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A review by books_and_steph
Go as a River by Shelley Read
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to like this book but oh boy ..
My biggest issue with this, is that literally the entire first half of the book is 100% telling and very little showing. Oh, we all can picture the setting well, because she describes that in full detail, but anything outside of the main characters head is glossed over. Throughout the story the main character often quotes all this Wisdom Wil gave her ... But our interactions with him are so brief and few that I feel like we miss out on the character entirely. She creates all these bonds with different people, but we only get a brief mention of their character and then told that they are friends. It all feels very removed. I found myself just hoping the end of each chapter was the end of the book.
About a third of the the way through we get a whole section that switches to her child growing up. Like literally an entire chunk of the book, which honestly I preferred that story a little more, but we could have done without, or we could have done tidbits of finding out the child's story throughout the book.
Another thing I found difficult with this story is that all the characters were either inherently good and gentle or they were borderline psychopaths. Like Seth and Og, then we got Maxwell and the husband (whose name i already forgot even though I just finished the book).
I dunno, all in all, this book just didn't do it for me and I would honestly call it forgettable.
My biggest issue with this, is that literally the entire first half of the book is 100% telling and very little showing. Oh, we all can picture the setting well, because she describes that in full detail, but anything outside of the main characters head is glossed over. Throughout the story the main character often quotes all this Wisdom Wil gave her ... But our interactions with him are so brief and few that I feel like we miss out on the character entirely. She creates all these bonds with different people, but we only get a brief mention of their character and then told that they are friends. It all feels very removed. I found myself just hoping the end of each chapter was the end of the book.
About a third of the the way through we get a whole section that switches to her child growing up. Like literally an entire chunk of the book, which honestly I preferred that story a little more, but we could have done without, or we could have done tidbits of finding out the child's story throughout the book.
Another thing I found difficult with this story is that all the characters were either inherently good and gentle or they were borderline psychopaths. Like Seth and Og, then we got Maxwell and the husband (whose name i already forgot even though I just finished the book).
I dunno, all in all, this book just didn't do it for me and I would honestly call it forgettable.