Yes, I read novels and enjoy those that have some history to them - but, I'm picky. I like my historical fiction to be based on facts and my protagonists believable - perhaps that's why, once again, I like young adult characters paired with realistic-feeling action - and why I enjoyed R.C. Binstock's new novel Swift River.

Polly is but a girl facing the impossible destruction of everything she knows, and everything that has involved generations of Americans in the pursuit of progress.

Now, this story has been told time and again in fiction and nonfiction; but what makes Swift River exceptional is an evocative, immersing writing style that mirrors the overwhelm of engulfing waters. Even the novel's first observational paragraph proceeds to wash the reader away with Polly's experiences.

While the novel is all about rebirth and how memories and influences of the past can be washed away to make room for a different future, don't expect Swift River to be about a singular event: this simply serves as the impetus for exploring Polly's wider world and the secrets she closely guards.

As the wider world converges on Swift River and Polly, she comes to see that issues are not as cut-and-dried as she would perceive, and begins to understand that against the specter of disaster are nuggets of possibility for rebirth and transformation.

Ultimately Swift River becomes not just the story of one girl's observation of her heritage's destruction just as she's on the cusp of understanding its meaning to her life, but the story of how we all survive adversity and disaster. With its lyrical passages, powerful psychological insights and evocative text, Swift River will carry readers on an unexpected journey of amazing discoveries packed with philosophical reflection and observations about life's meaning.