator was terrible and I couldn’t stand listening to her monotone reading so I read the actual book. 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.
4.5 rounded up!
This is such a fantastic debut! The descriptions of the main character, Victoria, and all her experiences were spectacularly vibrant. Victoria’s journey is inspirational and emotional with a perfect balance of heartbreak and comfort to allow a deep connection to this woman’s coming-of-age story. I’m so impressed by this debut and highly recommend it for anyone who loves a story of self-exploration and resilience.
Audio observation: After seeing a few rave reviews from Booksta friends I requested this on Netgalley. I went into the experience hoping the audio lived up to the love of the print version and feel, for the most part, it was really good. One qualm I had was when the female narrator has to do a particular man’s voice, it sounded a bit too “California surfer” which didn’t fit the Colorado location. But that’s my only grip and I did love the story so much!
This is a debut novel that I was excited to listen to. And of course, with an audiobook, the narrator can enhance or absolutely ruin the experience. In this case, Cynthia Farrell did an incredible job of bringing the story to life.
I’m not sure whether I was distracted when I started the story, but as it began I wasn’t sure it was going to be a favorite. However, it didn’t take long for me to be drawn into the story and correct that thought.
The story revolves around the life of 17-year-old Victoria Nash. When her mother died Victoria stepped into the role of cook and housekeeper for her dad, a peach farmer, an uncle confined to a wheelchair due to war injuries, and a brother who is a challenging problem. She, herself, is challenged to a thankless life.
Not surprisingly when she meets a man who catches her eye and treats her with kindness her attention is focused in that direction. At the time, she has no idea where this new attraction will take her.
This is a story that reminded me of Kristin Hannah’s wonderful writing. It was touching, and detailed Colorado’s wilderness in such a way that it was easy to imagine.
My Concerns
As I mentioned earlier, I think it was probably the fact that I was distracted as I started listening, but the first of the story didn’t grab me.
Final Thoughts
I highly recommend this audiobook and debut author. The time span of the 1940s to the 1970s covers a touching story that is sure to stick with you long after you finish the book.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orange Sky Audio for the ability to listen to this early-release audiobook.
Wow! This is a beautiful, original, coming-of-age story by Shelley Read involving a girl who makes life-altering decisions at a very young age--and in an era (and socioeconomic class) that leaves very few options.
It's about choices, her reckoning, her service to others, and her determination. Plus, it's about her forgiveness and willingness to be truthful and ask for help in order to make peace with her past.
The themes of water and nature are interwoven throughout. Just perfection!
I loved this audiobook, narrated so brilliantly with passion and empathy. Thank you to OrangeSky Audio for an advanced listener copy via the NetGalley app. This will make an excellent book club pick.
Hurry and go read Go as a River!
It’s so beautiful in the realest possible way. This book is gritty, honest, unflinchingly so, and stunningly written. The author writes about the indomitable strength of women, but also questions if it’s a healthy strength that serves us, or if it can be used to isolate us from one another. While we may have the ability to bear a burden bigger than some could ever imagine, we have to ask ourselves if carrying, sometimes generations of these burdens serves our souls or destroys them. It’s a very good question. This book is for women who feel the past press upon us as we struggle towards futures free, or at least less confined by family curses and for those who feel a kinship with nature and appreciate the restorative powers of a steady river flowing obstinately through the wood.
Wow. This was such a moving story, and I enjoyed every single minute of it. It’s not something my audience would usually be into, but I’m glad I took a chance.
A Young Girl's Courage
The time spans the 1940's to the 1970's. The place is a small town in Colorado. A family tragedy takes the mother of the family leaving the father to cope and raise his son and daughter. He does not cope well and the running of the household is left to his daughter Victoria.
At seventeen Victoria is in desperate need of her mother. She is young and naive and when she meets a young boy new to town she is taken in by him. It is however a forbidden romance and because of it tragedy strikes. Victoria runs away and in the forests of Colorado she learns what it is to become an adult and the responsibilities she faces for her actions.
Although it is a tragedy that changes many lives and especially that of Victoria she learns love and forgiveness and meets the world with courage and determination.
I listened to the audio book and the pleasant voice of the narrator. It was a great story the narrator did a wonderful job and I enjoyed listening to it.
Thanks to Shelley Read for writing a great story, to Cynthia Farrell for the great narration, to Orange Sky Audio for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to listen to and review.
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!
Thanks to Spiegel & Grau by OrangeSky Audio for the ALC.
All the stars for this beautiful, poignant, character-driven story about motherhood, grief and survival. Victoria's story started as she was a teen and the reader gets to see her grow up through hardships and triumphs. She was a quiet character that felt deeply and was in tune with the nature around her. You could tell that Read is a Colorado native because she wrote with such vivid descriptions. I could see the deer, taste the peaches, and hear the snow crunching under my feet. This story was so moving and packed full of emotions. On the last page I teared up because of the circumstances and also because I was leaving Victoria behind. It's a book that I know one day I'll wish I could read it again for the first time.
Cynthia Farrell narrated and wow did she bring the characters to life. She captured the tones and nuances so well. Her voices of different characters helped keep me anchored in the story and I was never lost with who was speaking.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This book wasn’t quite what I expected but I did enjoy it. The comparison to When The Crawdads Sing is quite accurate though minus the mystery.
It is certainly a character study of Victoria and her life on a peach farm during some very trying and difficult times and her survival. Narrator did a good job and while I felt the ending was a bit abrupt I did enjoy the book in general.
Fans of Where the Crawdads Sing will relish the exquisite writing in this heartbreaking, but ultimately redemptive 5-star read. On Goodreads, the book is described as “a story of love and loss but also of finding home, family, resilience—and love—where least expected.”
The story, set in Iola, Colorado, spans the decades from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. In 1948, Victoria Nash is a 17-year old motherless girl living on her family’s peach farm, dutifully caring for her emotionally-distant father, cruel prejudiced brother, and war-injured embittered uncle. Through a chance encounter, Victoria meets and falls in love with a Native American named Wilson Moon who drifts into her small town where he finds love, faces prejudice with tragic consequences, and leaves a lasting legacy. In the aftermath, Victoria is forced to “go on as a river” finding the strength to make difficult decisions as she journeys into adulthood, becoming a strong, courageous, resilient, caring woman.
What really distinguished this book from other historical fiction I’ve read is the quality of the writing. I loved how the word choice and phrasing the author used when writing about the earlier years seemed so right for those time periods. The descriptions of the land are so beautifully evocative, I felt like I was there and could understand why it meant so much to Victoria.
In addition to bringing the landscape to life, the author did a masterful job bringing the characters to life by writing about what they said and did as the story progressed, leaving readers to form their own conclusions. At first, I saw Victoria’s father as a cold, withdrawn, unloving man. Later, when I heard how he reacted to the agonizing news that his wife had been killed in an accident——silently dropping to his knees—my perception changed. As I learned more about the circumstances that shaped him and influenced how he interacted with his daughter, I was able to understand why Victoria felt about him as she did.
This book was like an emotional roller coaster, heartbreaking one moment and hopeful the next, but ultimately uplifting and inspiring. The narrator’s lyrical voice was perfect for the lyrical quality of the writing; the narrator understood and portrayed the individual characters in a way that deepened the reader’s emotional connection to the story.
I loved this debut novel and look forward to the author’s.next book.
Stunning debut novel. Shelley Read is quite the storyteller. The Colorado setting comes alive - beautiful yet hard and brutal at times. The family in the novel has, for generations, laboriously established a peach farm in the formidable terrain and weather around the Colorado mountains. The characters are so well developed that they stay with you after the novel is through. It is a story full of family drama, grief, loss, resilience, passion, courage, hope and forgiveness. The writing is lyrical - two of my many favorite quotes are "In the endless stumble towards ourselves, we harvest the crop we are given." and "I've come to understand how the exceptional lurks beneath the ordinary, like the deep and mysterious world beneath the surface of the sea". I love the title "Go as a River" - Victoria, the main character, is advised by someone she loves - to live her life as the river flows - to go as a river - ...to keep moving, wash over obstacles, change course if forced to ...
The novel experience is somewhat reminiscent of Delta Owens "Where the Crawdads Sing", "The Girls in the Stilt House" by Kelly Mustian, and Lisa See's novels. It is definitely one of my favorite novels this year. Shelley Read is an author that I will be following!
"love is a private matter. to be nurtured and to be even mourned between two beings alone. it belongs to them and no one else. like a secret treasure. like a private poem."
right in the beginning, I had to note down this quote. It touched me and moved me in ways only well-written words can do. Immediately, I knew this would be very moving journey reading this novel.
The audiobook was very pleasant to listen to and gave the story a life that isn't really possible while just reading the book. The narrator captured well the different emotions, feelings and also different personalities of the characters.
Now to the story: i'm honestly blown away. It was an entire rollercoaster. First, reading about first love and grieving a lost parent with other family members, then finding out about the secret and private adventures being in love for the first time can bring with oneself. Feeling lost and lonely and wanting to hug the protagonist and then eventually being really mad at the author for writing even more drama and loneliness into her life.
The book is written in four parts and after you cry and cry the first ones, the second half gets happier and with a few more sunshines for Victoria, which I really appreciated.
Chapeau her also to the author for writing beautifully about the nature and the forest, and the trees. Ach, it was just wonderful!
I couldn't stop listening to the audio book, I continued with it while doing more tasks and while I was in the bath and on walks. I didn't want this book to come to an end.
If you're up for an adventurous dramatic family historical novel, read "Go As a River". It'll be worth it.
"I had been a good girl. I had been obedient...respectful...I kept the house clean, the bellies full, the laundry folded, the farm tended...never let anyone hear me cry...I figured out how to carry on without a mother. And then I fell in love. Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl's life erase who she was before."
One simply worded paragraph to tell of the young life of Torie before she grows into Victoria in the exquisitely written Go As A River by phenomenal debut author Shelley Read.
Living on a peach farm, in 1940, as the only female in a house with a despondent father, an angry racist brother and a disabled uncle Torie lives in a dull gray world until she meets Wilson Moon, a displaced Native American, and her life becomes a vivid colorful landscape. But cruelty and bigotry force her to make a drastic decision that changes the course of many lives just as the Gunnison River is manipulated to overflow her town.
Reading this eloquently descriptive novel I fell in love not just with the story but the flow and choice of words. I was in awe how nature, the land, and the power of water was so entwined into Victoria's life and the choices she makes because of them.
Then I got the audiobook and hearing narrator Cynthia Farrell as Victoria speak her pain, her loss, her sacrifice, her hope, her strength and her unconditional love just about broke me.
Both tragic and uplifting, filled with moments of desperation and determination Go As A River is an example of literary fiction as its best. Like a river we keep moving, over obstacles, over debris and if necessary we change direction always knowing there will come tides of joy if we just let it flow.
I received a free copy of this audiobook/book from the publishers via #netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
This book is a beautiful, but heartbreaking reality to the lives and situations of
neighborhoods during the 1940’s and 50’s for people of different races, religions,
and class levels. This book brings up issues of love – between two people as a
couple, between a family as a group, between a mother and a child – and
ultimately how relationships change when that love is tested in unimaginable
ways.
The landscapes of the novel are beautifully described by the author, with vivid
language and portrayal of small-town-America and the people who care for the
land. One of the outstanding quotes from the book was “The landscapes of our
youths create us, and we carry them within us, storied by all they gave and stole,
in who we become” and this is exactly the way that the story leaves you feeling.
Victoria as a character has been completely shaped by the land and the people
around her and has lived the experience of someone much older than her for her
young age.
This book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming and will be perfect for fans
of Where the Crawdads Sing and To Kill a Mockingbird and is sure to be another
modern classic in the making.
I was inspired to request this novel solely based on the beautiful cover as well as the blurb by Bonnie Garmus and was disappointed to find that this did not compare to Lessons in Chemistry. That being said, it was an engaging story and I was compelled to see it through. The main character, Victoria, is easy to root for and I appreciated how the book leans into the value of female friendships.
The story and narration were good but I couldn’t help getting hung up on the clumsy writing (there is some distractingly excessive foreshadowing) and disappointingly one dimensional representation of the characters of color (that lean into stereotypes). It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t recommend this over several other books I’ve read in the last year or two.
Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this ALC!