One hot, summer night, Laurel is sleeping in her perfect, Floridian, suburban home with her perfect husband, when she is awakened by the ghost of Molly, the family’s neighbor and her daughter’s friend.
Molly is dead in the pool outside Laurel’s window and she wants Laurel to know why.
Laurel, it turns out, has seen ghosts before and, as stunned and agitated as she is, we meet a woman stronger than she realizes. Without utterly falling to pieces, Laurel begins to figure out what could have happened.The book is more insightful and character-driven than a mystery, so I hesitate to label it as such. Laurel, her husband, her daughter, and her sister are all pieced together more like a who-it-is than a who-done-it.
Serendipitous that I inadvertently picked this book up after The Lace Reader because Laurel is a quilter.
Like the Ipswich lace that the Whitneys read, we are going to draw parallels between the characters in The Girl Who Stopped Swimming and Laurels’ quilts. What she cannot articulate otherwise is apparent in her quilts. She knows she’d, “been buttoning shut the ugly parts.” They are dark and sound compelling.A coffee table book of Laurel’s quilts would be an interesting way to reveal this story.
It’s a little more obvious than I like, but the pace moves along fast enough that I forgot I was annoyed. (Oh, that it were that easy while I’m getting the kids off to school).
Thalia, Laurel’s sister, and literary Mr. Hyde to her Dr. Jekyll, is a mesmerizing amalgamation of emotions. Laurel loves and needs her while, at the same time, pitying, idolizing and despising her. Thalia feels the same way about Laurel. The many family secrets are outed along the way and we see more of Laurel and Thalia’s sentimental foundations than they do.
We need to be invested in their family history to appreciate Laurel and Thalia and how they became the characters we meet.
Despite an auspicious beginning and ending, once the proverbial gloves are off, it becomes a whirlwind of chick-lit machinations for a while. Luckily, the pace keeps you interested and the author may be doing it intentionally. The girls realize in their neighborhood explorations, “we’re going to treat this part like a game. We have to or … get sick with mad and cry.”
There is a thought-provoking twist involving an initially minor character and more from this girls’ perspective would be beneficial. Initially I was reminded of The Lovely Bonesby Alice Sebold, but this story is different. If you can enjoy its unfinished veins, and keep the whole idea in your head instead of just what is in front of you, the story has an intriguing message .