Rating: 
Summary: Haunting and Brilliant--A Tremendous Book
Review: I just finished this novel. I think Judith Freeman deserves a special award for writing this story. The research alone must have taken years. But what a remarkable end result. She writes of the Utah landscape with precision and awe. Her characters are readily believable and she has painted a supremely fair account of 19th Century Mormon Utah. I am not a historian, but I trust her detail to fact is accurate and unbiased. Anyone concerned with women's issues, religious literature and Western U.S. history will appreciate this fine piece of writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting History of a Terrible Event
Review: I know this is fiction and Freeman says at the end of the book : "this book is a work of the imagination" and she cautions readers NOT to read it as a version of history.Veiled in its secret ceremonies and rituals, Mormonism is always going to be looked at suspiciously. Surely their leaders must know this and figure it is the price they must pay. That said, I am astounded that any church ever allowed any man to have 19 wives. That is just inexplicable but the patriarchal Mormon religion did allow this horror to exist. "Red Water" allows us to look inside a Mormon marriage with eight "present wives" and see what their lives were like. I am fairly sure that this is historically accurate. This community of females are the main core of the book and we come to know three of them very well. John Lee is seen only through their eyes and in most instances he is portrayed as a selfish and controlling man. This has nothing to do with the massacre, but with him as a human being. (The massacre, in fact, occupies few pages of "Red Water" since it occurred prior to the beginning of the book.) I thought that Freeman did terrific research and found it interesting the way she told the women's stories. Emma's story was very personal and done in the first person. Ann's story was shorter and told in the third person. Rachel's story was the shortest and was related via diary entries. Because her story was longer and more detailed, I felt that I got to know Emma the best. The struggles and hardships endured by these early settlers of the West were incredibly difficult and often life-threatening. Lack of food, education,medical care, and the basics of life became the norm that was part of their daily travail. The harsh landscape, which is often their worst enemy, becomes almost another character. While it is historically true that John Lee was the scapegoat for all who did the killing at the Mountain Meadow Massacre, I wonder what part Brigham Young had in this--did he really betray Lee? Was Lee so blinded by his faith that he remained silent after being arrested, rather than implicate other Mormons? I plan to try to find some more answers. This book gave me a lot of food for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I was absolutely captivated by this wonderful telling of the story of John D. Lee through the prospective of three of his polygamist wives. I especially related to Emma, the strong-willed English bride. Lee's Ferry in Arizona is a place of transcendant beauty and the red-rock country of Southern Utah is amazing. This story expresses the hardships of making a life in this harsh land under the most difficult of circumstances.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I was absolutely captivated by this wonderful telling of the story of John D. Lee through the prospective of three of his polygamist wives. I especially related to Emma, the strong-willed English bride. Lee's Ferry in Arizona is a place of transcendant beauty and the red-rock country of Southern Utah is amazing. This story expresses the hardships of making a life in this harsh land under the most difficult of circumstances.
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Summary: My new favorite book
Review: I was not looking for a true historical account of the massacre while most readers were and did not expect to find one. But what I did find was a small reflection of myself in each of the three of the women in the book. I found three very different women tied together though odd circumstances that none of us would be able to fully comprehend unless we had lived a life similar to theirs. This work is a beautiful mix of fiction and non-fiction tied in together with the beautiful yet sad and lonely Utah landscape and three women all trying to piece their lives back together after the one thing keeping them together falls apart. Freeman makes you feel the heartache of lives betrayed by those they loved and trusted the most. When John D. Lee was made the scapegoat by Brigham Young to atone for his sins the book gives us something of what it might have been like to seep into their lives and feel them. To feel the wives and the hearts of women trying to stay strong while everything unravels around them. That is why I love this book, I can feel the people, the desolation of Utah, the heartache of polygamy and their spirits are here with me when I read it.
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Summary: Reading Group Choice
Review: If you're in a reading group or book club, this book should be your next pick. Historical fiction is always interesting and comparing the three wives' perspectives will make for good discussion.
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Summary: Even Fiction Causes Friction in Mormondom
Review: Judith Freeman's book is obviously fictitious and she makes sure readers are aware the book is fiction. Recent news reports indicate the LDS church is now examining Ms. Freeman apparently as a precursor to excommunication. What I find extremely interesting in most reviews of LDS-related works, fiction and nonfiction, is the tendency of many reviewers to state that the doctrine described in the work being reviewed is no longer practiced by the "modern day" LDS church. You will find one reviewer who makes this statement in her review of Ms. Freeman's book. I often wonder what force causes people to react defensively and compels them to offer disclaimers. Why can't a book be read and enjoyed without readers having to be reminded by reviewers that what happened long ago could never happen now? Ms. Freeman's book is about basic human values and emotions that are as real today as they were then. Frankly, I am tired of Mormon reviewers who constantly have to remind us their church is different now...they have missed the point of an excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT GOOD AT ALL
Review: Oh dear! This book, like the other Freeman books, isn't good at all.
Rating:
Summary: A Whole Other Rodeo for Freeman
Review: Red Water is to Judith Freeman what The Poisonwood Bible is to Barbara Kingsolver. Their other novels are good, but these two are of a significantly higher caliber. Rich in descriptive detail, Red Water draws you into Utah's lonely, hauntingly beautiful landscape and dredges up skeletons furtively hidden in candy-coated closets. This ain't green jello and plastic-smile land; it's about human history. Mormons are no more or less "peculiar" than anyone else. Thus, it's a story about human struggle, ambition, jealousy, fear, oppression, prejudice, greed, perseverance, hope, triumph, love, dreams, faith, suffering, resignation: life.
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Summary: PRETENTIOUS & POORLY WRITTEN
Review: The book has a pretentious tone and is poorly written.
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