This debut novel is getting a lot of push from its publisher. I've been seeing it everywhere lately, including it being named the Read With Jenna pick for June. I first heard about it when I got sent a digital review copy back in December, and I'll be honest, the gorgeous cover art was what initially drew me to go ahead and add it to my queue.

This one starts in the summer of 1987 with 16 year old Diamond figuring out a way to take driving lessons. She and her mother have been surviving on the bare minimum for seven years -- ever since her Pop disappeared without a trace, other than his wallet tucked in his boots on the edge of Swift River -- but now the appropriate amount of time has passed for them to be able to legally declare his death and hopefully cash in his life insurance. But to do that, they have to prove he's not still out there somewhere, which leads Diamond to some family she's never known anything about. Biracial Diamond is the only person of color in Swift River, much to do with the town's complicated history, so she's never met the Black side of her family, who now all live down south.

Weaving between Diamond's current timeline and the one seven years prior shortly before her dad disappeared, are the letters she receives from her dad's cousin, which also include even older letters from another aunt back at the turn of the century when all the Black folks in Swift River were driven out. If this seems like a lot to keep track of, it really is, but I did find that the story picked up once we were getting that older history. Switching between the timelines kept the story moving and the tension high, and I think I would have appreciated that even more had I read this one in print and had been able to sink into the story more.

I'll be interested to see how this one sits with other readers once more people have read it. There were some things I struggled with, but I can see how this will be a real hit for people looking for a bit more oomph in their summer reading. Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

GENERAL INFO

Swift River-standalone

Publication date: 6-4-24, Read 6-1-24

Format: e-Book, 303 pages

🙏🏾Source: Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC 💙! I voluntarily give my honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Genre: Women/ Historical Fic, Multicultural Interests/AA Interests

Tropes: family drama, epistolary relationship, small town, h is a book lover, LGBTQIA+ rep

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Diamond Newberry (16) is in a small mill town in New England. She is the only black person in town, she's overweight, and wants to learn to drive. Her father disappeared seven years ago, and her mother Anna wants him declared dead to get life insurance and settle their debts. When Diamond's aunt writes her letters, she learns about her AA family.

Flashbacks: The story is told nonlinear from 1915-1987 with Diamond's Aunt Lena sending letters about her father Rob's upbringing and the AA side of the family. Her and her mother Anna are left wondering what happened to him seven years later.

⚠️Triggers: racism/prejudice, child abuse, bullying, homophobia

AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Essie J. Chambers- debut author

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 3.5/4

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: no

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

COMMENTS/NOTES: Diamond is on a self-discovery journey while experiencing systematic racism and cruel bullying. She wants more in her life, hence her learning to drive. But when her Aunt Lena sends letters along with Aunt Clara's, she feels a connection to them. I liked that her father's disappearance didn't taint Diamond and her mother Anna's love for him. Diamond got annoyed with her mother sometimes, but she was the one who stayed.

This has to do with a biracial teen and how she navigates life, who she is and her relationship with her mother. It was a heartwarming story. I really enjoyed it.

“I got to wondering, who is a person without their people?”

In the first probably 1/3 of this book I was hooked! I loved biracial Diamond as a character and I enjoyed the playful back and forth between her parents. But then…then it just stalled out for me.

The reader was introduced to some new characters through letters and we learned quite a bit about the history of the town of Swift River as the story progressed. But I feel like I’m missing something here. I finished the last page of this book and am left feeling confused and with so many unanswered questions.

The writing itself is beautiful and I feel like this story had a lot of potential that, unfortunately, just did not pan out.

Thank you to Netgalley, Simon & Schuster, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredibly powerful read! Taking place in 1987 (birth year shout out), we follow Diamond Newberry. The only Black person in town after the death/disappearance of her father seven years ago, she struggles finding a place of belonging. I found the ways in which she coped with that were really important parts of this story. They tell so much about her.

In the wake of his death, she connects with a member of his family, unbeknownst to her white mother. Within that correspondence, Diamond gains a connection to her Blackness, her father, and the generations of women who came before her. This gives her strength and a sense of self.

The connections she makes with the people in her life, both good and bad, truly shape her. This book is raw and emotional. I invested so much into Diamond’s character while reading this.

Diamond and her mother struggle with poverty, and she struggles with the oppression of being Black and overweight, just trying to exist in the world. This ties into the stories she learns of the past, where her Black ancestors faced hateful oppression in various ways.

Phenomenal debut!

A novel of mothers and daughters, racism, family, identity and coming of age. This moves back and forth in time and uses letters to tell the story of Diamond, her mother, and her father Rob's family. She's 16 now and the only brown person in Swift River since her father disappeared into the water (presumably) seven years ago. She's morbidly obese, she's miserably unhappy, and but she's got two lifelines even as her Ma spins out- letters from her estranged aunt and drivers ed. Rob struggled, not only in life but also with Ma, who has mourned him mightily but who is also hanging hopes on having him declared dead so that she can collect his insurance. Diamond wants more, starting with driving, and it's at those lessons that she meets Shelley, who changes her outlook on many things. This is beautifully written with a strong beat heart in all of the women. Their pain is palpable, their struggles very real. It's terrifically atmospheric and there are small bursts of both joy and bad things. It's an impressive debut. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Great read.

swift river was a great adaptation of development and coming to age I absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. it was very thought provoking and exactly what I needed to read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Diamond is the daughter of a white woman and a black father during a period of time when interracial marriage was rare and racism was the norm. Diamond's father disappeared when she was 7, and he did so in such a way to suggests he walked out on his family. Diamond receives a box and a letter from her father's relative she has never heard of and finally, begins to learns about her father's side of the family, her people, and their history.

This is a coming of age story about a young girl who is impacted by her upbringing and family, or lack thereof, around her. Although a compelling premise, the story did not hold my attention. I struggled to pick this back up and finish it.

I received a digital advance copy of Swift River by Essie J. Chambers via NetGalley. Swift River is scheduled for release on June 4, 2024.

Swift River follows Diamond through the summer of 1987. She is learning to drive in secret, rebelling against her mother’s insistence on hitchhiking everywhere they go. Through this summer, Diamond’s mother is working to get her missing Pop declared legally dead to save their home and future. This quest results in relatives from Pop’s side of the family contacting Diamond and sharing pieces of their family’s past.

Diamond is the strength of this novel. She is a mess. She is overweight, mixed race in an all-white town, and plagued by rumors that her dad isn’t really dead, just moved to the next town over to escape her and her mother. She has no confidence, and no understanding of herself and the world she lives in. Through this novel, we see her start to find herself as she takes actions different from those her mother dictates and begins to explore her family’s past.

Chambers has also nailed the setting of this novel, particularly the time period. The 80s ooze out of the pages, present in every scene in the fictive present. Letters from Diamond’s ancestors give us a different view, taking us back in time in a way that provides both contrast and reinforces the issues in the current story. It did take me almost the entire novel to sort out who was writing the letters, as we have two different letter writers from two different points in time. This was probably more a me issue than an issue with the narrative, however.

It is worth noting that the end of this novel is very open. Many of the threads followed throughout the story are not resolved in the end. While this worked for me, and allowed me to imagine how Diamond moved forward into her life, it might not work for a reader who wants to feel that all of the story lines have been resolved by the end of a novel.

Overall, Swift River swirls together history, nostalgia, and teenage confusion to create a lovely story of a girl trying to figure out who she is.

It's 1987 and 16-year-old Diamond is trying to survive in a small Massachusetts town. She is being raised by her white mother who can't keep a job after her Black father disappeared several years ago. She learns more about her father through letters from an aunt. Although Diamond is a fascinating character, a significant part of the book is told through letters from different time periods. The letters were a bit jarring at times, especially the really old letters. I feel like this story would have been better told and would feel more authentic with different narrators instead of using the letters.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Swift River by Essie Chambers. It releases in June 2024. Diamond is 16 in 1987, and she is in a bad place in the town that she grew up in. Her black father disappeared 7 years earlier, and her white mother is trying to get him declared dead so that she can get his insurance money. Diamond’s family history plays into the story, and so does “the leaving”, when all the black millworkers in town planned to leave together. There is a lot to this story-family relationships, coming of age, racial issues. #swiftriver #essiechambers #advancedreadercopy #netgalley #bookstagram #takeapagefrommybook #fictionreader #lovetoread #readersofinstagram #readallthebooks

This story centers around young Diamond. She tells about her insecurities, but happy times as well. Diamonds father is black and her mom is white. There are challenges around that.
Diamond receives letters from her estranged Aunt where she learns about her family’s history.

I really enjoyed this book, seeing Diamond grow up and how strong she really was.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this wonderful ARC.

This story begins with a huge wave of potential but then I feel like it ended leaving me with more questions or wonderings than I’d like to have..

Diamond is biracial and lives in Swift River with her mom even after her dad has gone missing some years ago. She and her dad were the ONLY people of color in their town. She’s had no friends, they have no family and they’re struggling to get by. At one point she makes a connection with her aunt on her dad’s side by way of letters and she starts to learn about her family history.

I don’t know I wanted more of THAT storyline and what happened to her ‘Pops’ instead of everything else that I got. I felt bad for Diamond and the way her mom allowed her to grow up in this community. Seeing that her daughter had no friends, and was struggling with the taunting of other kids and not doing anything about it bothered me. And the fact that she continued to stay in this community even though she was unable to properly provide for them just bugged me but I guess she had some reasons behind it.

I don’t know y’all, I just don’t know, this ain’t really hit the way I thought it was gonna hit.

⭐️ 2.5/5

This book doesn't have much of a plot, but I don't think it's supposed to. The writing was good and I like the addition of the letters, though at times they felt like they didn't add much to the story.

This one started very strong for me. I love a coming of age story and I really enjoyed Diamond's perspective. The first line about being too large for her bike, so leaving it to get purposely stolen, was a very strong opener for me. About halfway through, I unfortunately wasn't as into the story. The letters and past were not as interesting to me. I do think they were very well done. You could hear the generational difference in the voices, which takes talent, but they didn't hold my interest as well.

I enjoyed this story for the most part. I wasn’t a huge fan of the back and forth between timelines as we learned about Diamond, but I absolutely loved her story and growth. I wish we could’ve gotten a clear understanding of what happened with her dad, but it’s left open for interpretation. Overall, I think this will make for a great discussion.

This is the type of book that sticks with you after you finish reading it. The book is beautifully written, and Diamond is a main character that readers will absolutely love. The characters in this novel are especially notable; they are flawed and fully realized people. Scenes that take place in Diamonds past are also really wonderful; Chambers does an excellent job of showing the reader Diamond's perspective, with all of the limitations and insights that a child would bring to the complex situations she witnesses and finds herself part of. There were heartwarming and heartbreaking moments in this book, and I felt like all of this contributed to a satisfying ending.

As currently written, this book doesn’t make any sense to me.

The premise of the book is that seven years ago, Diamond’s father (“Pop”) disappears—only his shoes, ID, and some money are left behind on the banks of Swift River. Now, Diamond’s mom wants to have Pop declared dead to claims his life insurance money. Two sub-plots occur where Diamond strikes up communication with her father’s family, and Diamond suddenly forms a friendship with Shelley, someone she has known for years.

Swift River started off strong, but according to my notes, “the ending really sucks.”

Now, this comes from Chapter 3 out of 25 but might be considered a spoiler. Mom and Pop may not have been legally married as Pop sent the preacher away. The lawyer in me was giddy with excitement because this small detail has drastic legal consequences. To my grave disappointment, this was never even brought up.

While the letters from Aunt Lena shed more light on the town’s history, they don’t provide any clues as to Pop’s whereabouts or what likely happened to him. The mystery plot, the main plot, seems to be dropped, and the progress is poorly benchmarked.

The ending regarding Shelley needs to be rewritten—it doesn’t carry an emotional punch, and it isn’t memorable.

Finally, the more I think about this book, the more questions that I have and not in a good way:

Why would Mom want to stay in Swift River? She has poor job prospects, the town is hostile, Diamond has no friends, no availability of buses, no family in the area.

What about Diamond’s bike accident and knee?

What happened to Rick?

Big spoiler question: [will be blurred upon publishing to GoodReads]

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion.


The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Electronic text – Free/Nada/Zilch through NetGalley provided by publisher

I would not say this is an easy read, but it's certainly a compelling story. The racial and poverty issues addressed here are hugely important, and in that sense, I recommend this novel to everyone. Diamond is a sympathetic main character. I grew frustrated with her mother, but I'm sure that was intentional on the author's part. The mystery surrounding Diamond's father is intriguing and heartbreaking. You feel so bad for all that this family has endured. I especially admire how the author plays with time and meanders back and forth across time periods, which gives a good sense of the history.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-galley; all opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Swift River is the debut novel by Essie Chambers and wow, what a start! The novel is set in 1987 but also flashes back to 1980, the year that Diamond’s father disappeared, presumably taking his own life. His departure leaves Diamond as the only Black person in the town of Swift River. In 1987, Diamond is 16 years old, overweight and with no friends. Her white mother, devastated by Pop’s disappearance, now needs to petition to declare him dead, in order to collect the life insurance.

I read Swift River in two days because it was one of those books you don’t want to put down. Diamond has never had it easy but has so much determination and grit. A previously unknown aunt contacts her and they develop a relationship. The author effectively uses letters to tell the history of what led to Diamond being the sole Black citizen in the town. The book was beautifully written with deep character development. I would love to read a sequel.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.