In Hidden River, author Sara Lippmann creates a haunting narrative that exposes the complicated aftermath of grooming and abuse. Lippmann’s restrained yet disquieting prose centers on a woman unable to fully face her own victimization as a teenager. At the same time, Lippmann skillfully depicts the light, humor, and hope that can coexist with painful, lingering trauma.
The novel follows Cassandra “Cass” Trout, a thirty-five-year-old woman stuck in a soulless routine of retail work, running, and solitude. Cass appears unable to move forward in her life to form meaningful adult relationships; instead, she is trapped in the memories of her adolescence in the suburbs of Philadelphia, where she shared almost everything — including boys — with Sally Sellers, her best friend at the time. Cass’s secret, which unfolds early in the novel, is that Len Sellers, Sally’s father, groomed her for years.
By the time the novel begins in 2008, Cass has long been estranged from Sally, and Len is dead. When Cass receives an invitation to Sally’s wedding, she is forced to face her muddled feelings for her former best friend and the rest of the Sellers family, as well as her prolonged grief over her relationship with Len.
Toggling between timelines set in the late 1980s to 2008, Lippmann uses first-person narration to allow readers glimpses into Cass’s childhood and teenage years, but through the lens of her distorted memories. Cass’s voice can be defensive, morose, acerbic, and sometimes charming as she describes her friendship with Sally and her increasingly sexualized interactions with Len. Lippmann builds tension by creating a widening disparity between Cass’s viewpoint and feelings about Len and the reader’s growing concern over Len’s behavior and Cass’s mental health.
Lippmann’s novel is primarily set in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and its wealthy suburbs, known as the Main Line. The author uses her own connection to the Philadelphia region to create a vibrant sense of time and place; Lippmann creatively employs the analogy of the Schuylkill River, which cuts through Philadelphia and has been cleansed of its polluted past, to explore themes of memory and healing. She also seamlessly intertwines Cass’s personal struggles with events from Philadelphia’s history, including the devastating 1991 mid-air helicopter collision over a suburban elementary school, which remains a traumatic part of the area’s collective memory. Known for its significant role in American history, Philadelphia serves as a meaningful backdrop for a storyline focused on a woman struggling under the weight of her own past.
At its core, Hidden River is an unflinching investigation of grooming and how it affects people. The novel raises a difficult question without explicitly answering it: What happens to a person who has been targeted and abused when they see themselves as neither a victim nor a survivor? Through Cass’s voice, Lippmann invites readers to reexamine their assumptions and dwell, briefly, in the murkiness of post-trauma life.
Anna Stolley Persky, a journalist and lawyer by background, writes fiction and creative nonfiction. She’s been published in The Washington Post, Mystery Tribune, Ellery Queen, and Pithead Chapel.
