The Frozen River

Storyline: 5 Stars

I read this for my book club, and I did not know entirely what to expect when I first picked it up. I saw that it had good ratings, but I was not prepared for how great it was. Some people may critique that the book was slow in some areas, but I actually enjoyed the pace because it allowed me to have a deeper understanding of Martha Ballard’s character in the book and also life in the 1700s which was displayed throughout the book.

Even though Martha Ballad was a real person, the author took some liberties in her life. However, I do think that life in the 1700s was mostly accurately portrayed. That made it wild! The story takes place right after the revolutionary war before the amendments came into play, and the judicial system was pretty crazy. I did not know what it was like before our current court system was established, which made it even more interesting. The story takes place in Maine, which I appreciated since I have been there only once, and I like learning history about some of the places I have been.

The story deals with some very heavy and triggering topics. I think that they were dealt with responsibility, but this might not be a book for everyone, especially if r*pe is a triggering topics. There is a trial where the defendent commits r*pe, and a lot of the story revolves around that instance.

Overall, it was a riveting read and even though the topics were heavy, it was portrayed so well through the eyes of famous midwife, Martha Ballard.

Parental Guidance: 70% Recommend

I would recommend this book 70% for parental guidance. For the most part, this book did not have many inappropriate parts. There was not much swearing, there were scenes between a husband and wife that were flirtatious, but nothing ever happened in the book.

The r*pe is the biggest concern with the book. Readers that might find it triggering should read with caution if they want to read at all. There is a lot of stigma around the victim, and other women in the book. The r*pe scene is discribed in a court scene, which helped because we did not have to read it as it was happening, but it was still horrific. The saddest part is that the author downscaled it compared to what happened in history to the victim. There is violence and some of the characters are terrible people.

Note though that there is hopeful parts in the book, it is not all downcast and gloomy. It is heartbreaking at times, but other parts are heartwarming.

Real Book Chat

Spoilers Ahead

Wow. This book left me stunned. I was not expecting it since I did not know anyone who has read the book and I randomly found it in a Goodreads recommendation and then suggested it for book club. I am so happy that I found it!

Although, not going to lie, as someone who does not have kids yet but would like to someday, the scene of Rebecca giving birth was horrific. Of course, there was lot of outside factors that made that scene terrible and made Rebecca’s pregnancy and birthing process awful, but it did not help any fears I might have about getting pregnant and giving birth someday.

Martha and Ephraim are one of the best couples! Ephraim is such a good character, and I appreciated how even though there are a lot of currupt men (and women) in the book, not all of the characters were bad. I really have a hard time with books that portray every man or even every women as evil, because that just is not the case. I appreciated that we saw a few bad men, but we also saw a lot of good men. I think the more prominant thing in this book was that those few bad men hurt so many men and women. It was not a 1 for 1 ratio of how many people the bad men hurt because they were able to get away with so much. I think that the book did a good job of showing biases and how women were seen as lesser class citizens to many people during that tiem period without showing that all men were terrible monsters.