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The Girl Who Stopped Swimming [Paperback]

Joshilyn Jackson
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 26, 2009
Lauren Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother keep family skeletons in the closet or sewing her acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister, Thalia, is her opposite, an impoverished actress who prides herself on exposing the lurid truths lurking behind middle class niceties.


While Laurel's life seems neatly on track-- a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, a lovely suburban home-- everything she holds dear is threatened the night she is visited by the ghost of her 13-year-old neighbor Molly. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is an unseemly mystery that no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Laurel enlists Thalia's help, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag.


Together, they set out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about their family's haunted past, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jackson matches effortless Southern storytelling with a keen eye for character and heart-stopping circumstances. Laurel, a high-end quilt maker, sees the ghost of a little girl in her bedroom one night. When it leads her to the backyard and a dead girl in the swimming pool, the life Laurel had hoped to build in her gated Florida neighborhood with her video-game designer husband, David, and their tween daughter, Shelby, starts to fall apart. Though the police clear the drowning as accidental, it soon appears that Shelby and her friend Bet may have been involved. Bet, who lives in DeLop, Laurel's impoverished hometown, was staying over the night of the drowning and plays an increasingly important role as the truth behind the drowning comes to light. Meanwhile, Laurel's sister, Thalia, whose unconventional ways are anathema to Laurel's staid existence, comes to stay with the family and helps sort things out. Subplots abound: Laurel thinks David is having an affair, and Thalia reveals some ugly family secrets involving the death of their uncle. What makes this novel shine are its revelations about the dark side of Southern society and Thalia and Laurel's finely honed relationship, which shows just how much thicker blood is than water. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...a great tale [that] builds to an exciting and violent ending, one that surprises and yet seems to fit."
-USA Today

"... buoyant and moving ....beautifully balanced between magical and realist fiction... closer in tone and voice to Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones' or Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe trilogy."
-Atlanta Journal Constitution

"A ghost story, family psychodrama, and murder mystery all in one. Jackson's latest is a wild, smartly calibrated achievement. A-."
-Entertainment Weekly

"Jackson matches effortless Southern storytelling with a keen eye for character and heart-stopping circumstances."
-Publisher's Weekly

"Joshilyn Jackson has done it again... her skillful unraveling of family secrets and betrayal left me breathless. You must read this book!"
-Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS

Product Details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (May 26, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446697826
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446697828
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joshilyn Jackson is the New York Times Bestselling author of five novels,
most recently A GROWN-UP KIND OF PRETTY

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her husband and their two kids. She loves Bourbon and Hot Yoga (not together) and she has more dogs than you. Unless you have three.

Her sixth novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S LOVE STORY, is forthcoming in 2014 from Harper Morrow.

Backlist:
GODS IN ALABAMA
BETWEEN,GEORGIA,
THE GIRL WHO STOPPED SWIMMING,
and BACKSEAT SAINTS

Customer Reviews

Very well developed characters. K. Caldwell  |  24 reviewers made a similar statement
This is the third book I've read by this author, and they have all been superb. J. M. Russell  |  13 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An intricate mystery March 20, 2008
Format:Hardcover
The ghost of a young girl shows up in Laurel's bedroom in the middle of the night. When she follows it to the window she sees the body of her 13-year old daughter's best friend, Molly floating face down in her swimming pool. Of course that would turn anyone's life upside down. But Laurel Hawthorne isn't just anyone. She's a professional quilt designer who has created an orderly life with her video game designer husband, David, among the meticulous homes and gardens of their Victorianna subdivision. There is no room in their lives for this tragedy.

Yet Laurel is haunted, not only by the dead girl but also by her daughter Shelby's reaction, and her friend Bet who was staying over at the time. Bet Clemmons is Laurel's do-gooder project, a young girl she has rescued from dregs of society in the washed up little mining town of DeLop, which represents all that is unholy in her life. As a trained artist, Laurel knows there's something wrong with this picture. But up till now her whole life has been about burying secrets, not digging them up.

In order to get to the bottom of this inconvenient mystery, Laurel calls on her estranged sister Thalia. The polar opposite of Laurel, Thalia is a flamboyant actress and the keeper of secrets. Laurel knows she can get Thalia to do the dirty work. What she doesn't know is what that will cost her in the end.

Joshilyn Jackson's vivid characters and spellbinding prose - you can almost hear the drawl and smell the earthiness - weave a tale as intricate and fascinating as one of Laurel's quilts. Jackson takes readers on a journey past the façades of flower gardens, swimming pools, and Wal-Mart, through the crumbling asphalt and broken dreams of lives in the rural South, to uncover the mystery of "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming".
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Bestseller! February 26, 2008
By Dee
Format:Hardcover
Once again, Joshilyn Jackson has written an incredible book!

From the first page, where a ghost appears to lead Laurel to a dead body in her pool, I was hooked. The story held me through sister squabbles, family strife, marriage drama, and a murder mystery. And through all of that finely tuned plot, there was the voice of Ms. Jackson, with her sweet Southern drawl, telling me all of the deep, dark secrets inside of Laurel's surface perfect life.

Truly, this book will be a bestseller!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This novel is stitched up to perfection! May 25, 2008
By Nina
Format:Hardcover
Like others, this is my first book by Jackson, and I too hope she gets a larger readership because this was a great novel. Like Laurel's quilts, Jackson has sewn it all down to perfection here: dazzling characters, humor, pathos, a plot that you probably will not figure out the ending to (why try anyway is always my motto), and wonderful contrast in settings between Victoriana and DeLop.

And, since I had just come off a darker Eliz. George novel, I especially liked a happy ending where every i was dotted, all questions answered, and even an epilogue. I love epilogues. Why have open endings - I'm paying to have the author write the book - not me! Then if I don't like the ending I can discuss that in my book club or not read another book by that author.

I promise you this is a page-turning mystery that you will enjoy, and I don't make many promises.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Great storytelling
I'm a big Joshilyn Jackson fan; she tells a great story, and she lets you into her characters' heads. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Al Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Book by Joshilyn Jackson
My favorite book by Joshilyn Jackson is A Grown Up Kind of Pretty. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is my second favorite. Her titles do not reflect well what her books are about. Read more
Published 2 months ago by alleycat
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from Ms. Jackson
Quirky, imperfect, real characters fill Joshilyn Jackson's novels. This is no exception. It's the currents behind the perfect facade that make up the stories and keep us turning... Read more
Published 2 months ago by JWW
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing family saga
Laurel awakens one night to find her teenage daughter's best friend at her bedside--a ghostly manifestation that leads Laurel to its body in the pool. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Deb Atwood, author of Moonlight Dancer
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful characters!
I sent my daughter into the library to pick out 'interesting' audiobooks for me to listen to, on a very long trip. She came out with this one. Read more
Published 5 months ago by AZ Red
3.0 out of 5 stars Has potential, but doesn't quite come together
Outwardly, Laurel Hawthorne has a wonderful life - she has a successful, loving husband and a wonderful 13-year-old daughter. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Joanna Mechlinski
5.0 out of 5 stars Good old Southern Gothic
Laurel Hawthorne is a woman with secrets, which she believed she'd left behind when she married David and moved into a posh gated community. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Linda Pagliuco
3.0 out of 5 stars Stopped Swimming?
Held my interest, was overall a good read. I wish it had ended a little differently - however, I was surprised at the ending, so that is a good read, in my opinion - if I don't see... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Pealicious
3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad
Preferred this to "Gods in Alabama"; but still it felt a bit contrived and had tension where none was needed (creating a false impression of a failing marriage). Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Parent
4.0 out of 5 stars The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
Enjoyed this book. Characters are very believable. I try to read all of Joshilyn Jackson's books. Worth the time to read.
Published 13 months ago by AMY
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