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junotranscends's review
4.0
Cover: 5/5 I love, love, love this cover. It's gorgeous and it fits well with the book.
Characters: 3.5/5 It's been a few weeks since I read this, but Mr. Anderson and Jenna are still fresh in my mind, which tells me Bick did a good job with them. Jenna is, almost, an unreliable narrator. There are times where it's difficult to know if what she's saying is somehow scewed by her perception. As the story goes on and you realize she has some Issues (with a capital I), you question what's real and what isn't.
Plot: 4/5 Unique, definitely. In fact, the sub-plot with Jenna's brother caught me completely and utterly by surprise and blew me away.
Writing: 4/5 Bick has a flowing, pretty style of writing. I love it when I'm reading and come across a phrase or sentence that makes me pause and re-read because I just enjoy the way it sounds.
Overall: 4.1/5 DROWNING INSTINCT is a good thriller-esque story with edgy themes (student/teacher relationship). I loved the narration and how it was pulled off--Jenna talking into a recorder for a police officer. This was probably one of my favorite reads from 2011, just for the twists and ending and how unique is was.
Characters: 3.5/5 It's been a few weeks since I read this, but Mr. Anderson and Jenna are still fresh in my mind, which tells me Bick did a good job with them. Jenna is, almost, an unreliable narrator. There are times where it's difficult to know if what she's saying is somehow scewed by her perception. As the story goes on and you realize she has some Issues (with a capital I), you question what's real and what isn't.
Plot: 4/5 Unique, definitely. In fact, the sub-plot with Jenna's brother caught me completely and utterly by surprise and blew me away.
Writing: 4/5 Bick has a flowing, pretty style of writing. I love it when I'm reading and come across a phrase or sentence that makes me pause and re-read because I just enjoy the way it sounds.
Overall: 4.1/5 DROWNING INSTINCT is a good thriller-esque story with edgy themes (student/teacher relationship). I loved the narration and how it was pulled off--Jenna talking into a recorder for a police officer. This was probably one of my favorite reads from 2011, just for the twists and ending and how unique is was.
sarahbiggs's review
5.0
Most amazing book ever, I'm still in tears. Ilsa Bick is the most amazing writer who is able to touch hearts. Her ending has me in tears. I recommend this book to anyone and everyone.
jennifermreads's review
4.0
Interesting dynamic that made me think. Surprises at the end left me with "WOW!"
waitcourtneywho's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
somarostam's review
5.0
WOW! It is such a pleasant surprise when a book turns out to be much, much better than your expectations! I knew , from the very beginning, that this book would be dark, scary dark. This book was one of those books that remind me why I started reading in the first place.
---
Each me was different from the other and yet the same, like the angles of a triangle or the facets of a diamond.
---
Jenna Lord is not your typical girl. She has had a hard past, a psycho dad, a drunken mum, and a brother who left for Iraq. Her life is a constant hell, until she meets her enigmatic teacher, Mr. Anderson.
I cannot say more about this book, my experience with it was fabulous, and I am afraid that if I say too much, it will ruin your experience. Jenna is one of the most broken characters I have ever read about. She is so broken that it's tangible, I felt for her and I felt what she was going through. Her decision-making skills were equal to zero. I would never do what she did, but all I wanted was to give her a HUGE hug and show her the right way. There was nobody in her life who really cared for her, and all who did care, were taken away somehow.
Then comes Mr. Anderson. He is captivating, enigmatic, and scary sexy. A devoted husband, a great teacher and much more. He is the man you KNOW you should not fall for but you do anyway. He is much older than Jenna and their relationship is taboo, but they can't stay away. And it's a rule, when two broken people are together, happiness will stay as far away as possible.
---
There are those individuals who die for a cause, and we say they have made the ultimate sacrifice. We call them martyrs, and we never doubt their sincerity.
Yet many others search their entire lives for something—or someone—worth dying for and this is very different. These are the lonely and the desperate, fearful that their lives have no meaning. They yearn for the bullet, if only someone else will pull the trigger.
---
This story is raw, and dark. So dark that you DO NOT want to continue but you do anyway, since you want to know the ending. Don't expect to be happy after you read this book. Because you won't. This will leave you crying (weeping, actually), or cursing, or just wanting to jump off a cliff.
This book is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. And Ms. Ilsa will always be one of my top-favorite authors. I am afraid that even if I recommend this to anyone who is willing to read, it would still not do this book justice.
---
I’m beating around the bush. I know I am. I don’t want to tell this story, Bob, and you know why? Because this is a fairy tale with teeth and claws, and here’s what completely sucks: you’re going to want black and white, Bob, right and wrong. I’m not sure I can give that to you. That’s the problem with the truth. Sometimes the truth is ambiguous, or a really bad cliché.
But this is the truth, Bob: I’m a liar.
I am lucky, a liar, a good girl, a princess, a thief—and a killer.
And my reality—my story—begins with Mr. Anderson.
---
---
Each me was different from the other and yet the same, like the angles of a triangle or the facets of a diamond.
---
Jenna Lord is not your typical girl. She has had a hard past, a psycho dad, a drunken mum, and a brother who left for Iraq. Her life is a constant hell, until she meets her enigmatic teacher, Mr. Anderson.
I cannot say more about this book, my experience with it was fabulous, and I am afraid that if I say too much, it will ruin your experience. Jenna is one of the most broken characters I have ever read about. She is so broken that it's tangible, I felt for her and I felt what she was going through. Her decision-making skills were equal to zero. I would never do what she did, but all I wanted was to give her a HUGE hug and show her the right way. There was nobody in her life who really cared for her, and all who did care, were taken away somehow.
Then comes Mr. Anderson. He is captivating, enigmatic, and scary sexy. A devoted husband, a great teacher and much more. He is the man you KNOW you should not fall for but you do anyway. He is much older than Jenna and their relationship is taboo, but they can't stay away. And it's a rule, when two broken people are together, happiness will stay as far away as possible.
---
There are those individuals who die for a cause, and we say they have made the ultimate sacrifice. We call them martyrs, and we never doubt their sincerity.
Yet many others search their entire lives for something—or someone—worth dying for and this is very different. These are the lonely and the desperate, fearful that their lives have no meaning. They yearn for the bullet, if only someone else will pull the trigger.
---
This story is raw, and dark. So dark that you DO NOT want to continue but you do anyway, since you want to know the ending. Don't expect to be happy after you read this book. Because you won't. This will leave you crying (weeping, actually), or cursing, or just wanting to jump off a cliff.
This book is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. And Ms. Ilsa will always be one of my top-favorite authors. I am afraid that even if I recommend this to anyone who is willing to read, it would still not do this book justice.
---
I’m beating around the bush. I know I am. I don’t want to tell this story, Bob, and you know why? Because this is a fairy tale with teeth and claws, and here’s what completely sucks: you’re going to want black and white, Bob, right and wrong. I’m not sure I can give that to you. That’s the problem with the truth. Sometimes the truth is ambiguous, or a really bad cliché.
But this is the truth, Bob: I’m a liar.
I am lucky, a liar, a good girl, a princess, a thief—and a killer.
And my reality—my story—begins with Mr. Anderson.
---
paperlove's review against another edition
3.0
Trotz jeder Menge Drama, fehlte es der Story an einem Spannungsbogen und es gab sehr viele Längen. Ganz ok, aber mehr auch nicht.
pikasqueaks's review
4.0
The best books leave you a little unsure at the end -- was there a bad guy? Was there a good guy? Or were there just people, rotating around each other, picking off what they can until they're satisfied?
Told from Jenna Lord's perspective as she holds a tape recorder, to Bob, the man assigned to her case, we get a huge story. Jenna's had a rough life, and it doesn't get much easier as time goes on. Her Dad's emotionally abusive, her mother's an alcoholic, her brother's been shipped off to Afghanistan, and she nearly died in a fire, years ago. This leaves poor Jenna to cope with her world, and she does so through self-injury. Her cutting is discovered by her parents, who ship her off to a psychiatric hospital. Now Jenna's having a hard time developing outside of the ward, cautious and disconnected from her world. At times, you almost feel her desperation to go back to it, because it's what she knows.
But by her very first day at school, Jenna runs into Mr. Anderson, the charismatic teacher who just so happens to also be the track coach. Since one of Jenna's coping mechanisms is running, her interest is piqued, but she's hesitant to have any involvement in it. Right off the bat, there's a character who tries to befriend her (David), but Jenna doesn't want none of that. Instead, she skulks off by herself, trying to get through with good grades.
Her attention is sucked in by Mr. Anderson, who recruits her as one of his TA's. From that point forward, they start spending a lot of time together -- in class, and then eventually, out of class for morning runs. Inevitably, Jenna finds herself at Mr. Anderson's house after she cramps up during a longer run, and she comes face-to-face with a photograph the reveals an interesting part of Mr. Anderson that no one else at school, or seemingly in his life, knows. It roots Jenna to him, and their connection grows at an even faster rate from there, until he pins her down and pulls out a hard truth that Jenna's been avoiding -- a lie she's been living, ignoring, pretending isn't true.
Things snowball from there until lie, truth, and hardship after hardship are exposed. We feel so much for Jenna, want to hug her and tell her it's going to be okay, want to pull her away from the awful things happening in her life (like her father ignoring her being assaulted in her own home), and put her on the right path.
The strengths in Drowning Instincts are so, so many. The writing is beautiful, on that border leaning toward literary. What helps give it that extra push, I believe, is the fact that you are reminded now and then that Jenna is narrating this verbally. Such strong, powerful words and phrases come from this child that you can't help but feel a little more for her. And even though there's so much that goes on, even in the side-plot, at no point does it feel like the author is trying to juggle too much at once. All of the little details are strung together, woven perfectly. It's rare to find so much going on in a book where it all feels like it belongs, but Drowning Instinct covers so much while remaining poised the whole time.
What will stay with the reader, as I mentioned first, is the lingering feeling that you're not sure if there's a bad guy, here. Mr. Anderson, the teacher, is clearly doing things he shouldn't be doing. The time he spends with Jenna is incredibly questionable. But Jenna's doing her fair share of manipulation, whether it's knowingly or not. And the two circle one another so delicately at first that you might even want it to happen. Jenna's drawn in by the first adult she thinks she can trust, the first adult to take an interest in her well-being. Mr. Anderson is challenged by a young girl who needs his help and attention, who needs his strength to guide her. But just the same, we know there's something very wrong going on.
The problem with having an unreliable narrator is that you can't pinpoint the details that have been truthfully embellished, and so you'll never really know. Mr Anderson shows up at some awfully convenient times, rescuing Jenna. Did she need to be rescued, or was it planned that way? Jenna even acknowledges how peculiar some of the coincidental timing in this is, which raises suspicions even more, in the end. One of Jenna's secrets is something you might see coming from the very start -- I did, at least -- but it doesn't actually lessen the impact of when it's finally brought into the open. And at times, the dialogue between Jenna and Mr. Anderson can get feel so hokey, specifically with the word "sweetheart" littered throughout. It's hard to imagine anyone really talking like that for such an extended period of time.
But you're still left with that questioning feeling, and it might be enough to make you go back and read the book again, just to see what you might have missed. If you like darker YA reads, I'd very much recommend this one. There are elements in it that would appeal to a lot of different people, and it's a book that you can easily find yourself getting swept up in. I borrowed this from the library, but I know I'll be buying myself a copy down the road.
Told from Jenna Lord's perspective as she holds a tape recorder, to Bob, the man assigned to her case, we get a huge story. Jenna's had a rough life, and it doesn't get much easier as time goes on. Her Dad's emotionally abusive, her mother's an alcoholic, her brother's been shipped off to Afghanistan, and she nearly died in a fire, years ago. This leaves poor Jenna to cope with her world, and she does so through self-injury. Her cutting is discovered by her parents, who ship her off to a psychiatric hospital. Now Jenna's having a hard time developing outside of the ward, cautious and disconnected from her world. At times, you almost feel her desperation to go back to it, because it's what she knows.
But by her very first day at school, Jenna runs into Mr. Anderson, the charismatic teacher who just so happens to also be the track coach. Since one of Jenna's coping mechanisms is running, her interest is piqued, but she's hesitant to have any involvement in it. Right off the bat, there's a character who tries to befriend her (David), but Jenna doesn't want none of that. Instead, she skulks off by herself, trying to get through with good grades.
Her attention is sucked in by Mr. Anderson, who recruits her as one of his TA's. From that point forward, they start spending a lot of time together -- in class, and then eventually, out of class for morning runs. Inevitably, Jenna finds herself at Mr. Anderson's house after she cramps up during a longer run, and she comes face-to-face with a photograph the reveals an interesting part of Mr. Anderson that no one else at school, or seemingly in his life, knows. It roots Jenna to him, and their connection grows at an even faster rate from there, until he pins her down and pulls out a hard truth that Jenna's been avoiding -- a lie she's been living, ignoring, pretending isn't true.
Things snowball from there until lie, truth, and hardship after hardship are exposed. We feel so much for Jenna, want to hug her and tell her it's going to be okay, want to pull her away from the awful things happening in her life (like her father ignoring her being assaulted in her own home), and put her on the right path.
The strengths in Drowning Instincts are so, so many. The writing is beautiful, on that border leaning toward literary. What helps give it that extra push, I believe, is the fact that you are reminded now and then that Jenna is narrating this verbally. Such strong, powerful words and phrases come from this child that you can't help but feel a little more for her. And even though there's so much that goes on, even in the side-plot, at no point does it feel like the author is trying to juggle too much at once. All of the little details are strung together, woven perfectly. It's rare to find so much going on in a book where it all feels like it belongs, but Drowning Instinct covers so much while remaining poised the whole time.
What will stay with the reader, as I mentioned first, is the lingering feeling that you're not sure if there's a bad guy, here. Mr. Anderson, the teacher, is clearly doing things he shouldn't be doing. The time he spends with Jenna is incredibly questionable. But Jenna's doing her fair share of manipulation, whether it's knowingly or not. And the two circle one another so delicately at first that you might even want it to happen. Jenna's drawn in by the first adult she thinks she can trust, the first adult to take an interest in her well-being. Mr. Anderson is challenged by a young girl who needs his help and attention, who needs his strength to guide her. But just the same, we know there's something very wrong going on.
The problem with having an unreliable narrator is that you can't pinpoint the details that have been truthfully embellished, and so you'll never really know. Mr Anderson shows up at some awfully convenient times, rescuing Jenna. Did she need to be rescued, or was it planned that way? Jenna even acknowledges how peculiar some of the coincidental timing in this is, which raises suspicions even more, in the end. One of Jenna's secrets is something you might see coming from the very start -- I did, at least -- but it doesn't actually lessen the impact of when it's finally brought into the open. And at times, the dialogue between Jenna and Mr. Anderson can get feel so hokey, specifically with the word "sweetheart" littered throughout. It's hard to imagine anyone really talking like that for such an extended period of time.
But you're still left with that questioning feeling, and it might be enough to make you go back and read the book again, just to see what you might have missed. If you like darker YA reads, I'd very much recommend this one. There are elements in it that would appeal to a lot of different people, and it's a book that you can easily find yourself getting swept up in. I borrowed this from the library, but I know I'll be buying myself a copy down the road.
eslismyjam's review
5.0
This books gets under your skin and it doesn't go away. It's been a couple of weeks since I read this and I'm still thinking about it. I picked this book up on a recommendation from YA Confidential
kristy_k's review
4.0
Actual Rating: 3.5
I am not sure how to rate this book, or even how I feel about it. The subject matter is…heavy, yet you don’t necessarily feel it pressing down on you. That’s not to say that there weren’t moments of suspense or intense emotions, but the underlying issue does not always create the same sentiment as it normally would. The story is told from 16 year old Jenna’s point-of-view; however, her audience is not the reader, but a detective, who has given her a recording device to share her side of some events that have occurred. It is best if you go into the story blind, although it is easy early on to figure out what is going to happen. Drowning Instinct shows you that a victim does not always look ravaged by the crime and that a predator can look like a savior.
I am not sure how to rate this book, or even how I feel about it. The subject matter is…heavy, yet you don’t necessarily feel it pressing down on you. That’s not to say that there weren’t moments of suspense or intense emotions, but the underlying issue does not always create the same sentiment as it normally would. The story is told from 16 year old Jenna’s point-of-view; however, her audience is not the reader, but a detective, who has given her a recording device to share her side of some events that have occurred. It is best if you go into the story blind, although it is easy early on to figure out what is going to happen. Drowning Instinct shows you that a victim does not always look ravaged by the crime and that a predator can look like a savior.