ainekate1 's review for:

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

4.0

adventurous dark emotional informative medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I really enjoyed this historical fiction book. It is based on the life of a real midwife in the late 1700s, Martha Ballard. While Martha as the town midwife delivers a LOT of babies in this book, she also gets entangled in the lives of the entire town. The book starts off with a birth and a man being found dead in the river. A man who had been accused of rape. Martha acts as a feminist and a medical professional in the trial that ensues. The writing is fairly modern so that does at times take away from the time period. To me it wasn’t a dealbreaker, just the authors choice. I do wish we had a little more closure with Cyrus and baby Emmelline though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder