The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian ~ A Review

by Susan Roberts

From the acclaimed author of The Girls in the Stilt House comes a long-awaited novel both atmospheric and lyrical, a haunting Southern story about memory, family secrets, and fierce and fragile love.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

April 2025; Sourcebooks Landmark; 978-1464230363
audio, ebook, print (432 pages); southern fiction

This dual-timeline novel is set in the South and looks at secrets within a family and the search for the truth.  Will finding out the truth be good for the family or will it destroy what little trust still exists between the family members?

Nell is in her early 40s and grew up with her mom, Hazel,  and her sister Evie.  Their mom was always cold and unemotional with her daughters.  When Nell begins to have hazy memories about growing up in Mississippi, she decides that she wants to find out the truth.  She remembers moving around and has no memory of her sister until a man in a truck brought Evie into their house and disappeared.  She also remembers when she and Evie were young and they found Evie's birth certificate with someone other than Hazel being listed as her mother.  Nell has a few clues and tries to put the pieces together to find out more about her earlier life.

The other time period is in the 1930s during the Depression when a young woman named Becca with a small baby is struggling to survive.  Her husband died and her mother-in-law is one of the meanest women that I've encountered in books in a long time.  How will she be able to keep her daughter safe from her mother-in-law's clutches?

The story switched back and forth between the two time periods but I was never confused about which time period we were in.  Nell and Becca were both well-written characters and both had hidden strengths that helped when needed.  Both cared deeply about their families.  There were a lot of secondary characters who added a lot to the storyline.   This is a story of perseverance, betrayal and trust, and unexpected redemption in a world in which the lines between heroes and culprits are not always clearly drawn.

If you enjoy Southern fiction, you don't want to miss The River Knows Your Name.  Kelly Mustian's first book was also excellent.   You can read my review of The Girls in the Stilt House here.

Buy The River Knows Your Name at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

 

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