The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

This year it seems like I've listened as many books as I have read! I've become addicted to listening to audiobooks. 

Last Friday, I finished listening to The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson. This is my first experience with anything written by Joshilyn Jackson and I really enjoyed listening to the unabridged version of 'The Girl Who Stopped Swimming', which was read by the author... In fact, I thought Joshilyn Jackson did an excellent dramatic reading of her novel. 

I also enjoyed listening to the author being interviewed segment at the end of the novel as it is always enjoyable to learn about their writing process, which books they've read and authors they like reading!

Here's the synopsis of 'The Girl Who Stopped Swimming' from the author's website:

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she’s helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel’s life seems neat and on track–a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna–everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 14-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne.

The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne’s backyard pool. Molly’s death is inexplicable–an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia’s help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family’s guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

My favorite characters were Laurel and her sister Thalia along with Laurel's husband David. The storyline was well developed and kept my captivated from start to finish... The storyline even had a few surprises at the ending that were fun to find as I hate novels that are foregone conclusions. 

If you like stories with some family drama and skeletons in the closet, then this may be the novel for you. There are also some mystery elements (like, how Molly Dufresne die?) in this novel as well supernatural elements (as Laurel sees the ghosts of dead people) that make 'The Girl Who Stopped Swimming' a memorable read.

Until my next post, happy reading!