REVIEW: The River

[Rebeka Mirza]

The book I read was The River by: Mary Jane Beaufrand. The main character, Ronnie (Veronica) is depicted as a young girl in high school around the age of seventeen who moves from the city to a rural town in Oregon. She is unhappy about this move, as her mother deemed it important because this is what her father wanted. Ronnie and her parents live and own an inn that many people stay at overnight and come eat at. Her current house is different from in the past because she now lives in the middle of nowhere, with the river in her backyard. Ronnie despises the sound of the river, and finds it torturing, so she personifies consistently it. A day after she baby-sits one of the neighbor’s kids, Karen and her siblings, she finds her body in the river behind her house. The police come and take care of Karen’s body, believing it to be an accident. Ronnie is deeply saddened by Karen’s death, because although she was ten years old, Ronnie had a close relationship with her. Since Ronnie was new to the area, Karen would show her around. Karen was also mature for her age, and knowledgeable about many things. One of the boys that Karen has a crush on, Keith, brings her purple flowers of the same kind that Karen had left on her doorstep as a thank you for baby-sitting the night before. While Ronnie thinks about it some more with one of the police officers, she realizes that it might not have been an accident. It could have been an animal or another person/people involved in Karen’s death. Ronnie is committed to finding out how Karen died, and continuously goes to the river in search for evidence. All she finds one day is a box of cigarettes of a boy in her class who she adores, Keith Spady. One day in class, Keith encourages her friend Gretchen to have a party at her house. Soon enough things go awry as Ronnie’s “brother” Tomas, pushes Keith away for trying to kiss and be aggressive with Ronnie. Furthermore, Gretchen is found in the bathroom passed out, with red arms, and drug residue left on a mirror placed on the sink. She lives, but is sent to the hospital. Gangrene is found in her arm, and it is not sure whether they will have to remove it. As the police come to investigate, connections between this and Karen’s death are made. Undercover agents that Ronnie’s father had hired have been trying to find the people who had a meth lab in the area. Ronnie finally realizes that Karen was killed by the person who was trying to protect the meth lab; Karen had unintentionally found it since she would pick up the purple flowers from their yard. Since Karen was a smart little girl, they killed her because they didn’t want anyone finding out about the meth lab. Ronnie is determined to find this meth lab, and so she does. She finds Keith sitting in front of the house, and he sees Ronnie and brings her inside the house. Keith’s father and a kid from school are also in the house and hope to kill Ronnie. She runs away, while Keith runs after her with a gun, shooting her leg. Soon after, Ronnie drowns Keith. Fortunately enough, Tomas saves Ronnie and all is well. In the end, Ronnie and her family move back to the city where they lived previously. Karen’s father and Ronnie’s family are currently at trial with Keith’s father. Although the results are not given about what happens, readers can only hope that Keith’s father gets the punishment he deserves.

The book is written in Ronnie’s viewpoint. All that happens is the voice and experiences of this seventeen-eighteen year old girl. In this book, the parents are not removed from the story. They are always concerned about Ronnie’s safety and looking after her. Ronnie’s father tells her to carry her cell phone and mace with her. He also drops her and her brother off at Gretchen’s party. Because of her dad’s protectiveness, Ronnie finds ways to sneak out and go to the river to investigate on her own. This book was over 200 pages, more than the other YA books we have read. It was a good read, but was not as fast as many of them. It definitely created suspense, and I wanted to continue reading to find out what really happened with Karen’s murder. This book contained a variety of subjects within the book, since two different plots connected. The book dealt with murder, drugs, and teenage lust, and loneliness. The book also dealt with emotions important to young adults such as revenge, sadness, lust, and hope. The book also contained a cultural group that was different from many of the characters’ in the story. The family that Ronnie’s father had taken in (a mother and her son and daughter because they had an abusive father) was Hispanic. They lived together and also used Spanish words with one another. This book was not very optimistic because of all the negative things that happened. The only optimistic thing about this story is Ronnie’s hope, and that she discovered the meth lab and those who were in charge of Karen’s death.

Here is a link where people wrote reviews about The River: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6411401-the-river

I would definitely utilize this book in the classroom, most likely for 10th or 11th graders. This book reminded me a little of Looking for Alaska, since it dealt with most of the same themes such as drugs and death. This book depicts how drugs are a big deal, and do not affect just the person taking them. It can affect a whole community, like the one in this book. It brings up the issue of meth and what it can do to a person, as shown in Gretchen’s case. High school students need to understand that it is important not to get involved in drugs, and opening their eyes to media such as literature can help them out. Furthermore, it will allow them to see the crazy things that people do when they are dealing drugs, as well as, on them.