Author: Essie Chambers
# of Pages: 387 (hardback
Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction
Rating:★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: Summer, 1987. On the sweltering streets of the dying New England mill town of Swift River, sixteen-year-old Diamond Newbury is desperately lonely. It's been seven years since her father disappeared, and while her mother is determined to move on, Diamond can't distance herself from his memory. When Diamond receives a letter from a relative she has never met, she unearths long-buried secrets of her family's past and discovers a legacy she never knew she was missing. The more she learns, however, the harder it becomes to reconcile her old life with the one she wants to lead.
Review: Chambers has a lot of potential - some parts of the book were borderline 3 stars, but there were a few aspects that led me to settle on a two star rating:
1. There's 1st person POV switching and time skipping. The POV switching is across time periods: the reader mainly hears Diamond Newbury's point of view but the story of her family is also told through letters from her Aunt Lena and Aunt Clara (from a mix of the ~1915 and 1987, depending on when the letter was written). BUT ALSO there was time skipping from Diamond's POV as she recounts memories of her immediate family. These abrupt changes really disrupted my reading flow and made it easier to put down.
2. Telling a story through 3 narratives was unnecessary and read like three different books. I didn't need to know about three different women from the Newbury family because while their lives overlapped, their experiences were pretty distinct and did not add to the others' stories. Chambers should have picked one (likely Diamond) instead of rushing to get out a shallow telling of all three.
3. The writing style for the letters was weaker than Diamond's primary narrative. Too much of telling the reader directly the story rather than letting us get immersed into the story and coming along for the ride. They also felt too much like someone grandpa/grandma telling me their life story unwarranted rather than a critical part in understanding how Diamond got to be the person she is today.
What I did like about Swift River is how Chambers wrote about Diamond's struggles - her complex relationship with her parents, her body insecurities, racism, discrimination, etc. It all felt very raw and created an authentic portal into what it was like to be living as the only black girl in town back in 1987.
But because of the failings mentioned above, it felt like Diamond's story was over before it began. I was left expecting more without ever wanting more. I walked away without knowing what I was supposed to takeaway from Diamond's journey and whether the part of her story that the book focused on was worth telling. I would not recommend this book.
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