Drowning

Winger Family Drama, #1

by Susan Wingate

Even with her mother's death days away, even as her marriage is falling apart, Euly Winger leaves home, returning to the place she grew up in order to uncover a dark secret about her parent's divorce. On her search for answers, Euly meets up with an old family friend – now broken and drunk – who tries to seduce her in a trade for information. After rejecting his advances, she ends up breaking into her aunt’s and rummages through her private records. However, after catching her, Aunt Moon tosses Euly out of her home. With no one else to turn to, she goes back to the drunk. When he ends up attacking her, Euly fights him off. Incensed by her second rejection, he angrily blurts out everything about her parents. When he finally leaves, she accidentally overdoses, slips into unconsciousness while bathing, nearly drowns, and ends up in the hospital. Two days later, she returns home just hours before her mother dies. As they sit alone together, Euly asks her mother for the truth. A suspenseful and inspirational read, DROWNING, a story of love and redemption, loss and forgiveness.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Drama

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

"My love of books is largely due to the Sevilla Elementary School librarian. I ran to her to tell on Jeff Sloggins who, after slurping spinach around in his mouth, gagged, choked, then barfed on our table in the school cafeteria." ~Susan Wingate

Susan Wingate holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Lindenwood University. Her poetry, short stories, and essays have been published in journals such as the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Superstition Review, and Suspense Magazine, as well as others.

Susan's novel, How the Deer Moon Hungers received eight book awards. Susan is a proud member of PENAmerica.

Susan Wingate writes about big trouble in small towns and is the primary caregiver of her husband who suffers from frontotemporal dementia. They live off the coast of Washington State on San Juan Island.

Reviews

[Susan Wingate · Rating 5 out of 5]

1st Place Winner in the 2011 Forward National Literature Awards.

Here's what people are saying about DROWNING by Susan Wingate

"A vivid voice..." -Jennifer E. (St. Martin's Press)
"A sensitive tale of love struggling to unwind... Taut narrative... Crisp dialogue..." -Michelle James (author)
"A very insightful and moving book... it's a page-turner." -Michael Conrad
"A staff pick and a favorite." -Roberts Press

And, of course, my husband loves it!

I hope you enjoy this pensive tale of loss and love, discovery and redemption.

[Whitney Oaks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm having the hardest time reading this book because of all the grammatical errors. Misplaced pronouns, misspelled words, extra words that make no sense, wrong usage of words.. the list just goes on and on. How did this book even get published?

If you can overlook the errors, this is an ok book. I have no idea what the prologue has to do with any of the story, as a whole. It's pretty much irrelevant.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book for free for my Kindle. When I got ready to read the book I thought there had been a glitch in the download process of this book. It was so awful. Chapters beginning at the bottom of the page. The ending sentence of some paragraphs put at the beginning of the paragraph instead of where they belonged. Numerous typos. But after reading other's reviews of this book, it was common for everyone who received this "special" of the day. It was supposed to be a story of love and redemption. I found it to be more like regrets, lies, manipulation, secrecy and definetly no redemption of anything. I did not like this book and would not reccomend it to anyone. In my quest to find a good book for my choice of book of the month, coming up real soon, I did not find it in this book.

[Susan Halley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Wingate created a mystery drama with just the right sprinkle of suspense in this story. This is a mother/daughter story that will send you on a trip to the brink of dispair along with the protagonist. She draws you in, and once there, you become a part of this deeply emotional story. What secret is the mother keeping from her daughter.The daughter nearly dies and shortly thereafter her mother does die. You must read this fantastic story to discover what secret the mother reveals or if she reveals it!

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two sisters far apart and a mother dying who gives a hint of a deep family secret. The author weaves a well written story of mothers/daughters relationship along with a family secret that needs exploring...or does it? It was hard to put down, I ended up reading it in one day even though its a novel length book. Yes its THAT good!

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Kindle edition was littered with spelling and punctuation errors which probably didn't help my feelings about this book. I thought Euly was unlikeable and selfish and the story jumped all over the place. Maybe I'm missing something, but what did the prologue have to do with the rest of the story?

[Syl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Hooks you from the very beginning. Did not want it to end. Deals with family relationships and secrets. Highly recommend it and looking forward to reading more from this author

[Joan]

dnf at 8%

Formatting was very poor. Maybe I’m too fussy, but I like the conventions of chapters starting on a new page and correct verb tenses.

[Karen Ingalls · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and thought-provoking story about two sister, their mother's secret, and a mysterious father. The main character, Euly seeks to find out what her mother's secret is, understand her father, develop a closer relationship with her sister, and save her marriage. A lot is going on, but the author expertly weaves these factors together. Well-written.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know how hard writers work on their books but this one just seems to lose me. I liked the short chapters but the characters didn't gel with me. I read the Kindle version and found lots of grammatical errors, chapters starting at the bottom of a page, incomplete sentences, etc.. The story itself was okay and I'm glad I read it.

[Callie Vondersmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay read

The story line is very different, thought provoking. There are quite a few grammatical mistakes and typos. It’s a story about a mother, daughters and sisters and their relationship.

[Kay Mcaloney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was confused during most of this book.

[Denise DeSio · Rating 3 out of 5]

I confess, the cover and the prologue lured me in, but the book didn't deliver on its promise. Wingate is a spotty writer. Some pieces are well thought out and beautifully written, and others read like a first draft. As reviewers have pointed out, typos are plentiful, and punctuation ruined what could have been some fine sentences, but my biggest problem with the book was its lack of solidity.

For example, early on in the book, the author sets up two events: the drowning of her 5-year-old cousin and a family secret that implies the existence of a boy that might have been the protagonist's unknown brother.

When her dying mother refuses to come clean about the boy, Euly goes on a mission to uncover the facts. But the drowning sort of goes nowhere, and the "big family secret" ends up having nothing to do with the boy or drowning. Not to give anything away, but the "dark secret" turns out to be not that big a deal.

Toward the end, the book fell flat and became more flawed. The tight adherence to POV broke down in places and the author started head jumping. Also at the end, it seemed as if Wingate threw in a bunch of wordy, irrelevant chapters to increase her word count. For example:

As they approached, an invisible cloud radiated and hung by the door of the resort. It was a blend of eggs, bacon and fresh baked bread. Geoff made a straight line into the restroom. Euly poured two plastic cups of ice water the resort made available to its guests. Today they layered the water with ice, blueberries, and ice again. Yesterday it was oranges. The tall tubular urn of glass and brass was sweating in the warm day’s air. Nice , she thought. She wondered if Geoff would like something similar for their kitchen. As Geoff exited the restroom, he made eye contact with her. His eyes sparkled blue and she felt her stomach flip. She handed him one of the cups of water. He drank it down without stopping for a breather. “It’s good today.”
“Blueberry.”
“Mmm. Pretty too.”
“Should we get an urn like this for the house?”
“That’s a good idea.”
He took another sip that finished off his drink. “Want breakfast?”
“Yeah. That would be nice.”      

I gave the book 3 stars because I finished it.

[Uvi Poznansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Drowning I was truly torn between two polar extremes: my delight in the compelling story-telling talent of its author, Susan Wingate, and my distaste for the poor attention she gave to editing and proofreading her work. For the first I would have awarded her 5 stars--for the second, alas, only 2. The writing lacks in its grammar, punctuation, spelling, which give it a shaky underlying structure. I think it is imperative that indie authors proofread their work. Not doing so is a slight towards the reader, and a disservice to themselves.

So to help me come up with a reasonable way to weigh these opposite impressions, I made a note to myself that story-telling is a natural talent, one that comes from the heart and guts and cannot be taught. Not so with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Which is why I ended up giving the author the benefit of the doubt, hoping she will come back to improve the technical aspects of her writing. Therefore I am awarding the story 4 stars.

The cover image of a bluish head over which you can discern the flow of water is somewhat morbid, and fully becoming of the theme of the story, which includes an episode of physical drowning as well as that feeling of suffocation Euly feels, faced with the secrets in her family. She is far from being a 'likable' protagonist, and her actions are far from following any logical reasoning, which makes for surprising twists and turns in this story.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Families are difficult. Much more meets the eye than one sees. That's what Euly discovers as she faces the slow death of her mother. Not only does her mother's death force her to confront her own mortality, it forces her to look into the eyes of her sister, Enaya, with whom she's always had a difficult relationship. As Euly goes back to her hometown of Pheonix to uncover the secrets of her parents' divorce, she questions everything in her life, including her own marriage. Yet nothing will quite prepare her for the truth that her mother could never tell her.

Wingate's story is complex and heartwarming. The many errors in the Kindle edition detract from this, as do plotlines that seem to end too abruptly at times. 3.5/5.

[Rob Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging, and inspirirng. Dark and addictive, this is a book that must be read. A brilliant book. So effortless to read which is always the mark of a great writer. I have as varied a taste in books as I do films but inevitably come back to horror and fantasy and yet this book reminded my why having a varied taste in genres is such a wonderful gift, because once I started I couldn't put it down. I loved the development from page one up to the the last page. Drowning by Susan Wingate needs to be on your book list if isn't already on your shelf. Thank you Susan Wingate for a wonderful read. Cover to cover this is a brilliantly written story.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately I had a hard time getting into this book. I found the story did not flow and I had to go back and read the chapter again to follow what was going on. The best part of the book, that did not have anything to do with the story, was about the Lebanese coffee. Maybe there is a story there about a coffee cup reader.



I received this boom for free through the goodreads giveaways.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like so many other readers have said I found myself distracted and wondering if it was even proofread. It was fraught with spelling, punctuation, grammatical, and formatting errors. The story of two sisters Euly and Enaya, a dying mother Belle who reveals a secret on her deathbed, a marriage in trouble, a literal drowning, and a metaphorical drowning. It just never really took hold for me and had I not had the opportunity to read all at one sitting I may not have come back to it.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am torn about how I feel about this book. She is a good writer, but the story was a bit thin. I felt the reason why Euly went to Arizona was not a good enough reason to leave her mothers death bed. And the relationship with the sister was a bit contrived in the end. But I did like the way she used her words.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm glad I didn't pay much for this book. It was full of typos and grammatical errors. Reading it was almost painful at some points. The story might have been a bit better if the author had worked a bit more on its flow. Too choppy. I didn't care about the characters at all. I would not recommend bothering with this one.

[kkp422 · Rating 1 out of 5]

bought it for $1.99 based on the premise of mother-daughter relationship conflict and the "big secret". could not finish. Spelling, punctuation and too many grammatical errors to mention. also the visual via download is awful, no quotation marks, sentences ending in the middle. story wasn't even interesting.

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in the format of this book on my Nook. There were grammatical and spelling errors and it was so confusing in its format. I decided to put it down without finishing it--very unusual for me!

[Susan1746 · Rating 1 out of 5]

#1 Amazon Bestseller. Really? I don't know who proofread the book but it is awful. Too many errors to even count and I only got to page 151 of 308 and I give up. The story line is weak, slow and at times unbelievable. I normally do not give up on books but this one is easy to put away.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story. I like the search that she went on to find the truth. However, the amount of grammatical errors made the story hard to read. This caused it to not flow properly. Perhaps they should get someone else to do the proofing.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had a very hard time keeping up with which character was which. Don't think I would recommend this book to anyone.

[David Deluca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping tale.

[Miranda Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this book, though not a big fan of the ending.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me fix my review. I hated this book due to the nook version. Grammatical errors, spelling. The way the book was layered made it hard to read. Hated it!

[Janet · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this book at all. Gave up.

[Selena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took a while to understand what it was all about but wasn't a bad read