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A review by p0laris
Lost in the River of Grass by Ginny Rorby
4.0
This review was originally published on my blog: The Reading Fever.
"This can't really happen, this can't really happen, there's no way! This can't...." This is what I found myself muttering over and over in my mind, as I read Lost in the River of Grass. It seemed impossible, what these characters went through. I was even compiling a list at the back of my mind of things I would Google to verify they were possible. I mean, things like what I read in this book can't possibly happen! As it turns out, though, they can; and it didn't take Google to convince me of that.
In the book, the reader is reader is taken along as Sarah and Andy work together to survive the Everglades...and believe me: this is about survival! We get to be there as they encounter gators, snakes, wild boars, and are put in many dangerous circumstances. We get to watch as they help each other grow and adapt; an element of the story I think Rorby did remarkably well. I even enjoyed Andy's character, though I initially saw him as a bit of a jerk. In the end I was grateful for that, because he acted like a normal 15-year-old boy. I praise Rorby for not writing a character who was 15, going on 25 (thank you!).
I don't remember the point where I stopped caring if a survival tactic was viable or not, or whether an animal would really react the way the author portrays. I lost all sense of disbelief in this crash-course to the everglades, somewhere between swimming the gator holes and seeing the wild boars. Rorby's writing has an element of truth to it that made everything in this book seem personal, somehow. Reading it was like sitting at grandma's knee, listening to her tell a true story from her past...only this one involves saw grass and swamp trekking. Rorby definitely showed her survival know-how, and earned trust in my eyes. And the fact that reading about it all brought out every phobic tendency I've ever had, made no difference. I was enthralled.
Admittedly, I almost didn't give this book a second chance after putting it down after the first few chapters. It began a little choppy, and I wasn't very attached to the characters. But when I did pick it up again, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found, and ended up finishing it in one sitting. I think I found it hard to read in the beginning because Lost in the River of Grass isn't filled with long, flowing prose. Neither does it use huge words, or attempt to captivate with an out-of-this-world love story. Truth-be-told, it doesn't flaunt many things besides the character's reactions to the dangerous environment around them. But it's that very environment, and their reactions to it, that will suck you in, glue your hand to this book, and make you simultaneously cringe, while speeding up your reading to discover what is next.
I highly suggest Lost in the River of Grass!
Oh, and think this couldn't really happen? This quote is directly from Ginny Rorby's website:
"Lost in the River of Grass is based on the true story of my husband’s ill-fated trip to the Everglades with his then girlfriend in his airboat. While they were ‘visiting’ one of the hunting camps in the Everglades, the airboat sank. It took them three days to walk out. I wrote the original story of that ordeal for Fort Lauderdale’s Gulf Coast magazine, published in the late 1990s."
I was able to review this book, courtesy of Netgalley.com
"This can't really happen, this can't really happen, there's no way! This can't...." This is what I found myself muttering over and over in my mind, as I read Lost in the River of Grass. It seemed impossible, what these characters went through. I was even compiling a list at the back of my mind of things I would Google to verify they were possible. I mean, things like what I read in this book can't possibly happen! As it turns out, though, they can; and it didn't take Google to convince me of that.
In the book, the reader is reader is taken along as Sarah and Andy work together to survive the Everglades...and believe me: this is about survival! We get to be there as they encounter gators, snakes, wild boars, and are put in many dangerous circumstances. We get to watch as they help each other grow and adapt; an element of the story I think Rorby did remarkably well. I even enjoyed Andy's character, though I initially saw him as a bit of a jerk. In the end I was grateful for that, because he acted like a normal 15-year-old boy. I praise Rorby for not writing a character who was 15, going on 25 (thank you!).
I don't remember the point where I stopped caring if a survival tactic was viable or not, or whether an animal would really react the way the author portrays. I lost all sense of disbelief in this crash-course to the everglades, somewhere between swimming the gator holes and seeing the wild boars. Rorby's writing has an element of truth to it that made everything in this book seem personal, somehow. Reading it was like sitting at grandma's knee, listening to her tell a true story from her past...only this one involves saw grass and swamp trekking. Rorby definitely showed her survival know-how, and earned trust in my eyes. And the fact that reading about it all brought out every phobic tendency I've ever had, made no difference. I was enthralled.
Admittedly, I almost didn't give this book a second chance after putting it down after the first few chapters. It began a little choppy, and I wasn't very attached to the characters. But when I did pick it up again, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found, and ended up finishing it in one sitting. I think I found it hard to read in the beginning because Lost in the River of Grass isn't filled with long, flowing prose. Neither does it use huge words, or attempt to captivate with an out-of-this-world love story. Truth-be-told, it doesn't flaunt many things besides the character's reactions to the dangerous environment around them. But it's that very environment, and their reactions to it, that will suck you in, glue your hand to this book, and make you simultaneously cringe, while speeding up your reading to discover what is next.
I highly suggest Lost in the River of Grass!
Oh, and think this couldn't really happen? This quote is directly from Ginny Rorby's website:
"Lost in the River of Grass is based on the true story of my husband’s ill-fated trip to the Everglades with his then girlfriend in his airboat. While they were ‘visiting’ one of the hunting camps in the Everglades, the airboat sank. It took them three days to walk out. I wrote the original story of that ordeal for Fort Lauderdale’s Gulf Coast magazine, published in the late 1990s."
I was able to review this book, courtesy of Netgalley.com