shelleyreadsbooks 's review for:

The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Damn I love Wally Lamb. This is the second of his books that I have read, and I am amazed at his ability to inhabit his characters so completely. This was a hard book. Such a hard book, but such a compelling book. I could not stop reading. It kept breaking my heart so many ways. So many pieces of the world we live in are wrapped up in this book. So much changes, but everything remains the same. But the river is always waiting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Police brutality, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Vomit, Medical content