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

"Page Turner"

Interesting read. I enjoyed how the story was told, although it did get complicated a few times-it still kept my interest. I would recommend this book but for the mature reader because it's not an easy book to follow but nonetheless somewhat relatable and very much enjoyable.

Among my favorite stories

Caitlin R Kiernan is among my favorite authors and this is among my favorite works of hers alongside the Red Tree

Haunted in Providence

My main draw to this title initially is it's placement in Providence, which has since it's settlement, left wanderers of it's strange hills, streets, and waterways with a piqued imagination and florid, flowery writing. Just within my first few months of living here, I felt it's ghostly reach into my dreams and waking thoughts...and a series of questionable (and often regrettable) relationships. Every person I have met here, an ambassador for the city, singing its praises and in the end, leaving me alone.

This story takes place in Providence's West End, a neighborhood I know well, as I've lived right off of Parade, just a few streets down from the main character, for a few years now. She described the place with mathematical detail, giving exact addresses and dates for her comings and goings. She was just trying to get the facts out. I understand, needing to get the dates right, the places correct, freeing you up to pore over the way the heat felt in the third floor walk-up, dead of July, your clothes clinging, sweat dripping, frustration and ferocity growing as you are just trying to keep it together, falling in love and losing your mind at the same time.

IMP's story and Kiernan's writing left me questioning my own sanity. Suzy Jackson's youthful voice hitting every mark, precocious, open, controlled, yet full of abandon. She gave an excellent performance. The story itself was a little confusing, but it's tone was clear. It's timing was strange, which added to its creepy affect. And if Neil Gaiman says jump, I'll certainly take a look around and ask "Come again?" and reread The Sandman series. I can see IMP reminding him of Delirium, and occasionally Death, and probably Eva of Desire.

If you are in a questionable mental space (and/or living alone in Providence) you may want to hold off on this one till you are in a better space, otherwise you are in for a ride. Don't take your time with it, this is best experienced over the course of a week. The thread could get lost, as it's a particularly windy story, that includes stories within (which are excellent themselves).

Dumbfounded

Any additional comments?

I really not sure what to think of this book. I did like the writing, and even enjoyed the story in places... but somewhere in the middle of the book I wished it would end!. Yet, it just dragged on and on, without any new twists or... anything really. I mean, I can't say, "what a horrible book", because it is not, and the author has created a believably crazy character. However, it bored me to the point of not wanting to listen to it.

Deeply stunning work of the gothic weird

Two summers ago I listened to this book on headphones while walking back and forth from the library in Holyoke, MA - an old New England mill town set with abandoned brick buildings and sooty sidewalks, much like old parts of Providence, RI described in the novel. I was struggling with poverty and mental illness like the narrator, and found in this listening experience a rare world where I felt I belonged. Caitlin R. Kiernan’s work often does that for me. I see myself reflected in her protagonists more than any other author’s. They are often queers, goths, outsiders, and artists, struggling to survive against deep horrors that the rest of the world doesn’t acknowledge as real - horrors that threaten their lives and sanity, and that are intertwined with old, deep traumas.

My own personal fondness for her characters aside, Caitlin R. Kiernan is one of the most critically acclaimed writers in the horror/weird fiction tradition. She's widely recognized, up there with Thomas Ligotti, as one of the premiere literary descendants of H.P. Lovecraft. Not in the sense that she writes with a Lovecraftian formula (though sometimes she plays with it in her short stories), but in the sense that she evokes Lovecraftian themes like cosmic dread, shaky sanity, deep time, and surreal beauty in modern day settings with her own unique voice.

This book, with its non-linear prose, deep water imagery, bouts of poetry, stories within stories, and impeccable historical research, is one of her masterpieces. It has strong echoes of Shirley Jackson and other influences I’m sure I’m not aware of. Suzy Jackson’s narration is absolutely fabulous. She worked extensively with the author to accurately capture the distinct voices of each character and the oscillations of the narrator’s mental state as she slips in and out of lucidity. I read a hard copy of the book after listening, and found that I preferred listening to this book over reading it.

If you’ve ever struggled with your sanity, doubted what is real, feared what that the rest of the world can’t see - or if you want to slip into an expertly crafted description of that experience; if you enjoy weird fiction, aquatic folklore, good horror or old New England gothica, I highly recommend this novel from one of the great living masters of the genre.

amazing

loved this book. India's mental illness is amazingly well portrayed. i found the book disturbing in that sense - I am not schizophrenic, but some of her thought processes and habits, both of thought and action, had a familiar resonance that made me have to take a break from the book for a bit.
the storyline is, given the viewpoint character's issues, predictably non-linear. and the book ends with a discussion of how the character will never know what really happened... neither does the reader. if that bothers you, this is *not* the book for you.

Fascinating, moving, real.

Would you listen to The Drowning Girl again? Why?

Absolutely. This novel was very interesting and kept me guessing. I listened to it a few weeks ago and plan on listening to it again very soon. I loved the characters. I loved the way things were structured (and unstructured).

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Drowning Girl?

Imp's schizophrenia felt very real. It was haunting and powerful. It gave the listener insight into what goes through a malfunctioning brain.

Have you listened to any of Suzy Jackson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've never listened to her other performances but this one was very good. I'd had some false starts with other audio books sounding too robotic and clunky. Suzy sounded human and warm, despite the harrowing text. She gave life to IMP and the others. Fantastic job.

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

I was moved several times, but not huge drastic movements. It isn't like there is one moment where the author and reader moved a mountain deep in me. It was subtle movements, that, over time, demonstrated that a mountain had moved.

Any additional comments?

It was powerful and challenging. Some people find the lack of structure at times to be frustrating. I am not one of those people. If you find that unconventional story telling works for you, you'll likely enjoy this. If you need things to follow typical story formats, then maybe look elsewhere (or give it a shot and see what happens).

Good Insight into Psychosis

What did you like best about The Drowning Girl? What did you like least?

Although the book intentionally blurs the line between what is subjective, and what is objective, the book is written as a first-hand account of experiences. In the writing style adopted by the author, the mental ticks and potholes of a mentally disturbed individual truly comes through.

Any additional comments?

Not surprising that this was written by the same author as The Red Tree.

Second time through—beautiful book

One of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read and one I will constantly revisit throughout my life. This rendition is really excellent as well.

I got lost

This wasn’t a bad novel, but I did find myself lapsing in concentration every now and then.
Sometimes the story just got too boring, that I actually thought about stopping where I was, however I kept listening and the story picked up, and I found I really wanted to find out what happened with Imp.
I loved the stories within the story.

The narration was great!