The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Genre: General Fiction

Synopsis: 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.

Rating: 2 stars

Review: This novel has a great idea and a good intention behind it, and I do see where the author wanted to go with this story. Unfortunately, the story itself fell flat for me. First of all, the book was simply too slow. It had a lot of promise in the first few chapters, but it just went on and on, and I couldn't even envision where it was going. I also did not even like the characters -- too stereotypical, in my opinion. I also couldn't understand as there were way too many things going on at the same time. In the end, there were just too many loose ends and too many questions left unanswered. Don't get me wrong; I do like a complex story with multiple subplots, but not if they don't tie up or go together very well. As a whole, I didn't think it was that bad, but I don't care for it either. It is easily forgettable. Perhaps if this was turned into a Lifetime movie, I might enjoy it better.