Sara B. Fraser paints for readers how life in a nothing upstate New York town in the ’90s might look: bleak and gritty. Wattsville was a booming manufacturing town on the Otis River. But now, the mills are closed. The windows boarded up. The same people frequent the same bars every day without fail. What once was a prosperous place is now somewhere riddled with substance abuse, poverty, violence, and hush-hush secrets. But only the river bears witness to all these secrets — and only the river can divulge the truth.

At the heart of these secrets is one family. When Carol’s daughter, Garnet, is caught in the crosshairs of justice and her former boyfriend’s deceit, Carol and her best friend Sam plot to prove Garnet’s innocence. Told with beauty and tenderness against the landscape of forgotten everyday America, Fraser’s JUST RIVER connects the complexity and danger we all contain.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

That woman’s gotten so much Botox, her eyebrows have fused to her skull.

It feels odd, smiling at them, like something might escape her mouth if she doesn’t keep her teeth clenched.

In Wattsville he is one of a kind, whereas he would find many like-minded people in the city. But he’s afraid. Its size scares him, and furthermore he wouldn’t be particularly special. Here, he explains, he’s a unicorn, a big fish in a small pond. “Puddle,” says Chloe. “It’s not a pond, it’s a puddle, my dear. You want to swim or lie there getting splashed? Heavens, the place is bound to evaporate in warm weather.”

Garnet is developing the rigid jaw and tight lips of a person expecting the worst. He is reminded of the way people’s faces look when they’re stuck in traffic, or when they pick the wrong checkout lane in the supermarket.

He must be outside his body… The pain is fading. Is there a solar eclipse? Sam sees, through a vague foggy tunnel, like the ending of the Looney Tunes cartoons he used to watch as a child— D-d-d-d-dat’s all folks!

My Review:

This was a shrewdly paced and cleverly plotted tale of knotted woe and intriguing complexities that boil down to simple thorny social problems.   After I finished I went back and reread the first chapter and found a treasure chest full of tidbits I had not noticed the first time through. Sara B. Fraser has a special brand of magic sprinkled into her wordcraft and I fell right under her spell.

The storylines and writing style were often realistically gritty, flinch-worthy with complex issues, keenly insightful, painfully observant, and yet bewitchingly humorous – all at the same time! Which takes crazy good skills. The characters were well nuanced and oddly compelling while deeply flawed. Most were repressed, oppressed, suppressed, and vulnerable. I was holding my breath while fully invested and rooting for them, even when they annoyed me. Ms. Fraser is a wily minx with a wicked wit and going to the top of my list of ones to watch.