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Girl Out of Water

Winifred Burton (Goodreads Author)

4.18 · Rating details · 17 ratings · 5 reviews

Awkward know-it-all Tabitha Slate was born and raised in Seattle. Her life consists of Friday night fights with her family for the remote control, her crappy minimum wage job, and convincing her sisters that collecting action figures doesn't disqualify her from being Black or a girl.

Then Tabitha blunders into the Wardein, those sworn to police the supernatural hybrids and ...more

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Kindle Edition, 236 pages

Published January 28th 2014 by Cirrina Books

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Jan 05, 2014 Winifred Burton added it · (Review from the author)

Thanks for checking out Girl Out of Water. I had a lot of fun writing it. I don't know that the world demanded a mashup of cryptozoology, physics, identity politics, moody weather, mythology, and angst, but that's the story I felt compelled to tell. Also? mermaids who chain smoke are fun.

I'm an independent author and I appreciate the time you take to read my work.

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Feb 17, 2014 Elisha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, magic-fantasy-and-paranormal, unhauled

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Girl Out of Water was a kind of strange book for me. There were some moments when I was totally enthralled and completely interested in what was going on, but then there were other moments when I zoned out a bit. I'm not entirely sure why that happened because for the most part the descriptions and characterisations in this book were great. Sometimes it was a bit slow getting to the action which was maybe why I zoned out, but I I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Girl Out of Water was a kind of strange book for me. There were some moments when I was totally enthralled and completely interested in what was going on, but then there were other moments when I zoned out a bit. I'm not entirely sure why that happened because for the most part the descriptions and characterisations in this book were great. Sometimes it was a bit slow getting to the action which was maybe why I zoned out, but I understand that because this book was about Tabitha's first steps into this new world and throwing her right into the action would be cruel and unrealistic. Nevertheless, I'd have liked some more stand out moments. In terms of setting up a story to be carried on throughout a series, this book is great because it offers detailed description and shows amazing growth in the protagonist, Tabitha. I just could have done with a little bit more show than tell.

The characters were one of this books greatest strengths for me. Tabitha was feisty and sassy, but at the same time she was scared after being thrown in at the deep end and she was worried about her future and she was falling for a probably unsuitable boy. She was strong and independent but flawed, and I appreciate seeing that in lead characters because it makes them seem real. Tabitha's mentor, Amelia, was also interesting and yet flawed and I really liked that too. In a lot of books I've read, mentors are incredibly wise and supportive all the time and the protagonist idolises them. To see a different kind of relationship between Tabitha and Amelia was very interesting. I also loved Sidney and Bambi as Tabitha's room mates and best friends, and I think that the stories that developed with them were very interesting. I loved the dynamic between Tabitha's family as it completely reminded me of an ordinary family, and I thought that the return visit she paid them towards the end of the book was excellently placed to show the change in her character. The other Wardein and also the Shoal completely fascinated me, and Irene was an absolutely brilliant antagonist. I'm intrigued by all of the characters and, as characterisation is my favourite part of any story, I enjoyed the overall book because of its characters.

Overall, I'd say this novel is mostly positive. There was great characterisation, a very unique and interesting plot and several quotations that made me sit up and say 'I wish I'd thought of that'. As a debut novel, I feel that Girl Out of Water shows a lot of potential and I'd be intrigued in reading more from this author. A promising starter with a few little tweaks needed to make it excellent. ...more

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Feb 27, 2014 Andrea rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: giveaways, wizards

I won this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program in exchange for an unbiased review.

Girl out of Water brings the reader into a world right under our noses but we never noticed, with a host of interesting characters, in particular the quirky Tabitha, our protagonist, and her friends Sydney and Bambi.

I really enjoyed the magical world Burton had built up, but I wish we got to learn more about it. Most of the time Tabitha was being kept in the dark and I'm surprised how quickly she adapted I won this book through the Goodreads First Reads Program in exchange for an unbiased review.

Girl out of Water brings the reader into a world right under our noses but we never noticed, with a host of interesting characters, in particular the quirky Tabitha, our protagonist, and her friends Sydney and Bambi.

I really enjoyed the magical world Burton had built up, but I wish we got to learn more about it. Most of the time Tabitha was being kept in the dark and I'm surprised how quickly she adapted to it without knowing much about it. Irene as well didn't quite understand her powers or the world of magic around her, having been left on her own to figure it out.

I loved the fact that one character is an unbalanced physicist and the other is a little bookish with an odd sense of fashion who doesn't quite fit in. While Tabitha was easy to like, Irene was psychopathic, she had no redeeming features, she just killed for no apparently reason other than it was a way to deal with things that bothered her, absolutely no feelings for the people around her. While this is a valid psychological condition, it just made her so evil that she lost depth (meaning there's no background story, she just seems to have been born this way)

I think the main reason I gave 3 stars instead of 4 was the lack of editing. Now I always give independently published book some leeway (after all, professionally edited/published books have typos too) but I have to take marks off when the errors actually make it hard to figure out what is going on. At times words would be missing from a sentence, leading to complete confusion, and I found it was often hard to tell which character was talking at any moment in time. At times I felt even entire sections were missing, Tabitha went from being completely unaware of her powers to understanding magic, without her either being told or her sitting down and thinking it through.

But this world has a huge amount of promise and I could see this expanding into a very rich and complex series. ...more

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Dec 20, 2013 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I adored getting to know Tabitha, a really powerful female character with snark to spare. This book has everything a good story requires - physics, fantasy, fight scenes, and jokes about Seattle. Highly recommended - 4 and a half stars.

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May 26, 2014 Natasha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mermaid

Feisy lead with a weird but wonderous setting.

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About Winifred Burton

Winifred Burton

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I ricocheted around the United States for years until I grudgingly came to love the lush mildew and moss of Seattle, Washington, the setting for the Cryptid Coterie universe. When the urge to wander returned, I realized I’d run out of new states to try, so now I live abroad, in Norway of all places.

I love random minutiae and pop culture that should be ashamed of itself. My interests are vast, ...more