Ghosts, more figurative that literal, haunt Jackson's third novel
(Between, Georgia, 2006, etc.).Laurel, who makes artistic quilts,
and her computer geek husband, David, live with their 13-year-old
daughter Shelby in Victorianna, a gated community in South Georgia
near the Alabama line. One night, Laurel sees/dreams about the
ghost of Shelby's best friend Molly, who is dripping wet. Laurel
watches as Molly passes through her bedroom window and sinks to the
bottom of Laurel's swimming pool. Laurel wakes screaming. In fact,
Molly has drowned in what the police rule an accident. But Laurel
has suspicions about a creepy neighbor. She is also terrified
Shelby is somehow involved although Shelby swears she was asleep,
as was her cousin Bet. Bet has been visiting for the summer,
Laurel's pet charity case from the trailer-trash town that Laurel's
mother escaped through marriage years ago. Using Bet's pathetic
need for affection, Laurel pulls worrisome information from her and
begins to track the truth about Molly's death. Lovably Aspergish
David can't help, and Laurel's mother pretends never to see ugly
truths, so Laurel, who has her own difficulty disturbing decorum,
turns to her older sister Thalia, an actress who likes to live on
the edge and has always found both Laurel's life in Victorianna and
her marriage stultifying. With Thalia around, cracks begin to
appear on the surface of Laurel's ever-so-controlled life. Thalia
forces Laurel to confront problems in her marriage and to realize
that the death of her Uncle Marty, her first "ghost," was not what
it seemed. Laurel is meant to be the heroine but she's such a dolt,
readers may not feel she deserves her happy ending after jumping to
conclusions that turn out dangerously wrong. The tragic figure,
Bet, gets short shrift, as if Jackson doesn't quite know what to do
with her.An entertaining but shallow spin on a Southern Gothic.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Laurel Hawthorne has worked hard to create a good life for her
family, determined not to raise her daughter in the subdued,
secretive household that she herself grew up in. And everything is
just fine until the night she is awoken by a ghost in her bedroom;
the ghost of 14-year-old neighbour Molly, whose body is now
floating, face-down and lifeless in Laurel's swimming pool . . .
The whole town thinks it was an accident, but Laurel knows in her
bones that there is something more sinister afoot. And that's when
her perfect world begins to crumble. With the help of her eccentric
sister, Laurel sets off on a mission to investigate what really
happened to the girl who stopped swimming. But along the way she
starts to uncover the truth about her family, and just what did
happen in the woods all those years ago - on a day she has managed
to blank out, until now . . .
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