Original review posted here

This book surprised the heck out of me. I don’t know what I loved more – Jessica Keener’s descriptions of the world contained within the book, or her ability to really capture the voice of each and every individual character. When I picked up Night Swim and started to read, I struggled a little bit to find a groove, figure out what Keener was doing, but man – once I got into a groove I couldn’t put this book down, to the detriment of the stacks upon stacks of homework I had to do.

A sort of coming-of-age story, but also a story about relationships between parents and children, different races and classes, religions, and more. This was a hodge-podge of everything that is dynamite in a story, and instead of overwhelming that story with too much, it worked very, very well, creating a compelling story that’s been stuck in my mind since I put the book down.

Every once in a while I pick up a book that I wouldn’t normally pick up in a book store. The biggest complaint about this book is the cover, I find it way too boring and bland considering the content it’s hiding. If I had seen it in a bookstore, I just wouldn’t have been interested – but I didn’t. Instead I was hooked by a description and that hook was enough to get me to look past the cover and find the story.

Y’all, this one was very much worth the read.