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While Laurel's life seems neatly on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her year old neighbor Molly Dufresne. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool.
Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming. Review Compelling, haunting no pun intended and poignant are the words that come to mind when I try to sum up this novel.
To put it simply, I loved it. In fact, I found it quite confusing to begin with. But my feelings gradually changed as I got deeper and deeper into the story and had better understanding of the characters.
She was a mystery to me, as much as the corpse floating in her pool was a mystery to Laurel. Although Laurel is this famous maker of innovative quilts with an affluent cookie-cutter perfect life in the suburbs with her computer nerd of a husband and a precocious daughter, her entire life has been and continues to be haunted by DeLop.
What she turns out to be is more than expected and yet less. You bet! The sisters are polar opposites and yet their shared past, their not-so salubrious history binds them together and gives them something in common — a tragedy. Haunted by memories, Laurel buries herself in a quiet and boring suburban life while Thalia deals with it by celebrating the ugliness of life and indulging in outrageous behavior. And so Laurel invites her over little realizing that Thalia will begin her work by peeling away the anesthetized cover of her own marriage. As a result, every character in this book, no matter how minor, is of interest.
In the end, I identified with them all, even the dead girl and the cold mother … except for the Uncle.
Throughout the story, the author raises expectations of how things might turn out to be or how a character might behave under given circumstances. And every time, without fail, predictability fails. Or at least, it did for me.
Every time I thought I had a handle on things than Jackson yanked away the figurative rug beneath my feet. This I enjoyed, more than anything else. And lest I forget, the pivotal mystery of the girl who stopped swimming is beautifully maintained throughout the length of the book. And only towards the very end is the shocking truth revealed. I loved this story and impatiently count the days until her next book comes out. Kudos for a superb story, Joshilyn! Marg March 16, at AM. Julie P. March 16, at AM.
Marg March 16, at PM. August 04, Too much time has elapsed since Serena broke her engagement to her childhood companion, Rotherham, and that too after the invitations had been sent - such a scandal! Or so they both declare.
Used to commanding a large household and having acted as her father's hostess from a young age, energetic and politically-savvy Serena soon finds herself in doldrums when her life is suddenly reduced to a small Dower house with none but her father's young widow, Fanny, for company and a social sphere consisting of occasional visits from neighbors who'd been just casual acquain….
Read more. Gabrielle Bernstein stops by By clicking on "Submit" you agree that you have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Email Newsletter. Log In. Toggle navigation MENU. Email Address. An entertaining but shallow spin on a Southern Gothic. Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan.
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The Girl Who Stopped Swimming book. Read reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty. Lauren Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother keep family skeletons in the closet or sewing her acclaimed art quilts.
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