The Drowning Girl

Haters gonna hate.

I read a bunch of reviews of The Drowning Girl before I attempted to write my own. A lot of people loved it, myself included. A lot of people hated it. They found the prose to be meandering, and the main character's schizophrenia to be a farce. "She just writes and writes, it's very off-putting," or "She is SO not a schizo."

Maybe she isn't. I don't have much experience with schizophrenics. The voices in my head tend to steer me away from them. So I'll just shrug my shoulders on that critique.

As for the writing, maybe some of these people have forgotten that writers, uh, write. And Caitlin R. Kiernan writes well. Very well. Very damn well.

This isn't some popcorny, action-filled, overthrow some evil organization/government/demon, summon angels and dispel ghosts story. This is a carefully constructed, multi-layered, painstakingly written tale of one woman's attempt to rid herself of her hauntings. If you were to say, "But that sounds just like a dispelling ghost story!?" I'd say, "It does."

But it isn't.

I really can't do this novel justice. I'm not smart enough. I do know that there's beauty in this book, and heartbreak, and brutality, and some intense imagery. This isn't a story you can speed read through. I mean, you could, but you'd be missing out. Everything comes full circle in this novel, even when it feels like it doesn't.

More than just a story about a woman being haunted, it's a story about fiction in general, and how it relates to the real world. The fictional main character includes two of her own fictional short stories in the novel, and the depth they provide when held up against the main story is astounding. Through this woman, we get to see how fiction shapes reality, and how a ghost doesn't necessarily have to come from someone who was once alive, but could easily come from a whisper, or a stray thought, or a book.

It's not the happiest of books, but it is one of the best ones I've read in a while.

Just read it already. Put down that Hatorade and take your time with it. It's one hell of a rewarding experience.