Sunday Book Review: the girl who stopped swimming

I don't know what I like more about Joshilyn Jackson, her blog or her novels. She's good reading all the way around. Her third novel, the girl who stopped swimming, did not disappoint. From the first chapter I was in love with Laurel, a woman who is greeted by the ghost of a neighborhood girl who has just drowned in the swimming pool in Laurel's yard.

The novel doesn't exactly move with the thrill or anxiety of a who-dunnit. It is more of a journey through personalities, families, and places (like all of Jackson's novels, really) that are eccentric, yet touchingly familiar. I like the novel's characters, but I especially like the way her characters think and feel and love. Even the irritating ones are redeemable.

Jackson definitely keeps me on her fan list with this one.