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May 02, 2008

Julia rated it:

I happened to glance at the wildly diverse ratings/reviews on goodreads about this book, because I was kind of torn about a rating for it. I haven't read any of Jackson's other books, and I've never seen The Ghost Whisperer, but my feeling was that the story was a bit soap-y, and didn't fully realize itself as any one kind of book. Sometimes, that's ok.
Laurel Hawthorne lives in a gated community called Victorianna, raising a daughter, Shelby, with her husband David. One night, the ghost More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Kris rated it:

Not great. I think I had a problem with the plot being too country. I just don't get into that back-country-hee-haw stuff. I guess don't bother.

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 01, 2008

Tracy rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson is perfectly ok with having her heros murder people. It's true that the people that are offed mostly need killing, but still. Killing someone in the past seems to be her nasty secret of choice in both this book and Gods in Alabama (which I preferred).

This book started out really strong, but I think totally lost its way at the end. Her characterization of Bet and the town she came from didn't ring true to me. They were too stereotypical to be believed.

And More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2008

Fonda rated it:

Loved the other two but reading this one was like watching a predictable Lifetime movie. I too thoughtit was too Ghost Whispery. If you are going to the trouble to put a ghost into a book then at least be original. Duh. Another thing that bugged me was the folksy language. I don't think people in the modern South really talk or act this way. This book was set in the Panhandle but Laurel, etc talked like characters from the other books that were set in Georgia. ZZZZZZZZZ. Forced myself to keep re More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2008

linnea rated it:

This was a waste of time. I think JJ must have been presured to write and book and this was all she came up with. I loved gods and between, but this one stunk. Only redeming quality was Thalia. I wish she just took that chatacther and went another direction.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 04, 2008

Dena rated it:

I didn't think this was as good as her first two books. The plot was a little far-fecthed and I was tired of all the eccentric people in it.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 18, 2008

Megan rated it:

I was very disappointed in this book. The plot was decent but moved way to slow.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Kendra rated it:

I gave this author's first book a 5 and her second book a 4...see a pattern? I think she had a good idea with this book, but it just didn't come together in the right way for me. This is a ghost story/whodunit that begins when the main character, Laurel, awakens to find the ghost of a drowned girl standing by her bed. To me, it felt as though there was simply too much going on - a new mystery, an old mystery, marriage problems, sister problems, mother-daughter problems. Oh, and an offensivel More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2008

Julie rated it:

This would make a great Lifetime movie. As a book, it moved too slowly. It took a really long time to move from the initiating action (girl drowned in pool) to any subsequent action because the main character Laurel kept revisiting her past. Truly, she is haunted by her past, and it's not as if the plot and characters were without merit. But I skimmed over a lot of paragraphs in order to get the story moving and maintain my interest.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

I love, love, love Southern writers, and J.J. is one of my favorites. I was a little dissappointed with this book, though. It was intriguing and I finished it quickly, but I felt like it was written really fast. I also thought that the real story was between Laurel and her mother, which wasn't explored. Also, the relationship between Lauren and Thalia could have just been what the entire book was about, without the ghosts and the Ouija board and the shady town in the background. J.J. usually d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 01, 2008

Katie rated it:

I would have liked to give this book 3.5 stars. I found it started out well and although the promise of the first few pages did not last until the end (the plot was slow after the initial rush and it finished on a schmaltzy note), I did find that I was eager to see how the story unfolded and I was left mulling over topics brought up in the book.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

daysgoby rated it:

I was so excited for this book. SO excited.

I loved gods In Alabama (I've re-read it, which I don't usually do) and really, really liked Between, Georgia.

And then this book was really hard to get through.

Well, that's not totally true. The first 200 pages were too much information at once and yet not enough. I had to keep reminding myself that all these mish-mashes of plot would come together sooner or later, and the jumble of characters would make sense. (This More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2009

Susan rated it:

This book's main character. Laurel, is introduced by a ghost. One of three who visit her life throughout the story. The book's a mystery; I only gave it three stars because it was somewhat predictable, although the writing was pretty good and it was interesting enough.
The writer kept referring to a "keeping room" inside the main character's house, set in Florida, and I'm wondering if this is what we call a family room in the midwest. I haven't had time to look it up online, but i More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

LibrariAnne rated it:

I was disappointed in this one by Jackson whose other two books (Between, Georgia and gods in Alabama) I really enjoyed. I agree with the review which said the first 200 pages were good. I got that far and was excited. I liked Laurel and her wild sister Thalia, plus character of David the husband was well drawn too. Then it fell apart.

Maybe I'm just reading too many other books right now on the issue of social class, but I felt like the subject wasn't handled well in here, despite Ja More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Joanna rated it:

This book was perfectly readable and I admit to staying up too late to finish it. But none of the characters really stood out the way that certain characters in gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia did. The characterizations of the children in the story were completely flat and ghosts were added to the story almost as an afterthought rather than an integral part of the plot. Why bother? I'd recommend this book only for die-hard Jackson fans. But if you haven't read her other two books, read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

A. rated it:

This was enjoyable -- she's a great writer, in terms of ear for language -- but I found it far more complex than her first two novels, and consequently a little too ambitious. There was so much going on behind the scenes in terms of plot that I felt we lost some character development. Glad I read it, but it won't be a re-reader like Between, Georgia.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Angela rated it:

Just so-so. Roped me in and kept me going but ultimately was a bit unsatisfying and too pat of an ending. Didn't believe the finale. Too contrived.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 21, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

This book reminds me too much of a Jodi Picoult novel--set in suburbia with dark mysteries residing within the homes' polished exteriors. Ugh.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

Shannon rated it:

Jackson does what she does best in this book - create slightly crazy, thoroughly believable, deeply Southern characters. This book centers around two sisters, Laurel & Thalia. As always, Jackson does a good job of creating an interesting plot to surround and propel her characters forward.

There were things I liked - and didn't like - about the main character. I'm not sure whether the characteristics that I liked about her remind me of myself or whether it's the ones I don't like. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Amy rated it:

Wow this was a good book. It impressed me more than anything I've read in years. But now that I'm trying to pinpoint what made it so special, I'm stuck. Laurel, the main character, tries to distance herself from her family's white trash past by settling with her husband and daughter in a gated Florida community called Victorianna. But all hell brakes lose when her daughter's best friend Molly turns up dead in the middle of the night in Laurel's swimming pool. Molly appears to Laurel as a ghost a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 23, 2008

Jen rated it:

Joshilyn Jackson continues to take my breath away. I read her second book, Between, Georgia, on a random whim, expecting fun Southern chick lit, and was SHOCKED to stumble into an amazingly human and interesting story that just happened to be grounded in the South. I shortly thereafter read her first novel and re-read Between, and became a devoted reader of the author's blog. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, her latest, does not disappoint. The main character, Laurel, makes her living as an ar More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

Marla rated it:

i hadn't heard of joshilyn jackson before this book. i'm very glad i have now. the woman has a voice that sings.

this book has some weird--or weirde-er--parts, but the story is told so well that they sort of fade or get swallowed up in the story. suspension of disbelief is easy, as with any well-written novel. jackson produces amazing reveals, always at the perfect time, and my interest never flagged. there was not a slow minute in the book.

kati, it isn't a book i wou More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Kathy rated it:

There are many things I liked about the book – the mystery, the ghosts, and the dynamics between the two sisters. The author brings out the good and terrible things that make up a family – it is both funny and filled with irony. Family fights but they always make up and always have each other’s backs. I enjoyed the flow for the most part. The ending was both predictable yet surprising. I knew what happened before I was halfway through the book but I was a little off on the motive.

More...

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Dec 24, 2011

Anita rated it:

I love the smell of campfire. It clings to everything and evokes such strong, vivid images for me. One whiff of campfire and I picture little, tousled heads climbing out a tent, marshmallows crammed between crackers and chocolate, and chipmunks scurrying through pine trees.

“The Girl Who Stopped Swimming” is a novel that’s stuck with me like campfire. The images and characters created by the author, Joshilyn Jackson, refuse to leave my senses.

While “The Girl Who Stopped S More...

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Jul 19, 2011

Ellyn rated it:

I was deeply impressed by Joshilyn Jackson's first two novels, "gods in Alabama" and "Between, Georgia," and "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming" didn't disappoint. Laurel is a woman who sleepwalks and sees ghosts, so when she's awakened by the ghost of her daughter's friend, Molly, she doesn't hesitate to follow the girl outside, where she finds her dead body in the swimming pool. So begins a tale that is part whodunnit, part friendship novel, part social commentary, More...

0 comments like

Jul 06, 2011

Sara rated it:

The story follows Laurel Gray Hawthorne as she deals with a family crisis. One night she wakes to find a body floating in her pool. At first she thinks it's her daughter and finds it's her daughter's best friend. Over the next few days, Laurel struggles with the death and the possibility it wasn't an accident. She worries about her daughter's involvement and her daughter's house guest, Bet, who is a 3rd cousin. Bet comes from DeLop which is a very impoverished town that houses a good portion of More...

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May 12, 2011

Kayla rated it:

I did enjoy this book. The writing was great albeit not poetic. I think the mysteries of it unraveled at a perfect pace, and they felt natural rather than just there for shock value. The main character Laurel is semi-likeable in my opinion, her growing of a backbone midway through the book was refreshing, but she was a little too overly anxious in my opinion, and I found myself wishing she would have said or done something else in the situation she was in. Especially when she "caught" More...

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Aug 18, 2010

Fluffy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jan 20, 2010

Rosina rated it:

Jackson's first two novels (gods in Alabama and Between, Georgia had love stories at their center, but they weren't strictly romances. They are both also full of such clear observations of the nonsensical that I found myself laughing out loud now and then.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming has many things in common with Joshilyn's earlier novels. First and foremost, the way women hold each other up, or down, as the case may be. Emotional complexity and really loud arguments are how many o More...

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Dec 29, 2009

Theresa rated it:

One night, the ghost of Molly Dufresne, came to Laurel’s bedroom and lead her to her drowned body in the family swimming pool. Laurel Hawthorne and her husband, David, live with their daughter, Shelby, in the closed-gate community of Victorianna.

Molly is a neighbor and one of Shelby friends. But Molly wasn’t supposed to be over because Bet Clemmons, a relative of Laurel’s from the poverty stricken, mining town of DeLop, is spending two weeks with her.

The police suspect Sh More...

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