Heartwarming though this tale is, ultimately, at times I felt it could be better laced together. Insightful happenings and observations notwithstanding, I did have to discipline myself to read to the end and not skip tracts. The challenges of a child from a mixed-race family, whose father disappears, are not to be underestimated – especially when her mother is entirely ragged around the edges. Sanctuary in the form of driving lessons and ‘lost’ relatives offer Diamond Newberry an unexpected escape route. The letters from the father’s family are a treat which restored my attention. I think 3.5 stars is appropriate – I enjoyed much of the novel but feel more might have been done to avoid a certain meandering.

I enjoyed this read, a sad story pulling at heartstrings. Looks at the life of a mixed colour child of white mother and black father. Give this a go... It will open your eyes to being a mixed child in the 80s and the life that follows.

Took a bit of getting into and very slow.
Diamond is the only black person in Swift River and very poor since her dad disappeared seven years ago and her mother can now legally declare him dead and hopefully collect his life insurance.
The story is told from the past when she received letters from an old relative.
I think the story does not flow easily and doesn't seem to have purpose, the story is so slow and the end covers over ten years in one page, I give this 2-3 stars.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review.

A really good read. The advance marketing I had seen described this as a mix of Crawdads and the Vanishing half - and I concur!
Diamond is a mixed race girl - the only one in the small town she lives in - and her black father went missing many years earlier in mysterious circumstances. We meet Diamond and her mother as they approach the 7 year anniversary of his disappearance, where they are battling to have him declared dead officially so that his assets can be released. Diamond knows little of her father, and her memories are scarce, and with a white mother and no links to her fathers family she feels lost and adrift. But that is about to change - her aunt makes contact and opens up to Diamond the history of their family and the struggles they have endured, and finally she can start to piece together who she really is.
really glorious, a very satisfying and heart warming read.

I have to admit that this book wasn’t for me, I found it really difficult to get into and it just didn’t pull me from reality and provide the escapism I normally get from a good book. I DNF it at about 25%

Diamond Newbury is one of the few people of colour in the neglected settlement of Swift River. She’s young, confused and overweight. She doesn’t understand herself, and she is regularly abused at school and in the town. Prejudice is rife.

Very slowly things get better. She finds out something of her own back story and she begins to work out who she is. She starts to know her family origins and to understand what happened to her father.

It’s a powerful novel in many ways, dealing as it does with depressed societies and dying towns as well as casual – and deliberate – racial prejudice, and its effects on a young girl who is simply trying to grow up.

There’s a good story in here somewhere but the regular shifting in dates, used to tell her story, and the different voices of her relatives confuse the real narrative which is about Diamond making it through to maturity.

A raw coming of age tale.

This story follows sixteen year old Diamond as she goes through a journey of self discovery and finding her own identity. She has grown up in a small town where she was one of two black people, until her father mysteriously disappeared causing her to feel even more isolated but when she starts receiving letters from an aunt she has never met she will start to learn about her ancestry and question where she wants to go in life.

This book covers a lot of heavy topics including systemic racism, poverty, drug misuse, body image, alcoholism and discrimination and while these subjects where handled really well and were important to history and the story I felt that the pacing was off and the story didn't come full circle in the way that it was trying to.
I did really enjoy diamonds story and the progression of her finding a real friend and learning about her history but I felt like by the end of the story I had more questions than answers and the last chapter of a brief overview of the rest of her life felt rushed and unsatisfying, and never truly finding out what happened to her father was frustrating.

Stories like these are important and I can see what the author was trying to achieve but it just didn't fully hit the mark.

Although this covers racism, poverty, bullying, addiction and violence, it has the same dreamy atmosphere of Where the Crawdads Sing where these subjects are raised but it feels like a fable so it lacks the visceral nature of grittier books.
I liked Diamond as a hero and the plot ticked along nicely. The mechanism of discovered letters felt a little hackneyed but I can see that the story of Clara would be difficult to convey to Diamond in any other way.
I found echoes of many other stories in this book. It felt familiar and comforting and if you like a historical narrative you will love it. It’s a particularly safe way of discovering the history of racism in the twentieth century if you don’t have the stomach for writers like Colson Whitehead. It’s a hopeful, heartwarming take on life and privations. A good summer read, it doesn’t break the mould but I predict it will climb up the bestseller charts.

What a novel!
For me this is a classic sitting right up there with the likes of "To kill a Mockingbird". Set in a town bordering Swift River it tells a story of sixteen year old Diamond as she struggles to find her own identity and sense of belonging in a community which holds systemic racism and discrimination against her. As the daughter of a black father and white mother she is subject to despicable hatred and prejudice throughout her childhood. The disappearance of her father seven years ago not only ensures her abject poverty but denies her of her black heritage.
Faced with those who taunt her and her quest to know about her relatives she seeks to find comfort and answers in her 'aunt Lena's letters.
The two strike up a correspondence which somewhat addresses her father's struggles and behaviour. One comes to the notion that he either committed suicide or was killed. These letters also introduce the very strong and wise story of Aunt Clara, It is Clara's story that outlines the terrible economic injustices put on African Americans and their subsequent exodus from Swift River in 191 5. There is tension and pain as we learn of Clara and Jacques attempt to hide in the woods for fear of being caught by members of the white community after a certain time. The false promises and abuse of power held against her by her employer the alcoholic doctor conjures up so many emotions.

We see the emotional torture caused to her Ma as the town forces her jump through hoops to certify that her husband is indeed dead and not out and about. Their refusal to approve this leads to the two embarking on dangerous decisions like hitch-hiking when their car is empty.
This book had me in tears. Chambers has a writing style which is nothing short of poetic. Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this: truly powerful.

Thanks to #Netgalley and Dialogue Books for an #ARC of #SwiftRiver.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag, I feel like I have finished it feeling a little confused and unsatisfied with how the storyline did (or didn't) finish. I enjoyed each of the separate storylines, and the book dragged me in for one more chapter, so overall it was a good read.

Not what I expected but a reasonably good read, the book was emotional and touched on some strong subjects. Dimond and Shelly were strong characters.
My thanks as always to NetGalley and to Dialogue Books for the early read

Such potential with the storyline but lacking in the detail. The reason for all of the story lines is apparent but the execution, for me, lacks finish. The main plot, the father, is never fully explained or concluded and in real life that happens. Things fizzle and end with no real bang. But was the man in the garden her father and she did not want to admit it?
I too felt the timeline was jumpy, the aunt inclusion and the conclusion that comes with that a bit random and the mother unfortunate and obvious (thin vs overweight).
Perhaps this is more of a young adult read? Not a bad read and not a recommend.
Thank you NetGalley for the advance read.

Thank you NetGalley and Dialogue Books for this eCopy to review

Swift River details the prejudice a mixed race child/woman received growing up in America. Following the disappearance of her father, Diamond is bullied for her poor background and being mixed raced. She self-medicates by eating in the hopes that she becomes so repulsive no-one will be interested in her, told over different times from when she was little and her father went missing to when she was nearly grown up and learning to drive. I enjoyed her friendship with Shelley but found Shelley's relationship with their driving education instructor very weird.

The ending was good in the end, but the book was a bit long and confusing in places with the letters and different time lines

The things I really liked about the book were Diamond herself., (my heart went out to her), her friendship with Shelly, the correspondence with the paternal aunt she had never met, and the history of the town and why Diamond is the only person of colour living there.
It wasn’t the easiest book to read, but at its heart is a coming of age story about a girl who needs to understand her history amd her heritage, and to find her place in the world. It is a reminder than discrimination and racism is likely still an issue, even in a town in the North Eastern USA.

This book covers a lot in a way that is both expansive, and at times confusing with the changes in the timeline. However, the main character keeps you wanting to know more, and that's what made me read the book in two sittings. A good story about difficult things, Not life changing, but a solid good read.

I didn't know what to expect from this book and I was disappointed that it was based around race. The story didn't really go anywhere and the story about the missing dad was overpowered by the race issue which it didn't need to be. I found myself skipping entire pages that contained the letters from 1915, they didn't add anything to the story. This could have been so much better.

A story of white and Negro people in USA and the conflicts and fears generated. A quick read and thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

Swift River
By Essie Chambers

This was a very frustrating read for me. On one hand, I was intrigued by the premise of a is-he-dead-or-is-he-missing dad, and the promise of an insurance payout which the mom fantasises about, on the other hand, the author did not make this an easy story to follow. She dangles all kinds of dilemmas and juxtapositions, which if explored, could have made a very interesting read, but they never get resolved, just fizzle into the ether. The timelines are coming in for a hard time with early reviewers. I can see why that's a problem for some people. It's not that there are different timelines, more that there's a garbled quality to the letters and they don't do enough to feed into the narrative. Their effect on Diamond's personal growth is more told than shown. I had especial difficulty trying to decipher Diamond's mother's character. Diamond is urgently trying to get away from her, from Swift River.

The narrative tells a different story about the mom than Diamond does. The sub plot of the driver ed teacher and the friend feel gratuitous and the court case is anti-climatic.

I was very interested in the history of sundown towns. There maybe a missed opportunity there.

Despite the messy structure and mixed messages I actually enjoyed reading this, but I don't expect it to take up space in my memory.

Publication date: 4th July 2024
Thanks to #Dialoguebooks and #NetGalley for the ARC

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 father's past and discovers a family and heritage 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.

So begins an epic story spanning the twentieth century that reveals a much larger picture of prejudice and love, of devotion and abandonment - and will change Diamond's life forever.

This book is beautifully written and I found myself transported to Swift River from the first line. I enjoyed the different narratives from Diamonds Aunt Clara and Auntie Lena. The only down side for me was that the ending seemed a bit rushed.

This historical coming-of-age novel tells the story of Diamond, a young teenager grappling with bullying and a sense of not belonging. We witness her family's journey, marked by the disappearance of her father years ago and her mother's struggles to maintain a job and provide proper care. One day, Diamond receives a letter from her aunt that offers a deeper understanding of her father's side of the family and the challenges faced by the Black community in her town.

The book is a relatively easy read, never boring, and not overly long. It contains some engaging sections, but I never quite connected with the story or the characters. The concept of the novel is compelling, as I enjoy historical fiction that delves into themes of race, family, and legacy, however, despite both storylines being easy to follow, I never felt the intended power and emotion, nor did I sense a cohesive connection between them.

While the book features beautiful prose and an important underlying story, it felt somewhat disjointed. I believe it had the potential to be more impactful than it ultimately was, and for me, it was just "okay." Additionally, there were some unresolved matters, particularly regarding Diamond's father, that I wish had been explained further.

Overall, this is a decent piece of historical fiction, a quick read, and definitely beautifully written. However, it won't become a favorite or linger in my memory for long.