Three Rivers: A Novel

THREE RIVERS is a YA coming-of-age novel in which a young television star gets sent to a wilderness therapy camp by her parents, who are concerned about the path she’s heading down. Stella gets kidnapped in the middle of the night from her bed, hauled out to a frozen Montana, and thrown into the mountains for three months with other wayward teenagers. While there, Stella has to reckon with more than the physical elements; she has to finally face what was making her act out in the first place, and by doing that, she discovers what she thought she wanted isn’t quite as shiny as it used to be.

The biggest success of this novel is the ultimate message. In the age of the internet and social media, Stella finds what’s actually fulfilling are real, tangible things, like getting strong enough to climb a mountain or being able to light a fire on her own. She later realizes when she doesn’t want to deal with the online world, she can actually just turn her phone off. The book shows that getting outside and being active can be a huge help for our mental well-being and in finding clarity.

That being said, there is a missed opportunity for a fully rewarding character arc. The author said that while this book is a work of fiction, it’s a representation of her life and about 90% true. Perhaps, she felt committed to portraying her own experience as it was. However, since she didn’t publish an autobiography, the plot could have been shifted for narrative purposes. For instance, it’s really hard to connect with Stella and get on her side throughout the book. She’s understandably sullen and uncooperative in the beginning, but even in the end, she alludes to manipulating Ruth, the therapist, by saying what she thought Ruth wanted to hear. Stella also maintains that her parents’ actions were too extreme a response to her behavior. However, if at the beginning of the book, we got a day in the life of how Stella was behaving, then we, the audience, could have made decisions about how out of control she was or wasn’t for ourselves. Then, once she went to the program, if her behavior towards the end became more sincere, we would not only have more to root for, but a more satisfying conclusion.

Overall, this book provides an interesting opportunity to peek behind the curtain of systems most people have only heard about, both the wilderness therapy camp and Hollywood itself. Even on the bleakest winter day, the great outdoors feels romantic in a certain way and serves as a call to all readers to get back to basics.