- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (Mar 4 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446579653
- ISBN-13: 978-0446579650
- Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 2.5 x 23.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #195,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Jackson matches effortless Southern storytelling with a keen eye for character and heart-stopping circumstances. Laurel, a high-end quilt maker, sees the ghost of a little girl in her bedroom one night. When it leads her to the backyard and a dead girl in the swimming pool, the life Laurel had hoped to build in her gated Florida neighborhood with her video-game designer husband, David, and their tween daughter, Shelby, starts to fall apart. Though the police clear the drowning as accidental, it soon appears that Shelby and her friend Bet may have been involved. Bet, who lives in DeLop, Laurel's impoverished hometown, was staying over the night of the drowning and plays an increasingly important role as the truth behind the drowning comes to light. Meanwhile, Laurel's sister, Thalia, whose unconventional ways are anathema to Laurel's staid existence, comes to stay with the family and helps sort things out. Subplots abound: Laurel thinks David is having an affair, and Thalia reveals some ugly family secrets involving the death of their uncle. What makes this novel shine are its revelations about the dark side of Southern society and Thalia and Laurel's finely honed relationship, which shows just how much thicker blood is than water. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From AudioFile
Author and actress Joshilyn Jackson skillfully delivers the unique Alabama accents and unusual idioms of the characters in her novel. Model wife and mom Laurel copes with a neighbor's drowning in Laurel's swimming pool and with her own bizarre past, which has embarrassing links to relatives in a poverty-stricken Alabama town. It looks as if her own "tween" daughter, Shelby, and a young visitor from Laurel's hometown may have had something to do with the drowning. With the aid of her flighty sister, an actress, the truth about the drowning, the past, and the present comes to light. Jackson's effortless reading and delightful characterizations make these characters likable despite the fact that Laurel and company show remarkably little grief and horror following the drowning. J.J.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as compelling or well-crafted as previous two novels,
By
This review is from: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Paperback)
While there was mystery and suspense in "Gods in Alabama" and "Between, Georgia", they were primarily stories about families, mostly character driven. They were redemptive and satisfying in ways that this novel was not. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is more plot-driven with murder(s?) at the centre. When the main story line was revealed, I felt cheated. I didn't know the book was about a dead child being found in the main character's pool or I wouldn't have purchased/read it. She didn't "stop swimming"; she drowned! I ordered the book blind, on the strength of the other two. The old rule, "Don't kill off puppies and kids" has been thrown out the window in our "Shock 'em into feeling" society and I'm peeved that Ms. Jackson used this tactic. The end left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.The trajectory the family's lives take after the climax is not convincing. That said, I gave 3 stars rather than 2 because her eccentric/damaged characters and easy flowing writing style are charming. I SO want Ms. Jackson to succeed in the writing business but I hope she'll refrain from pushing too far into murder mystery or crime thriller territory.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Southern gothic page turner....,
By
This review is from: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Paperback)
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is Joshilyn Jackson's third novel. After finishing this one at breakneck speed, I'll be hunting down the first two.
Laurel has escaped her childhood and the family history in poverty stricken DeLop, Alabama. She's married to David, has a daughter Shelby and lives a comfortable life in a gated community. The ghosts have stopped following her. Until one night, when she sees the ghost of a young girl beckoning to her. She looks out the window and there is the dead girl - in her pool. Although they disagree strongly on many, many things, she calls on her actress sister Thalia to come and help her deal with this. As the sisters 'investigate', the past comes charging up behind them. Secrets long buried won't be kept quiet any longer. This is an absolute gem of a novel. Jackson's prose are captivating and unsettling at the same time. "But her house did not feel normal. It was silent and too large around her, as if it had been hollowed out. The wrongness in her yard had it's nose pressed against her glass doors, and she felt something small and feral scrabbling in her belly. Every time she thought she'd lose herself in her work, the something would run one spiky tooth along her stomach lining." The story is addicting. Can she really see ghosts? Hints of the past are eked out and I was reading as quickly as I could to piece it altogether. It's a mystery, but also a study in families and relationships and how the past affects the present. In the reading group guide and notes, the author notes that "at it's heart, this book is about poverty". I found this quite interesting. As well as the literal translation of fiscal poverty, emotional poverty plays a key role. This was a fantastic read for me.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow. Just...'wow'.,
By
This review is from: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (Hardcover)
After the last piece of dreck I read, it was SO nice to return to the land of a writer-truly-in-her-element.
This is a small story with big themes...and yet it's not overturned by any of them; not only does it stay afloat, it gets to its destination. And with plenty of aplomb and panache. Ms Jackson's dialogue is superb, the craft she exhibits in developing characters is truly admirable (Thalia is a work of art; this writer wishes he'd created her), and she unfolds the tale with just the right combination of everything that's required to captivate a reader...and with a whole lot of zip. Brava to her for this novel; I've already got her others on order.
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