In River Sing Me Home, we follow Rachel as she goes from Barbados to British Guiana  (now Guyana) to Trinidad and Tobago in order to reunite with her children after the Emancipation Act of 1834 is announced. Rachel’s slave master has other plans for Rachel and the other slaves on the plantation and she takes the opportunity to slip away in hopes of reuniting with her five children.

River Sing Me Home had me in a vice grip as I found myself unable to put this down and wanting to know what came next. Would Rachel reunite with her children? Would she get caught and be taken back? Would she be able to make it to the next island?

Rachel’s story is both heartbreaking and full of hope. There are reunions, but also different types of loss. 

Shearer clearly did her research here as the story is based off of a real woman and her story. While this topic can be sad and oppressive, Shearer managed to navigate the fine line of giving the reader historical context of this oppressive topic and giving a strong character to hope for. 

This was a great debut and I look forward to picking up whatever Eleanor Shearer writes next.