The River - a book review

For BookSneeze, I chose to read The River, a Novel by Michael Neale. As part of agreeing to read the book in its entirety and posting a review of it on my blog as well as a consumer site, I received a complimentary copy of the book to keep.

Mr. Neale is a talented songwriter, but The River is his first book he wrote. I would imagine it won't be his last as he has an excellent way of writing to weave a story that keeps one's attention and interest, a book that was hard to put down.

The story revolves around Gabrielle Clark starting from when he was a young boy and culminating with finally coming to terms with a horrific event that happened in his young life that changed the course of it for many a year and left him afraid of life, afraid of trying new things, and at times very saddened about that event of so many years before. Twenty years old, feeling that his life wasn't really going anywhere, working a low end job, not having money to have gone to school, he goes on a trip to Colorado with his best friend through school and experiences a wonderful several day trip on the River, white water rafting, camping by the side of it, several other healing experiences in addition to meeting a very special young woman. She invites him to come back and work the river at their white water rafting company and the new season about to begin. He ponders this as he goes back to Kansas, but does realize he needs to take this adventure so he returns to Colorado and starts working at the white white rafting company.  Through a series of events, that I don't want to spoil the story about, he comes to find healing from what happened so many years ago and is finally free of the burden of sad memories he carried for so many years.

Truly, my take on this book. I absolutely loved it. It caught my attention from page one and held it through until the end. It is one of those books that you are sad about when it ends, you just want to have it keep going. It is one that will stay with you in the days ahead and you will want to read it again, knowing you'll get something more from it with each subsequent reading.

Mr. Neale writes in a style that is easy to follow, the words flow together very well and you feel like you are sitting with a master storyteller as he weaves out this tale.

I would highly recommend it.