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A review by yeats_motel
The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Picked this one up after a buddy in my writing group mentioned he thought my writing style was somewhat similar to Kiernan’s—an incredibly flattering comparison as it turns out. This book is really beautifully written.
This book is written as the memoir/“ghost story” of a schizophrenic woman who becomes obsessed with a strange woman (who might be a mermaid or a werewolf). I thought the treatment of mental illness was pretty sensitive—I didn’t see any hurtful stereotypes and I found the narrator to be compelling and likeable, even though it is clear that her perceptions are often distorted. I also liked that the story dealt with the treatment of mental illness in a way that wasn’t overly sensationalized—the narrator takes medication and sees a therapist and both of these things are presented as neutral-to-positive, which was nice since a lot of horror-tinged fiction likes to demonize both mental health issues and mental health treatments (which tbh is probably my biggest complaint with the genre as a whole). Highly recommend this beautiful, haunting book to anyone who likes books with unreliable narrators and a lot of intertextuality.
This book is written as the memoir/“ghost story” of a schizophrenic woman who becomes obsessed with a strange woman (who might be a mermaid or a werewolf). I thought the treatment of mental illness was pretty sensitive—I didn’t see any hurtful stereotypes and I found the narrator to be compelling and likeable, even though it is clear that her perceptions are often distorted. I also liked that the story dealt with the treatment of mental illness in a way that wasn’t overly sensationalized—the narrator takes medication and sees a therapist and both of these things are presented as neutral-to-positive, which was nice since a lot of horror-tinged fiction likes to demonize both mental health issues and mental health treatments (which tbh is probably my biggest complaint with the genre as a whole). Highly recommend this beautiful, haunting book to anyone who likes books with unreliable narrators and a lot of intertextuality.