Bookish Thursday - Guest Post! Re-Wilding Ourselves Through Nature Novels

I am pleased to host this guest post from author Cheryl Grey Bostrom whose recent novel, What the River Keeps I recently read (and will be reviewing at the bottom). Enjoy. I did. 

Re-wilding Ourselves Through Nature Novels 

by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

Rare is the person who ages without recognizing a key truth: In this world, we will have trouble. If we cave under its weight, all that brokenness can shackle us. Trap us. 

I don’t like that kind of captivity. Loss, worry, and pain can render us defensive or angry over what should never have happened, or resigned to what we believe will never change. Sometimes, a trapped mindset can downright paralyze us. 

I’ve been there, and it isn’t pretty. Fortunately, when life hurts, that dark captivity doesn’t have to last. Re-wilding ourselves through nature can shake us free of all that. 

For me, as a Pacific Northwest nature novelist, re-wilding means immersing myself in the natural world, where I pray that the land, water, sky (and the flora and fauna that live there) will soak me in their design. That they’ll show me their cycles of rest, growth, and renewal. That they’ll remind me that we, as part of that creation, are designed to be released from whatever binds us. That we’re resilient, and can heal. 

When I spend time in nature, fresh possibilities seep like tides over whatever’s happening in my life. While my circumstances may not have changed, hope, which can be shy and evasive in hard seasons, rises, then drenches me until those circumstances shrink, and I feel . . . wild with awe.

Engaging with nature through novels fosters similar hope. Therefore, I write stories that take readers and their heartaches deep into the untamed world, where healing is constantly at work. 

For example, in my novel Sugar Birds, young Aggie lights a tragic fire, then flees into a Pacific Northwest forest. Stricken with guilt and shame, she evades searchers for a month—until the protection and love she finds in nature quiet her and bring her home. 

In Leaning on Air, the unusual marriage between Celia and autistic Burnaby fractures when their daughter is born too early and Celia blames herself. She has holed up at a remote farm on the rugged Snake River when the physical re-wilding of an injured red-tailed hawk helps guide her to emotional and spiritual release—and the healing of her marriage.

Two century-old dams fall in my newest novel What the River Keeps, where the renewal of Olympic National Park’s Elwha River ecosystem parallels reclusive biologist Hildy Nybo’s re-wilding. The river’s restoration points Hildy to the truth about of her mysterious past, and then opens her to a future she’d never have dreamed possible.  

To me, it’s magical . . . no . . . holy, the way the natural world informs our emotional and spiritual ones. Through nature, books like these can open our imaginations to hope and possibilities in our own lives. We’re reminded that rivers can run free again. Land and lives—ours included—can heal.

How have nature novels helped you re-wild? I’d love to hear. å

Book Summary

Kirkus Reviews recently chose What the River Keeps for its “Best Indie Books of June 2025” list

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Reclusive biologist Hildy Nybo returns to her childhood home on Washington’s Elwha River, where she untangles her mysterious past.

Hildy Nybo is a successful biologist, her study of the Pacific Northwest’s wild fish both a passion and a career. But behind her professional brilliance, Hildy’s reclusive private life reflects a childhood fraught with uncertainty. Haunted by the confusion of her early years, she now records her life in detailed diaries and clings to memory-prompting keepsakes. 

Then her mother’s health fails, and Hildy accepts a job near her childhood home, joining a team of scientists who will help restore her beloved Elwha River after two century-old dams fall. There Hildy settles into a cabin on her family’s rustic resort—a place she both loves and dreads, for reasons she can’t fully explain. 

When a local artist rents an adjacent cabin for her pottery studio, Hildy resists the intrusion—until intriguing Luke Rimmer arrives to help with the cabin’s renovation. Now a few years beyond a tragedy that brought him to his knees, Luke recognizes a kindred soul in Hildy. As he earns her trust, they uncover her mysterious history, and Hildy dares to wonder if she can banish her shadows—and follow her river’s course to freedom.

Publisher: Tyndale Fiction (August 12, 2025)

ISBN: 1496481585

ISBN: 978-1496481580

AISN:  B0DK3ZW85L

ASIN: B0DYG3PK8T

Print length:  368 pages (also available as ebook and audiobook)

Purchase a copy of What the River Keeps on

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/What-River-Keeps-Cheryl-Bostrom/dp/1496481585/ref

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-the-river-keeps-cheryl-grey-bostrom/1146416644?ean=9781496481580

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/what-the-river-keeps-cheryl-grey-bostrom/21884304?ean=9781496481580&next=t

You can also add this to your GoodReads reading list 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220587152-what-the-river-keeps

About the Author, Cheryl Grey Bostrom

A keen student of the natural world and the workings of the human heart, Pacific Northwest author Cheryl Grey Bostrom captures the mystery and wonder of both in her lyrical, riveting fiction. Her novels Sugar Birds (Christy finalist, Amazon bestseller, and Book of the Year) and Leaning on Air have won more than two dozen industry honors, among which are CT’s Fiction Award of Merit and American Fiction, Reader’s Favorite, Carol, Nautilus, Best Book, Foreword Indies, and International Book Awards.

An avid birder and nature photographer, Cheryl lives in rural Washington State with her husband and three irrepressible Gordon setters.

You can follow the author at:

Website: https://CherylBostrom.com

Birds in the Hand (blog): https://cherylgreybostrom.substack.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cgbostrom/ and https://www.facebook.com/cherylgreybostrom/

IG: @cherylgreybostrom  https://www.instagram.com/cherylgreybostrom/

And now my review...

I love nature writing. Most of my focus on nature writing is through nonfiction however. Recently I finally read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

I also find solace in my garden, a walk through the nature, watching wildlife. In fact, I am communing with my new neighbor, the woodchuck I call Chucky (not to be confused with the horror movie).

Also, and it seems like fate, karma or a giant coincidence, I am reading and seeing more and more on where indigenous peoples are getting access to more and more of their culture and tribal lands. Being a gardener, to see and understand how certain foods traditionally grown by indigenous populations are gaining respect (can we say corn for one?)

So I was really interested in reading What the River Keeps when offered a chance by WOW-Women on Writing (go check out their post for a review and giveaway).

Hildy has 'issues', like many of us. But what caused those issues? Is she crazy like her mother always implied she was? Trust is also a huge red flag for Hildy. Her only comfort is being in nature as a biologist, working alone and collecting bits and pieces to attempt to stay sane.

There are two 'paths' to follow in the book. One is way Hildy is the way she is and her relationship with her sister and mother. The second is will someone find a way that allows Hildy to trust and accept them into her life.

I identify with many of her traits and habits - my home is my 'safe place' and I don't invite many people into it. I think most of us can understand where she is coming from.

This is definitely a book where on one hand you want to plow through to get answers to your questions and on the other hand you want to savor the journey.