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A review by miramichijim
After Drowning by Valerie Mills-Milde
5.0
This is Valerie Mills-Milde's debut novel and it is a superb one. Located on the north shore of Lake Erie where there was once a thriving freshwater fishing industry, After Drowning is a semi-psychological and vastly intriguing novel about lives shattered by events past and present in the fictional town of Port, where a vestigial fishing industry still exists in company with gentrified tourist destinations, and of course, the beach.
I called this novel semi-psychological because we are taken along with Pen as she tries to sort out her emotions in dealing with a drowned father, a missing brother, a recovered alcoholic mother and her own estranged marriage to Jeff, Maddie's ever-patient father. The biker massacre affects her as well, for she encountered T several times around Port after the drowning, so she tries to understand how someone who tried to save a life could just as easily take one.
After Drowning is an intriguing, well-paced and mysteriously captivating story of everyday lives impacted by tragic events and the collateral damage they inflict as well as the long road back to recovery and reconciliation. Certainly one of the best novels I have read this year.
My full review can be found at my site: http://miramichireader.ca/2016/07/after-drowning-review/
I called this novel semi-psychological because we are taken along with Pen as she tries to sort out her emotions in dealing with a drowned father, a missing brother, a recovered alcoholic mother and her own estranged marriage to Jeff, Maddie's ever-patient father. The biker massacre affects her as well, for she encountered T several times around Port after the drowning, so she tries to understand how someone who tried to save a life could just as easily take one.
After Drowning is an intriguing, well-paced and mysteriously captivating story of everyday lives impacted by tragic events and the collateral damage they inflict as well as the long road back to recovery and reconciliation. Certainly one of the best novels I have read this year.
My full review can be found at my site: http://miramichireader.ca/2016/07/after-drowning-review/