The Drowning Girl

By: Caitlin R. Kiernan

Narrated by: Suzy Jackson

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Award-winning author, narrator, and screenwriter Neil Gaiman personally selected this book, and, using the tools of the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), cast the narrator and produced this work for his audiobook label, Neil Gaiman Presents.

A few words from Neil on The Drowning Girl: "As with all "Neil Gaiman Presents" titles, it's very important to me to find the voice that comes closest to the voice in the author's head; for Caitlin, for this book, that was Suzy Jackson. It was not until the second round of auditions that we found someone who sounded young but not naïve, someone who could catalogue the sharp detail of Imp's carefully observed daily life but also convey the blurred edges of her reality. Caitlin and Suzy kept in touch during the recording, and the result is a reading that is precise but not "stagey", a literary but accessible reading of the novel."

India Morgan Phelps - Imp to her friends - is schizophrenic. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about her encounters with creatures out of myth - or from something far, far stranger....

Winner of the 2013 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

To hear more from Neil Gaiman on The Drowning Girl, click here, or listen to the introduction at the beginning of the book itself.

Learn more about Neil Gaiman Presents and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

©2012 Caitlin R. Kiernan (P)2012 Caitlin R Kiernan

Loose narrative didn't appeal to me

There were many things about this book that initially appealed to me. But the narrative - told from the viewpoint of a woman who doubts her sanity, as we do - was so loose that the plot threads just got lost. It takes a brilliant writer to hold one's attention while the characters ramble, and while this author's style, knowledge of various subjects and vivid sex scenes may have enough appeal to overcome this for some readers, it left me waiting for the end.

A troubled narrator makes some things inherently difficult, but I didn't think that she ever found her voice. The obsessions, water and animal imagery, gender issues, etc., were heavy handed and obscured the relationships that could have been a major strength of the book. In the end, I never really cared about any of the characters enough to want to untangle the story.

Imp's Ghost Story

While joy driving one night, Imp, a schizophrenic young woman, picks up another young woman, Eva Canning, who is standing stark naked alongside a river. This encounters shreds the poor girl's mind as she re-imagines her passenger as a siren and a werewolf until she is able to confront the truth.

Kiernan wrote the story in first person and this first person is not a disinterested observer or reliable narrator. Suzy Jackson thus has to give a performance more than a reading. She brings to life Kiernan's sad madwoman, a girl bright, curious, imaginative, quirky, usually frightened, eventually brave. She handles the inevitable psychotic-off-her-meds scene in a way that fills the listener, who by now should love the girl if he/she has a heart, with concern and dread. Gaiman made a good choice in Suzy.

My first Caitlin R Kiernan book

I was captured and will be reading all of her books.

Thank you Neil Gaiman for the introduction to Caitlin.

Shane

A difficult character in an intriguing story

Like Shirley Jackson's Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Drowning Girl presents an incredible example of The Unreliable Narrator, maybe the ultimate example. A young, schizophrenic woman is haunted by...something, and our perception of what that something might be changes several times over the course of the story. This is a book that is completely unpredictable, like the main character herself.
The story is meticulously constructed. The writing is pure art. However, for me, the schizophrenic illness of the main character, all told in first person, made the audiobook somewhat hard to follow. This is not an easy read. I was never sure what was happening, what was real, and the story of what happened changed several times. This is absolutely the point, of course, and both author and performer pull it off brilliantly, but for me I may have done better with a print edition. Because this was audio, I think I had more difficulty following an already tortuous storyline.
This is definitely a book that warrants multiple reads, because I could sense connections happening, even if I couldn't perceive in the first go exactly what they were.

Beautiful, haunting, truly stunning novel.

I was completely captivated by this story. The language, the characters, the narration were all perfect. Every once in a while, I find a book that takes me someplace new, that surprises me, that stretches my conception of the art of writing: this is one of those books. It borders on poetry.

A Modern Haunting

What does it really mean to be haunted? Where is the boundary between the experience of a ghost and the more prosaic experience of being haunted by the memory of a person, a book, a story, a painting or a piece of music? How do our minds interpret a haunting and how does it affect our lives? If a haunting can trouble a sane mind, how much more might it disturb an already troubled mind?

If it seems that I've begun this review with too many questions, I suppose it is because I believe this book is best understood as reflecting those questions. It is written from the viewpoint of India/Imp, who is a schizophrenic from a family of mentally disturbed women. It is in the form of a memoir in which she is attempting to reconcile, understand, and simply remember a sequence of experiences revolving around a woman (ghost?) named Eva Canning. Woven into the story are Imp's reactions to pieces of art, music, literature, religion, mythology and popular culture, all of which become part of her haunting. The story is enhanced by a pair of “stories within a story,” one of which, “The Mermaid of the Concrete Ocean”, I especially found both compelling and disturbing.

All of this is to explore the premise that hauntings are what the protagonist describes as "particularly pernicious thought contagions." The book has its challenges, especially when Imp drifts into psychotic episodes. The narrative is often non-linear as it reflects Imps's attempt to piece her experiences together into a coherent story and thus can be difficult to follow at times. But really, isn't this how all our minds work to a certain extent? We have a collection of memories we hold within our minds and those memories shape who we are and how we behave. We construct our own stories around those memories to make sense of them. Some of these stories may reflect reality more than others but they are all equally "real" to us.

If you are interested in a more straight-forward ghost story with a clear-cut resolution, you will probably be frustrated with this book. But if you can appreciate a well-written story exploring the vagaries of the human mind and which leaves as many questions unanswered as answered, you will find this a fascinating and thought-provoking book.

Brilliant, complex and not for the simple-minded

Would you listen to The Drowning Girl again? Why?

Yes I think this was one of the most remarkable books I have ever read.

What did you like best about this story?

This is an honest book and one about profound vulnerability. It is beautifully written.

Which character – as performed by Suzy Jackson – was your favorite?

Imp

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

S
E
V
E
N

Any additional comments?

This is not a book for folks who lack compassion or are bigots when it comes to the mentally ill or lesbians. For anyone else, it is not a trivial book and stylistically it will not be everyone's cup of tea but it is one of the most remarkable books I have ever read.

very odd and engrossing

I don't know how to review this book. My best advice if you are curious is to listen to the sample clip. If it grabs you, you'll like the book. If not, find something else.

Fantastic! Scary and yet soft and poetic.

Fantastic! Scary and yet soft and poetic. When insanity seems truer than sanity. The main character so sweet and real, it made me want to crawl into the book and hold her and help her. The kind of book you want to read again.

Intriguing, mysterious, multi layered hauntings

What made the experience of listening to The Drowning Girl the most enjoyable?

The wealth of knowledge that Caitlin injected into the story - especially re: mythology, psychology and history.

What did you like best about this story?

The idea of being haunted by things other than ghosts - e.g. ideas, people, works of art, memories etc. Also, how all the little hauntings tied into the main haunting.

What about Suzy Jackson’s performance did you like?

I was intrigued with how she could change her voice to sound like someone else, and wondered if there were other narrators (and wished that there were - or at least, that she used the deeper voice used for Imp's girlfriend - as I found her teenage sounding voice grating.) All in all, she did a great job with such a complex story.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No crying, laughed a little, but mostly intrigued, with "a-ha" moments here and there. Learned quite a lot - so the experience was doubled for me: a novel and a textbook! (I always fancied myself as a mythology/psychology/history/art buff - but was pleasantly surprised to be afforded the opportunity to learn more!)

Any additional comments?

The only criticism I could possibly have with this novel would be that it needed more editing - re: tightening the story. It does tend to meander a bit - but on the other hand, that is in keeping with Imp's erratic frame of mind. I became annoyed with the "Imp typed" interruptions.

However, it is one of the few stories I have read in my life that has "haunted" me - so, well played, Caitlin! No matter what, it was very much worth the meager credit and I would've been happy to pay more for the experience of having my psyche infiltrated by such interesting characters and experiences.