The 2011 National Bestseller Once Upon a River, by Bonnie Jo Campbell, was not at all what I expected it to be. I had stumbled upon this novel when tearing off a page of my Book-a-Day calendar, being told that this was a story of a young, strong heroine, Margo Crane, who is forced to travel along a river in Michigan with only a rifle and her favorite novel about Annie Oakley.

Something about this book, especially the title, immediately drew me to the bookstore to grab it this summer, excited to read something about a sharp-shooting, strong-willed girl on a journey to find herself. What I ended up getting was something frustrating, slightly uncomfortable and controversial… but in the end, oddly compelling, powerful and beautiful.

I will admit, when I first started this book, possibly around the first hundred pages or so, I closed the book and thought to myself, “This book is actually awful.” I found myself repeatedly going back and forth between liking it and wanting to tuck it away somewhere where I’d never see it again. I have never experienced such an epic tug of war between a book and myself. There were scenes throughout this novel that were very disturbing, but upon reading through it, sitting back, and understanding the necessity of these occurrences to facilitate Margo’s brilliant character development, I realize that not liking the book for these certain aspects is a bit wrong of me to do. These two disturbing occurrences, I should warn you, are the two accounts of rape that Margo experiences at the beginning of the novel. The scenes are in no way graphic, however the action still stands. Other far less disturbing scenes, yet still possibly hard to read, are the scenes of Margo hunting – if you are queasy about the death of animals and do not wish to read about the processes of “preparing” these animals, it would not be wise of you to read this book; if you do, you may want to skip over those parts.

With that being said, this novel is about survival, finding your way, growing, and becoming what you, yourself, wish to be – and not letting others define you. Throughout the novel, famous journeys in literature are eluded to – from The Odyssey to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Margo’s journey, although similar to that of any heroic quest, is very much her own. She discovers herself through picking her name, finding her voice, and learning the consequences of choice and revenge. But most importantly, she learns how to live – how to have a life after all the crap she’s been through (and let me tell you, she goes through a heck of a lot). Margo is a very powerful heroine. It took me quite a while to realize it, disagreeing with and sometimes understanding her choices, and yet, despite her circumstances, finding her terribly relatable, especially through her experiences of love, loss and eventual redemption.

Despite the tug of war I experienced when first starting this novel, I can say that I’ve had a change of heart. Sitting back and thinking about Campbell’s work, I find this novel to be outstanding and empowering. It’s a book out finding your way and living your life the way you choose. It is wild, irresistible, riveting and real. I’d recommend this novel as quickly as Margo can shoot a cranberry off a fence post.