How long is The Frozen River?

The Frozen River is 432 pages, or approximately 118,800 words. At an average reading pace, it takes about 6 hours to read.

Is The Frozen River difficult to read?

The Frozen River has a difficulty score of 2.9 out of 10, making it relatively accessible. Key factors include vocabulary complexity (3.3/10), sentence structure (3.0/10), abstract concepts (3.3/10).

What genre is The Frozen River?

The Frozen River is categorized as Historical Fiction, Mystery & Crime. It was published in 2023.

Is The Frozen River worth reading?

The Frozen River is notable with a literary regard score of 2.5/10. Visit ReadingRate for the full difficulty analysis and reading guide.

The Frozen River

Published 2023 · 432 pages · 118,800 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Mystery & Crime

How hard is The Frozen River to read?

The Frozen River scores 29 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 33 out of 100: Lawhon writes a historical mystery in accessible contemporary English, with some period and midwifery terms. Reviewers note a modern-sounding voice, which keeps it near Beach Read in plainness, with a touch more period flavor.
Sentence structure: 30 out of 100: Sentences in a mainstream historical mystery run clear and conventional. Reviewers describe the voice as modern, so the syntax asks little of readers, close to Beach Read.
Abstraction: 33 out of 100: The book centers on a concrete investigation of a murder and a rape in a Maine winter. Its disputes over childbirth practice and a physician's authority stay grounded in scenes, much like a plot-driven mystery.
Information density: 38 out of 100: The novel runs about 118,800 words and layers historical detail on a mystery plot. Some readers found it long and slow, so it carries a manageable load of period detail and case developments, closer to The Housemaid than to a dense epic.
Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100: A mystery built on a diarist-midwife investigator tells its story fairly directly. The reader follows clues toward a solution rather than reading against the narrator, similar to the plain storytelling of Beach Read.
Symbolic density: 28 out of 100: The frozen river and the diary-based setting give some atmosphere, but the evidence points to a plot-driven historical novel with a light symbolic layer. It sits near Beach Read with slightly more weight from its setting.
Ironic distance: 22 out of 100: Reviewers praise earnest storytelling and some find the tone preachy, which signals a sincere voice. The book engages its history and its heroine directly, in the manner of The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Resolution withholding: 25 out of 100: As a mystery about a murder and a rape, the form promises an answer to the case. Genre expectations point to a resolved ending, near Beach Read.
Structural complexity: 30 out of 100: The material points to a single investigation moving through one winter, built on Ballard's diary. That suggests a mostly linear mystery structure, like Beach Read.

How The Frozen River is regarded

The Frozen River holds a literary regard score of 25 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.