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A review by kenzienoellereads
The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb

3.0

I went into this story mostly blind yet fully expecting to be obsessed with this book. Which yes, is unfair to the book😅 I knew that this was a story about Corby Ledbetter, a father and husband who has recently been laid off from his job and has a secret growing addiction problem. Then I knew he ends up in prison. That’s it. And honestly, knowing anything more is spoilers!

This is a BRUTAL book. I was nauseous for the first handful of chapters. I thought the beginning of the story was well-written and compelling and I thought the ending was well done. 

BUT the whooooole rest of this 450 page book is Corby’s life in prison. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but it just didn’t work for me. I’ve thought about this a lot and I think I came up with the two main reasons. 

First, I don’t think I liked the writing. The best way I can describe how it felt was Stephen King wrote a literary crime novel. Second, I really didn’t vibe with Corby. I found him an incredibly dull character. There were some shining stars in the side characters though! Didn’t hate the book just found it… fine. 

It’s really hard for me to recommend this book to anyone simply because of the storyline and what happens in the beginning of this book. If you want specific trigger warnings and aren’t worried about the spoilers, feel free to message me. Because of that I can’t say I would recommend this book as a whole. But hey, Oprah loved it so who am I to say!

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