The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

by Joshilyn Jackson

Lauren Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother keep family skeletons in the closet or sewing her acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister, Thalia, is her opposite, an impoverished actress who prides herself on exposing the lurid truths lurking behind middle class niceties.


While Laurel's life seems neatly on track-- a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, a lovely suburban home-- everything she holds dear is threatened the night she is visited by the ghost of her 13-year-old neighbor Molly. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is an unseemly mystery that no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Laurel enlists Thalia's help, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag.


Together, they set out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about their family's haunted past, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Audiobook, Southern, Chick Lit, Book Club, Contemporary

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Jackson's latest, MISSING SISTER, pubs MARCH, 3, 2026. Pre-order now!

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson writes both page-turning domestic suspense and Southern book club novels that revolve around timely women’s issues, raising questions about justice, motherhood, career, class, and the thorny mechanics of redemption. Her critically acclaimed work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and Jackson is also an award-winning audiobook narrator. She lives in a gently haunted 150-year-old Victorian Rowhouse in upstate New York with her family.

A recent expat from the American South, she lives in a mildly haunted Victorian row house in upstate New York.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happened to glance at the wildly diverse ratings/reviews on goodreads about this book, because I was kind of torn about a rating for it. I haven't read any of Jackson's other books, and I've never seen The Ghost Whisperer, but my feeling was that the story was a bit soap-y, and didn't fully realize itself as any one kind of book. Sometimes, that's ok.
Laurel Hawthorne lives in a gated community called Victorianna, raising a daughter, Shelby, with her husband David. One night, the ghost of a neighbor girl awakes Laurel to find the dead body of the girl in their pool. There is little blame here toward the Hawthorne household, it just happened to be their pool. Laurel's world revolves around Shelby and keeping her protected from the ensuing investigation. David retrieves Laurel's parents to help out, Laurel reacts by making up with her wild sister Thalia and bringing her back to Victorianna as well.
It just should have been a much longer book. There are all sorts of family secrets coming out, some easily foretold. The mystery is never really fully played out as a mystery, the family dysfunction falls short of making it an Oprah book, the cheating spouse isn't really cheating, and the "I can see dead people" role never makes it to the forefront either.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hankering for something by Joshilyn Jackson, and this is the only one of her books I hadn't read, so I ordered up the audio version from Seattle Bibliocommons. I have seen several surprisingly negative reviews, and so I feel moved to defend the book and the author, who is possibly my very favorite writer.

Criticisms tended to go like this: "This book is no Gods in Alabama." "I read Between, Georgia and loved it, but this is nowhere near as good." And to these I say, how would you have rated this novel if you hadn't known who wrote it? My point being that we elevate our expectations of stellar writers based on their masterpieces, and then their other work--good, solid work--is met with harsh reviews by cranky readers. And I'm thinking, so this is why Harper Lee was reluctant to publish again.

So to those that insist that the author has written other books that are better, I say, You're right. You win. BUT I also say this: though I read day in, day out every single day, this humble little underrated novel is the first in years to make me want to get out of bed specifically to see how it came out. This is the truth, too.

So if you haven't read all of Jackson's work, maybe, if you won't have time for all the books she's written, you will want to try one of her best selling titles. But if you've read all of them, or if you have happened upon a copy of this one that is free or cheap and are wondering whether it's worth your while, then hell yes. Get it, and enjoy. Because when it comes down to it, Jackson's least compelling novels are still light years better than the best that most authors will ever write.

[Tracy Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joshilyn Jackson is perfectly ok with having her heros murder people. It's true that the people that are offed mostly need killing, but still. Killing someone in the past seems to be her nasty secret of choice in both this book and Gods in Alabama (which I preferred).

This book started out really strong, but I think totally lost its way at the end. Her characterization of Bet and the town she came from didn't ring true to me. They were too stereotypical to be believed.

And in both this book and Gods in Alabama, I felt like I should have seen the end coming, but didn't. That makes me feel stupid, which I don't enjoy. Although that isn't her fault. Regardless, this book was a disappointment to me.

[Fonda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Loved the other two but reading this one was like watching a predictable Lifetime movie. I too thoughtit was too Ghost Whispery. If you are going to the trouble to put a ghost into a book then at least be original. Duh. Another thing that bugged me was the folksy language. I don't think people in the modern South really talk or act this way. This book was set in the Panhandle but Laurel, etc talked like characters from the other books that were set in Georgia. ZZZZZZZZZ. Forced myself to keep reading. It felt exaggerated and forced.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just what I needed - a quick easy read, requiring little to no brain power. That said I have to admit that I did not see the ending coming. I see that a lot of people complain about the fact that this author's characters are very much stereotypes, I have to agree, but for me that is one of the things I like about her books. I go in knowing exactly what to expect. I also liked that she is not scared of writing strong, difficult woman. Perfect beach read.

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited for this book. SO excited.

I loved gods In Alabama (I've re-read it, which I don't usually do) and really, really liked Between, Georgia.

And then this book was really hard to get through.

Well, that's not totally true. The first 200 pages were too much information at once and yet not enough. I had to keep reminding myself that all these mish-mashes of plot would come together sooner or later, and the jumble of characters would make sense. (This knowledge would only be apparent to people who have read the authors' other two books, so I fear for her brand new readers.)

There were so many interesting but dropped things about this book - Laurel, the main character, makes art quilts - but they're mentioned only a few times, and don't seem to have anything to do with the story. Laurel's mother comes from extreme poverty, but we're never told HOW she managed to get herself (or her husband, who seems like a man dreaming his way through life) and her children OUT of DeLop. (The squatters settlement or metaphor for Hell featured in the book.) Laurel's husband ALMOST has an affair, then doesn't.
There are these confusing scenes where Laurel and her sister accost a neighbor who they suspect of being a child molester to find out if he's gay or not while a page later they're busy getting another neighbor drunk.

It all made sense the last fifty pages (and was pretty enjoyable!), but I'm not sure anyone who hasn't been down the path with Joshilyn Jackson before will stick around long enough to find that out.

[Kendra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this author's first book a 5 and her second book a 4...see a pattern? I think she had a good idea with this book, but it just didn't come together in the right way for me. This is a ghost story/whodunit that begins when the main character, Laurel, awakens to find the ghost of a drowned girl standing by her bed. To me, it felt as though there was simply too much going on - a new mystery, an old mystery, marriage problems, sister problems, mother-daughter problems. Oh, and an offensively stereotyped southern town populated entirely by toothless meth addicts who don't care about their children or know about indoor plumbing...yeah.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jackson does what she does best in this book - create slightly crazy, thoroughly believable, deeply Southern characters. This book centers around two sisters, Laurel & Thalia. As always, Jackson does a good job of creating an interesting plot to surround and propel her characters forward.

There were things I liked - and didn't like - about the main character. I'm not sure whether the characteristics that I liked about her remind me of myself or whether it's the ones I don't like. I know that I am too quick to avoid confrontation and the older I get, the more I see this as a character flaw. How far would I have to be pushed to willingly engage in debate or outright conflict on behalf of my daughters, my family or myself?

Since Watership Down is one of my favorite books of all time, I loved the comparison of one of the characters to Cowslip. I don't want to "cowslip" my life away by not taking a stand when I should. I don't want to see others hurting and turn away because I can.

If you have lived in a small southern town - or want insight into the unique, off kilter psyches bred there - I think you'll enjoy this book!

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would make a great Lifetime movie. As a book, it moved too slowly. It took a really long time to move from the initiating action (girl drowned in pool) to any subsequent action because the main character Laurel kept revisiting her past. Truly, she is haunted by her past, and it's not as if the plot and characters were without merit. But I skimmed over a lot of paragraphs in order to get the story moving and maintain my interest.

[linnea · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a waste of time. I think JJ must have been presured to write and book and this was all she came up with. I loved gods and between, but this one stunk. Only redeming quality was Thalia. I wish she just took that chatacther and went another direction.

[Dena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think this was as good as her first two books. The plot was a little far-fecthed and I was tired of all the eccentric people in it.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in this book. The plot was decent but moved way to slow.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://amulherqueamalivros.blogs.sapo...

[StarMan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3+, rounded up because I don't read much in this genre. I had some issues with it, but it was a good escapist read. With a few minor changes, would make a good Lifetime movie. You should go into this book with no spoilers.

[Dustin the wind Crazy little brown owl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming does have it's moments, but ultimately is rather forgettable.

A story about making peace with ghosts past and present. There's also some curious items hand sewn into quilts - baby teeth, broken sea shells, shattered china. Things pick up and get more interesting once Thalia comes on stage.

This is a book I've been wanting to read since 2011. I bought the book during the Borders Bookstore Liquidation Sale. Recently I found an audiobook to help me experience this book that intrigued me all those years ago. The audiobook is narrated by the author.


Favorite Passages:

David was working fifteen-hour days, adapting simulator code he'd written for the navy into a PC game for a company out in California. He'd probably spoken ten complete sentences to her in the last week. All the pieces of him that she thought of as her husband had moved down to live in his brain stem, while coding took his higher functions.
_______

She was one of The Folks; that was Laurel's name for her mother's family in DeLop, though Thalia, colder and more dramatic, called them The Squalid People.
DeLop had once been mining town, but the coal had run out seventy years back, and most everyone in town had moved on when the jobs dried up. The Folks were what was left. They lived squashed up on one another, three and four generations layered into one falling-down mobile home or trailer. Half of them were meth heads, the rest were drunks, and girls Shelby's age walked around dead-eyed with babies slung up on their skinny hips.
________

David was in the zone.
She could call him out of it. After thirteen years of marriage, all she had to do was say his name, and he would come to her, beaming himself in from the foreign place he lived when she was silent.
_______

David did not know her ghost, and she couldn't explain it to him.
_______

Laurel had a cousin just her age who had claimed to see ghosts, too. When he and Laurel were seventeen, he'd "gone all the way to odd," as Aunt Enid put it, by which she meant he stopped talking and had to be fed by hand. He sat in a rocking chair drooling his days away. Every now and again, he'd stand up and whirl in frenzied circles and then lope back and forth across the room, grabbing and smashing anything he could touch. His daddy or his brother would wrestle him to the ground and sit on him until he went limp and could be propped back in his chair. Then he had burned down Uncle Petey-Boy's shed and gotten arrested. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a state home instead of prison. Petey-Boy had said, "I coulda tol' them he was ass-rat crazy a year ago and stilla had my shed."
Laurel had her own diagnosis; her cousin had gone with the ghosts when they wanted to show him things. He had looked too long, was all.
________

In DeLop, death came sooner rather than later. People who were born there tended to stay there. People who stayed died young and angry. No health insurance, so cancer, when it came, ate them. Too many drugs around too many guns. No jobs, restless young men with knives, drinking in small packs. The walls of the rattletrap houses were soaked in ghosts, all with things to show, all wanting to be seen. They eased into the genes.
_______

Ghosts, like family squabbles, bad manners, and other people's dirty houses, rendered Mother oblivious. She flat refused to see them, although she was the one who had come out of DeLop, a town so haunted that every tin shed and 'fraidy hole housed its own dark spirit.
_______

The foot was gone, but Laurel could still see the foot.
Not when she looked directly. But if she looked away, there was the foot in her peripheral vision, with an old man's yellowed toenails and calluses as think as horn. The foot twitched from side to side as if it were listening to polka music. It was the happiest part of Poot, and Laurel couldn't blame it; it had escaped him.
_______

She could do what Mother wanted, spackle this day over with normalcy and pile a host of other days on top of it, one by one, until the surface of her life was whole and seamless. But if Shelby had a secret, no matter how innocent, would she be spackling over a wound that should be aired? Beneath the pretty surface, a secret might eat at her child, fester and rot her and ruin her. Laurel would be complicit in her ruining.
_______

We're predisposed to look for perverts in the bushes, you and I. On the other hand, the world is full of predators. If you even slightly suspect you had something toothy in your own backyard, not thirty feet from where your own baby lies at night, then you can't put your nose down and graze all sheeply and stupid and hope it passes into another yard next time. Neither can I. I'd best go throw some panties in a bag.
_______

A crazy thought had wandered through her exhausted head: "I need a decoy." Without thinking, she had asked the nurse when she and David could try again. She wanted an extra. A faceless, rubbery baby who was not Shelby. She wouldn't love it very much. It would be a howler, a loud distraction, something she could offer to the ravenous world while she hid Shelby away, safe and secret.
"That was postpartum crazies," Laurel said. "I didn't really want a spare baby."
. . . .
"I thought it was brilliant," Thalia said. "W could have named the spare Puppethead. I think Puppethead would be the most awesome baby name."
______

"Is Data down in the basement?"
"David," Laurel said, "is working from his office today."
______

"I thought not, you pansy. That means we have to get invited in like blood-fat, darling flies, so who is Miss Spider? Who feels every little twitch in the neighborhood web?"
Laurel thought for a moment. "Trish Deerbold. But we're not friends."
"Bah, no. I don't mean which rich bitch has the gossip. I mean who's down in the trenches? Who runs bunko and calls around to coordinate the dinners whenever one of these cows drops a calf?"
"Oh," Laurel said. "Thalia, that's. me."
_______

Given a tool, Molly might speak. But Molly had left a door open somewhere when she came, and Mother had used it. Molly Dufresne was not the only ghost in Laurel's yard.
_______

You could be one hell of an artist, Laurel. The way you understand color and the shapes of things, and God knows, you'd have a lot to say if you let yourself. But instead, you play with lift-the-flaps and macaroni, safe and tidy.
_______

"Why not go ahead and poke her eyes out? Blind her. Save yourself some trouble."
Thalia was pacing around the gazebo where Laurel still sat, circling it like a predator, moving along the edge of the light. "Shelby wants to see ugly. She wants to see ugly and see truly, truly beautiful, both. You may be some flaccid version of happy in all this muffled gray, but your daughter wants bright colors and then midnight, and you want to know what I think? What I really think?"
"No," said Laurel, but Thalia bulled forward, circling behind Laurel, becoming part of the buzz at the base of her skull.
_______

"She's not even wearing lipstick, Thalia. Who has an affair without lipstick?"
_______

"I'm sorry," Laurel said, her cheeks burning. "My sister is a small bit mentally ill. I'm Laurel. By the way."
_______

"You're saying things you can't take back. And you don't even mean them. That's Thalia talking."
"Do you see my hand up her ass?" Thalia said. "She's moving her lips all on her own."
_______

What's a daddy's girl to do when her father isn't Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson but only a daydreaming plumber with a willfully blind wife? There was no one to come in, larger than life, and save Thalia. Thalia, born larger than life, had stepped up and saved herself.
_______

"You're not mounting a defense, here. You're telling me a story. I've always liked it when you tell me stories."
"This one isn't pretty," she said.
"Who said they all have to be? he asked, and Laurel smiled because she had. She and Mother had said so, and that had brought them here, to all the ugly stories coming out at once.
"Go on," he said and she was finally to Molly, to bringing Thalia back into their lives, to everything she'd done the past three days to try and put her ghosts back to rest.
_______

"Do you think I'm crazy?"
"Little bit," he answered. "No more than before."
She elbowed him. "I guess I mean do you believe me?"
He didn't answer for the space of a long minute. Then he said, "I believe the universe, everything that exists, is made out of thousands of billions of infinitesimally small rubber bands. The bands vibrate in a variety of ways, and those vibrations create matter and every kind of energy."
She turned over again, bracing herself up on his chest and peering down in the dim light, trying to read his face. "Seriously?"
"Yes. That's the nutshell version of string theory," he said. "You believe me? You think I'm crazy?"
"Little bit," she said. She dropped her face down onto his chest. "But no more than before. So now what?"
_______

"That boy next door, Missy's kid? Apparently, he likes a late-night swim. He prefers to swim . . . freely, if you follow me," Thalia said. "I saw him from the window the other night, while you were still out in the gazebo. He was very much worth seeing in a The David kind of way."
"God, Thalia, Jeffrey Coe is a kid," Laurel said.
"I'm not saying I want to paper-train that puppy. But he's what? Seventeen? And beautiful? And naked? If I were Molly, I'd pay good cash money to peek at that, all sneaky-like. Hell, I did exactly the same thing at that age."
_______

"All I said was half an hour in DeLop might do Shel some good. She needs to see that not everyone in the world lives in a place where they genetically engineer the pansies to match the mailbox trim."
"I said leave her alone," David said. "This isn't the time to . . . be you."
"Go to hell," Thalia said without rancor.
_______

"Cause and effect. Incest in, actress out. God, I wish people really were so simple. If they were, acting would be a hell of a lot easier. Spare me. I don't want you to excuse me, David, and I sure as hell don't need you to explain me." Thalia laughed, and abrupt burst of angry sound. Then se said, "Marty never laid a hand on me. You assholes."
Finally, Thalia had Laurel's full attention. She turned in her seat to stare at her sister. "Yes, he did."
"No, he didn't," Thalia said.
"Sometimes," Laurel said carefully, "people don't want things to be true, so they stop remembering. I've read about it."
Thalia laughed again, this time in a glorious peal. "I bet you have. In Family Circle or Reader's Digest, no doubt. I bet those are the articles that always caught your eye in the pediatrician's waiting room. Did you angle the magazine carefully to the wall, so the other mommies wouldn't see what ugly story had you so engrossed?
"And what did Reader's Digest teach you? Do I need to go to hypnotherapy and retrieve my sad past? Please. I've had hypnotherapy and past-life regression. Gary and I once did a womb workshop where they tied us up together in a long canvas tube so we could struggle our way out and be rebirthed as twins. It's the sort of thing we do on date night, while you two share a Diet Coke and hold hands at the movies.
"What do you want, Buglet? You want some tidy cause and effect like Mr. Science back there? Then here's a double scoop of logic for you both. One: If Marty made me who I am, tell we when. Show me the day when the fairies took your sugar-mouthed angel sister and left you a wild nixie. If you can, I swear I'll go right back to the hypnotherapist and ask if it's possible my uncle diddled me when I wasn't looking."

[Laurel-Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurel Gray Hawthorne's life in Florida in a lovely gated community is a far cry from the town in Alabama where her mother grew up. And although she, her mother, and her sister Thalia visit DeLop every Christmas with presents for the poor relatives, there is no emotional connection between them. It is almost as though Laurel's mother has wiped the mud off of her shoes whenever she leaves the town behind, and has taught her daughters to do the same.

But Laurel is plagued by ghosts of the past in the form of Uncle Marty, whose death was a shooting accident. But there are shadowy memories that hint at something else.

Protected and cocooned on Chapel Circle, though, Laurel feels safe as long as she can keep the ghost outside her home. But then one night in the summer, another ghost comes into her room. A blond girl, who leads her outside to the swimming pool...and there she sees the drowned girl.

From this point on, "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming" leads the reader through many twists and turns, as Laurel and her sister Thalia try to sort out what happened to the girl, who was a neighbor named Molly. Did Laurel's daughter Shelby know more than she is saying? And what does mysterious Bet Clemmens, visiting from DeLop, know?

Does the strange single man living in an adjacent neighborhood have anything to do with the death? Or are Molly's violently quarreling parents the villains in this piece? Meanwhile, Thalia is determined to rescue her sister from what she believes to be the deadly placidity of her life. Will she succeed? Or will Laurel finally discover what truly makes her happy?

This was a wonderfully colorful and suspenseful tale that kept clutching at me as I turned the pages, trying to guess what would happen. I felt uneasy about one or more of the characters all along, feeling suspicious of them and wanting to point fingers. With the final reveal, though, I felt horror, sadness, and that gasp of "a-ha," as if I could have surely seen it all unfolding in just this way. Definitely a five star read.

[Emma Gannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised to see so many low ratings for this book! I checked this out from the library two days ago, have hardly put it down, and after finishing it tonight I was very satisfied. The prose is beautiful, it immersed me into the lives of some wonderfully genuine and distinct characters, and quite frankly, I loved it. This definitely made me an overnight Joshilyn Jackson fan, and I look forward to reading more from her.

I did give this book four stars because I found the conclusion to be a tad underwhelming, at least compared to the quality subplots expertly woven together (like one of Laurel's quilts!) throughout the rest of "Swimming". The story exposes some pretty amazing twists and dark family secrets that drew me in and didn't let me go until they had come to fruition (as cliched as the term "page turner" is, there were passages where I had to stop myself from rushing through because I intensely wanted my questions answered), but, as is always the risk when writing a book with many suspenseful threads waiting to be followed, the big climax of the story falls short in comparison to the rest. However, Jackson's very "human" devotion to her characters and authentically poetic prose really work to make up for anything the ending lacks. You'll love the protagonist, and love everyone she loves with such a fierce emotion you'd think they were real. Also,Thalia might be one of the most interesting characters I've come across in contemporary fiction.

Whether you're into ghost stories or are simply looking for an ardent story about familial allegiance and love, this book will supply all that and more. Most certainly worth the read.

[Amy Formanski Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this was a good book. It impressed me more than anything I've read in years. But now that I'm trying to pinpoint what made it so special, I'm stuck. Laurel, the main character, tries to distance herself from her family's white trash past by settling with her husband and daughter in a gated Florida community called Victorianna. But all hell brakes lose when her daughter's best friend Molly turns up dead in the middle of the night in Laurel's swimming pool. Molly appears to Laurel as a ghost and leads Laurel to her floating body.

I'm a sucker for a good ghost story. What first appeared to be a simple murder mystery about who killed Molly slowly unraveled into secret tales from Laurel's past. Memories haunt her and she must deal with her eccentric actress sister Thalia and another death in their family from long ago before Molly can rest. An incredible tension runs through the entire book, which is an impressive feat for any writer. Laurel's mind plays tricks on her. She's purposely blocked out certain aspects from her childhood. She sees what she wants to see. And who hasn't done that at some point in life? When the truth about her family comes back to her, Laurel really flips out. But it's as necessary for her well-being.

This author spins a really fascinating yarn.

[Anne McLeod · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this one by Jackson whose other two books (Between, Georgia and gods in Alabama) I really enjoyed. I agree with the review which said the first 200 pages were good. I got that far and was excited. I liked Laurel and her wild sister Thalia, plus character of David the husband was well drawn too. Then it fell apart.

Maybe I'm just reading too many other books right now on the issue of social class, but I felt like the subject wasn't handled well in here, despite Jackson's good intentions. And are there really coal mines in south Alabama? Doesn't sound right to me.

Jackson's a great southern chick lit writer. This just wasn't her best effort. I do like her blend of suburbia and the supernatural, so I hope she'll do more with that in the future.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joshilyn Jackson continues to take my breath away. I read her second book, Between, Georgia, on a random whim, expecting fun Southern chick lit, and was SHOCKED to stumble into an amazingly human and interesting story that just happened to be grounded in the South. I shortly thereafter read her first novel and re-read Between, and became a devoted reader of the author's blog. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, her latest, does not disappoint. The main character, Laurel, makes her living as an art quilter. She has some connection to the ethereal, though she is trying to escape it, having seen ghosts since she was a small child. The riveting opening chapter of the book involves Laurel being visited by the ghost of a pre-teen, who leads Laurel to her bedroom window, where she sees the body of the child drowned in her pool. Terrified that it's her own daughter of that age, she races to the scene to find it's her daughter's best friend instead. After that, family tensions mount, mental stability erodes, and spooky things happen. Jackson is a MASTER of characterization, making you feel every feeling of any of her heroines. Her analogies and descriptions are so dead on and unique. And her understanding of the power of place and family are unequalled in modern literature, in my opinion. She is a modern-day cross between Eudora Welty and Carson McCullers, and I would highly recommend any of her books.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts many different, typical plots and finishes none of them. Dead child? Check. Ghosts? Check. Poor uneducated child that nobody cares about? Check. Distant mother and kind father? Check. Possibly unfaithful husband? Check. Kooky big sister to idol-worship? Check. What do all these things have to do with each other? I'm still not sure. The author doesn't know if this book is a mystery, a dysfuntional family story, a book about a mother protecting not only her child but the ones surrounding her...so she tries to cram it all in one book.

The author introduces storylines, offers a hurried half-baked explaination, then moves on to something else. The main person in the book is much of the same. She is certain that a weird man in her neighborhood is not only a pedophile but a murderer. Then she thinks her husband is having an affair. Then she's convinced of her mother's actions during a childhood dispute (yet another storyline). The only constant in her life is to trust her nearly always incorrect instincts. This makes for a very unsatisfying book. It's sort of like having a friend who calls you daily to tell you her latest drama, her latest theories, the latest story about her crazy sister that you didn't like much anyway. After a while, you stop listening.

[Jennifer Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love, love, love Southern writers, and J.J. is one of my favorites. I was a little dissappointed with this book, though. It was intriguing and I finished it quickly, but I felt like it was written really fast. I also thought that the real story was between Laurel and her mother, which wasn't explored. Also, the relationship between Lauren and Thalia could have just been what the entire book was about, without the ghosts and the Ouija board and the shady town in the background. J.J. usually digs deep with her characters, exposing them in a way that seems real and familiar. With this book, it seemed like she just skimmed the surface of these people, and I wanted more.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just so-so. Roped me in and kept me going but ultimately was a bit unsatisfying and too pat of an ending. Didn't believe the finale. Too contrived.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Joshilyn Jackson book and I wasn't too flipped over it. I gave it a 3 star rating, but actually more like a 2.5.

The story is set in Florida where Laurel, her sister Thalia, and their mother take Christmas presents every year to poor family members. Although the act seems to be one of compassion, their mother is almost without emotional ties and teaches her girls to be the same way.

The story is plagued with ghosts, and one day one of the ghosts takes Laurel to where there is a drowned girl. Laurel and Thalia become "detectives" (if you will) to determine what had happened t this girl, Molly. There are several people who appear to know more perhaps than they are telling. I will say that what I did like was the ending. The middle of the book was too slow for me but I liked the beginning and the end.

[Susan Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book by JJ and I really enjoyed it. I'll definitely be reading more of hers!

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's main character. Laurel, is introduced by a ghost. One of three who visit her life throughout the story. The book's a mystery; I only gave it three stars because it was somewhat predictable, although the writing was pretty good and it was interesting enough.
The writer kept referring to a "keeping room" inside the main character's house, set in Florida, and I'm wondering if this is what we call a family room in the midwest. I haven't had time to look it up online, but it threw me each time I came across the term, which was frequently. I've read a lot of books set in the south, and I've never seen this term before.
The best thing about this book is the ongoing relationship between Laurel and her sister Thalia. Laurel likes to lead an average contended life, and Thalia's life is full of highs and lows. Neither can understand how the other is happy.

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable -- she's a great writer, in terms of ear for language -- but I found it far more complex than her first two novels, and consequently a little too ambitious. There was so much going on behind the scenes in terms of plot that I felt we lost some character development. Glad I read it, but it won't be a re-reader like Between, Georgia.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and a half stars. I just wasn't feeling it. The premise had potential- ghost of a dead girl standing by the main character's bed. She brings her out ot the pool where she is found floating facedown. But the author just couldn't get her point across; it was flat and disappointing. Don't get me wrong; I was spooked at certain points but then I felt let down by the ending, almost embarrassed that it had me spooked at all to begin with.

[Hannah Holborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurel is a delightfully warped, utterly loveable protagonist supported by a strong cast of eccentrics. The ending jarred a bit with its finality, but I loved the book enough not to hold one little flaw against it. A must read for anyone who likes southern gothic with a twist of lime.

[Stephanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reminds me too much of a Jodi Picoult novel--set in suburbia with dark mysteries residing within the homes' polished exteriors. Ugh.