The Drowning Girl in The Alternative Worlds

Apr 13, 2012 Ryandake rated it really liked it

it's been a while since i've been this flummoxed by a book.

it's a ghost story, a mermaid story, a siren story, a wolf story, a crazy person story... all wrapped up in one. maybe that's why it's so hard to grasp--where it's not mythological, it's psychological, or maybe mythopoetic.

all of the above, i can handle. even in one book. it's a stretch, no doubt--this is not a fishhook book, where you get nabbed by the hook and pulled along. you have to do some serious swimming against the current here ...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Terence rated it liked it

Shelves: horror-gothic

The Drowning Girl is a difficult book to characterize. Baldly, it’s the story of India Morgan Phelps (aka “Imp”), a highly functional schizophrenic whose life is turned upside down by the appearance of Eva Canning, who may or may not be a ghost, a werewolf, a mermaid or a stalker. If you don’t like unreliable narrators, ambiguous (and sometimes downright confusing) plots and – in the end – not really knowing “what happened,” then you will loathe this book. If you can wrap your mind around the id ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, queer, fairytales, fantasy, horror

The germ of this review comes from a discussion thread about it. I don't think I've borrowed anyone else's insights, but I'll freely confess I was confused for much of this book and therefore very probably suggestible. I just finished it -- I stayed away from the thread entirely until I got chance to read The Drowning Girl, because I knew from reading The Red Tree that I'd find it frustrating, but ultimately rewarding, to go it alone. I had wikipedia and google open, fact-checking the allusions ...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction, queer, brains

I'm still struggling with a review of this book. Imp is a fabulous, fascinating narrator. She explains in the opening chapter that she has schizophrenia. This makes the entire story suspect. What is truth? What is fact? Is it possible for something to be true without being factual? Two of Imp's own short stories become chapters of the book, but they are part of her own processing of reality. Her ghost story is peppered with references to paintings and painters and writers who may or may not exis ...more

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Sep 11, 2014 Simon rated it liked it

Shelves: horror

I wanted to like this more than I ended up doing because it looked very much as if it had all the hallmarks that normally float my boat. I'm fascinated by mental illness and like when it is incorporated into horror stories as a way of introducing ambiguity and increasing the unreliability of the narrator. But there were various aspects to the way the story was delivered that jarred with me a little.

The narrative is framed as an account of the protagonist relating her recently past haunting/menta ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: book_club, award_winner, myths-fables, ghosts-hauntings

"this is the book it is,
which means it may not be the book you expect it to be.
CRK"

she warned me about this right up front. even the blurb telling you that this is the memoir of crazy India Phelps, that she may be seeing things and has trouble distinguishing which version of reality is factual, wasn't quite enough to get me in the right headspace for this. i'm not entirely sure you can be in the right headspace, unless your head is in the same space as Imp's, which is to say, crazy (her word, n ...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Daniel Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf, wwe-wogf, taw-bookclub

The Drowning Girl is the story of Imp, a woman struggling with schizophrenia who tries to exorcise her encounter, or encounters, with a siren, a ghost, a werewolf, or perhaps none of these things.

This synopsis might sound confusing, but it barely scratches the surface of this beautiful confusion of a novel. At times a stream of consciousness narrative, at others a mythological exploration, it often ventures into poetic and mythological flights of fancy, a journey to the heart of a soul in distre The Drowning Girl is the story of Imp, a woman struggling with schizophrenia who tries to exorcise her encounter, or encounters, with a siren, a ghost, a werewolf, or perhaps none of these things.

This synopsis might sound confusing, but it barely scratches the surface of this beautiful confusion of a novel. At times a stream of consciousness narrative, at others a mythological exploration, it often ventures into poetic and mythological flights of fancy, a journey to the heart of a soul in distress.

Imp herself is a magnificent protagonist, at once intelligent and vulnerable, self-aware and trapped in her own mind. One cannot help but feel strongly for her as her life takes a turn for the darker. She is an unreliable narrator through and through, even to herself, and trying to piece together the truth (or should I say, the facts) from her narrative is at once challenging and satisfying. She moves through her ghost story not through links of causality, but through symbols and associations, in the manner of the purest of fairy tales. She skirts around the edges of her pain, sometimes speaking in metaphor, sometimes lying. When the horror creeps into the story, it is that genuine night terror, the feeling of the world dissolving under the power of primordial symbols moving against you in the darkness.

Imp's partner Abalyn shone whenever she was on the page. I cannot, for the life of me, remember reading another transgender character written with such realism and tact. Moreover, neither her gender nor her sexual orientation form the central aspects of her character; they are a complex facet, at the core of her being, but not exclusively so. Abalyn is a geek and a gamer, and it's delightful to read about Imp trying to make sense of her world through her non-geek eyes. Ultimately, Abalyn and Imp are amazing together on the pages for the way their relationship transcend their own pains and failures.

The best books always pull you into their world to the point that it bleeds into real life, coloring your day. The Drowning Girl is definitely one of these books. Hard to piece together and follow sometimes, but unforgettable in its magnetic power to infuse the texture of days with a fairy tale logic of symbols and forces beyond our ken.

A truly spellbinding novel. ...more

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May 15, 2013 Tatjana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-fantasy

This book is is an interesting concept. Written as a memoir, the reader experiences an already unreliable storyteller unravel. As the storyteller unravels, it becomes more and more unclear as to what might and might not be happening. It was an interesting technique that had what I can only assume is the intended effect of confusing and disconcerting the reader.
I recommend the book. While not the very best I've ever read, I certainly would encourage giving it a go, if you are interested in non-li ...more

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