Rise from the River

4.4/5 ( ratings)

What would you do if you found yourself pregnant after being brutally raped? Abort? Carry the baby for nine solid months of everyday reminders of your night from hell and then adopt it out as if the nightmare never happened? Keep the baby and raise it as if it wasn’t a product of unthinkable violence and invasion?

On a fall evening, 24-year old single mother Rainey Milbright walks through a park past curfew with her four-year old daughter, Tish. A shadow steps out of the bushes. Rainey knows what he is after. Quickly, she tells Tish to run back to the playground, then she turns to face her attacker. She is brutally raped. Tish, who comes back, observes it all.

The reader follows Rainey through the next ten weeks as she struggles with the resulting pregnancy. Rainey is no stranger to the surprise of unplanned pregnancy, nor is she stranger to the joys and challenges that a child can bring. She is also no stranger to abortion; Rainey became pregnant at the age of fifteen and aborted. But this time, this isn’t simply an unplanned pregnancy; it’s a violent one, the result of a rape by a total stranger. The book details Rainey’s battle as she fights with herself, her guilt, her grief and her own healing process as she tries to figure out the right thing to do.

Rise From The River is a brave novel, addressing many social and taboo issues, treating them with honesty and compassion. Readers will go through this ordeal with Rainey, and come out of it with a new perspective, a deeper realization and a greater appreciation for the strength and resilience of women.