The Drowning Girl

The Drowning Girl

Caitlín R. Kiernan

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

India Morgan Phelps--Imp to her friends--is schizophrenic. She can no longer trust her own mind, because she is convinced that her memories have somehow betrayed her, forcing her to question her very identity. Struggling with her perception of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about an encounter with a vicious siren, or a helpless wolf that came to her as a feral girl, or neither of these things but something far, far stranger...

Publication Year: 2012


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  • jonathanhelland
    May 14, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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  • Capnrandm
    May 02, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Sometimes I get migraines. They're often preceded by visual auras, little spots of light floating across my field of vision. When I'm reading, these spots tangle with the type, making words tantalizingly familiar but inscrutable.

    Reading THE DROWNING GIRL feels much like that. The charismatic but unreliable narrator, like any true artist, is able to convey the feeling of her own insanity without unraveling it's mystery. As I read, trying to match dates and references to reality, I realized I was falling into Imp's own habits. Desperately trying to impose order on a mind fragmented and flawed.

    Kiernan defines memes and hauntings, while at the same time infecting the reader with the same. With so much discussion of different types of art (short stories, paintings, sculpture, content...), the slight of the hand process of THE DROWNING GIRL delivering it's own devastating message is almost invisible. What part of this book implanted this haunted feeling? What page, what paragraph, is responsible this shaken feeling? While not enjoyable, THE DROWNING GIRL is most certainly unforgettable.

    Full review to follow.

    Sexual Content: References to sex, descriptions of oral sex.

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  • space_bunny99
    Mar 10, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    Well that was a chore...

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