Between Me and the River by Carrie Host, A Review

First, I must apologize to the author for not getting this review up sooner. Due to some unforeseen health issues with my younger daughter that are still yet to be resolved, I have been extremely busy with doctors’ appointments and somewhere in the process, my review got lost.  So here is my review of this book. ~ Margay

Between Me and the River, by Carrie Host, is one of those books that grabs you by the hand from page one and pulls you along on a journey into the life of the writer. It dares you to stop reading along the way, but you can’t stop reading because you have to make sure that everything turns out okay even though you know it must because it is, after all, a memoir. But still, you find yourself wondering along the way if it will be okay, if the author will beat the odds, because you become emotionally invested in the author’s life.

This book deals with the subject of cancer with an honesty that can be at once breathtaking and brutal. It is unflinching and doesn’t waste any time in setting up the issue. Here is the first line from the first chapter, entitled Miles and Miles, for instance:

“Hardly any other word leaves us as numb or as frozen in time as cancer.”

And with those words, you are hooked. Who among us hasn’t had the same thought, or dealt with the same fear? Coming from a family that has lost many people from cancer (on my father’s side and my mother’s side), I have a great intimacy with the devastation that cancer can wreak, not only on the victim, but on the family of the victim, as well. And I fear it. I fear the mere possibility that it could strike again, at any time, in any member of my family or circle of friends, or even in myself. But reading Ms. Host’s memoir, I am not quite as fearful as I formally was and for that, I thank her.

Although it is often not an easy book to read, I would recommend this to anyone who’s had a challenging time in their life and needs a reminder that they are not alone.

Between Me and the River is published by Harlequin and is available at Amazon.com.