Drowning Instinct

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa Bick comes out in February. Here's the premise:

There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)

Jenna Lord's first sixteen years were not exactly a fairy tale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother--until he shipped off to Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and everyone cries for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)

Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain...magnetism.

And there are stories where it's hard to be sure who's a prince and who's a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)

Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds--and the rules.

I don't know if you can get this from that, but there is an Ewwww factor here. (Maybe it's just me, and the fact I have two teenage daughters and do not want to think about something like this happening to them or any of their friends.) But this book was bleak, very much so. I wanted something good to happen for Jenna, who has had a very sucky life so far. But the "good" thing, the thing that makes her happy for the first time in a long time, is not really a "good" thing. So I tried to look at this from the perspective of a teen, the intended audience. I don't know. It would serve the purpose of a teen reader who really needs to know there are people who have things worse than they do. Because Jenna has it bad. Like so bad I want to grab her parents and her teacher and smack them all upside the head. I guess I was just so frustrated by the adults of this book that I couldn't enjoy it. (Which may very well come from the fact I am not the intended audience. Teens will naturally be frustrated by adults, so that's nothing new for them.) But another reviewer said that they weren't sure teens would like it, but award committees would. I suspect they are right. Anyway, if you're in the mood for  a well-written book with more than its share of  depressing moments and a fairly taboo premise, give it a go.