The River

Author: Peter Heller

One-sentence summary: Two boys travel down a remote river on a planned canoe trip that goes awry with the addition of a forest fire and several dangerous people.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 6

Our favorite thing about it: The story of friendship between Jack and Wynn was beautiful.

Our least favorite thing about it: It was not as suspenseful as we expected.

Main Topics of Discussion: Friendship, Trust, Crisis, Tragedy

Our favorite quote: “Still, the workings of nature made the voracious, self-satiating intelligence of humans seem of the lowest order, not the highest.”

Notes: Right off the bat, several of us said the book was not quite what we expected based on what we had heard about it. It wasn’t as suspenseful as we thought. If we had begun reading with no expectations, we might have thought differently about it. We unanimously agreed that the male friendship that the book focused on was really well written – possibly the best we’ve ever read. We enjoyed the character development of both Wynn and Jack. Sometimes the book seemed slow because it got bogged down in details about fishing, or canoeing, or the fire. We were able to skim those without any loss to the overall story. However, there were so many sentences that just made us pause and appreciate how well they were written and how they conjured such specific images and thoughts. The writing was really beautiful. We did have several questions left at the end, which seemed a little rushed. For the most part, we enjoyed this heartbreaking book.

Memorable Meeting Moments: This was our first meeting with Amberly back from China! She had seen almost all of us already, but it was amazing to have her back at our meetings in person! We met at Whiskey Cake and then went to Legacy Hall for drinks and discussion. This was also Christina's birthday month (actually, we had to meet at the beginning of August because we could not find a day in July to meet - a first for us!)

What We Ate: Fried green tomatoes and baked goat cheese for appetizers. Various entrées. Whiskey cake and vanilla ice cream for dessert.