The Frozen River By Ariel Lawhon Book Review

Reasons For Reading This Book:

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon was the March selection for The Readheads Podcast Book Club. I waited over two months for this book from my library so I knew that it must be a good book if that many people had it on hold. Prior to starting the book I read the book description and listened to the podcast host's announcement about it being the next read. I have been in a historic fiction book phase so I was exited to read this book and also to learn more about the midwife profession.

Content of This Book:

Its 1789 and a body had just been pulled from the frozen Kennebec River. Martha Ballard the town midwife has been called to examine the body and determine the caused of death. Her job as a midwife makes her well versed on what happens both in public and behind closed doors in the town. Keeping a detailed dairy of the deaths, births and crimes and a physician disagreeing with her conclusions put Martha at the center of the cases for an alleged rape she documented and for the body found in the river. Martha is determined to solve the crime herself. Her diary, profession, and determination lands her at the center of the town's scandals, while implicating her loved ones, and testing her loyalties.

What I Liked About This Book:

As mentioned in my reasons for reading this book I was excited to learn about the midwife profession specifically in the 1790s in a rural area, I learned so much and gained so much respect for those women. The plot was evenly dispersed between the main topics of her midwife profession, the court case, and her personal/family life. This book was so descriptive that I felt like I was next to Martha at all times being a viewer of her life. I could feel the emotions, tension, and stress during the tough births. Overall this book was very well written both for the descriptions and dialogue. With this being a historic fiction novel I learned so much about the medical system or lack there of at the time and also so much about the judicial system at that time too. I liked that there was a mix of both throughout the whole book. In addition to the main topics of the court case and Martha's medical practice I enjoyed reading about her life as a mother and wife. Her stories about raising her children and early life as a mother and wife were significant in Martha's character development. Reading about the side stories of her children and townspeople also gave a fuller perspective to how a community is intertwined.

What I Disliked About This Book:

This book could have been shorter. I felt this while reading it and was comforted when some of the host's of the podcast agreed with me. For example, I could have done without all the excess descriptions of the court cases prior to the hearing Martha was attending. I have mentioned this in other book reviews but I cannot do violence or violent graphic descriptions. There was some violence and a very graphic scene that scarred me. When there was violence I had to skim because my stomach and mind could not handle it. With that being said the midwife scenes did not bother me and were very well written. One complaint I have about the ending is that with the book being so long, I felt like the ending was really rushed and so much plot heavy information came out in a quick way. I would have liked for the discovery of criminal investigations to come out slower and not all at the same time.

Would I Recommend This Book?

Overall I really enjoyed the book because I took away a lot from a historic learning perspective but also from Martha as a character. I believe it is a great book club selection because there is a lot to discuss. I recommended this book to my mom and talked about it with a coworker.

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