The River's Daughter

 Book 82 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from November 16 - 19

The River's Daughter by Bridget Crocker

published 2025

Summary (via the book jacket)

After Bridget Crocker's parents' volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion - until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life - the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself - was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she'd found her calling.

On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears - both on the water and off. The river taught her how to overcome years of trauma and betrayal, to trust herself, and, finally, how to help heal her family from generational cycles of abuse and poverty.

A beautifully rendered memoir of a woman coming into her own, The River's Daughter opens us to the possibilities of transformation through nature.

My Opinion

4 stars

Beautifully smooth writing of incredibly traumatic events.