One of the books that my mom won from Goodreads and then let me borrow is This Is The Water by Yannick Murphy. There are two things you should know about this book – one is that it’s about a serial killer and a group of swim team parents, and the other is that the book is written in 2nd person statements, which I personally did not mind, but I can see how it may become annoying. The stream of conciousness writing is interesting as well as frustrating, because at times the reader wonders how the narrative reached certain points. My conclusion was that the narrator addressing the “you” of the reader is the water itself.
“In a quiet New England community members of swim team and their dedicated parents are preparing for a home meet. The most that Annie, a swim-mom of two girls, has to worry about is whether or not she fed her daughters enough carbs the night before; why her husband, Thomas, hasn’t kissed her in ages; and why she can’t get over the loss of her brother who shot himself a few years ago. But Annie’s world is about to change. From the bleachers, looking down at the swimmers, a dark haired man watches a girl. No one notices him. Annie is busy getting to know Paul, who flirts with Annie despite the fact that he’s married to her friend Chris, and despite Annie’s greying hair and crow’s feet. Chris is busy trying to discover whether or not Paul is really having an affair, and the swimmers are trying to shave milliseconds off their race times by squeezing themselves into skin-tight bathing suits and visualizing themselves winning their races. When a girl on the team is murdered at a nearby highway rest stop—the same rest stop where Paul made a gruesome discovery years ago—the parents suddenly find themselves adrift. Paul turns to Annie for comfort. Annie finds herself falling in love. Chris becomes obsessed with unmasking the killer. With a serial killer now too close for comfort, Annie and her fellow swim-parents must make choices about where their loyalties lie. As a series of startling events unfold, Annie discovers what it means to follow your intuition, even if love, as well as lives, could be lost.”
There are three main swim moms whose lives are intertwined throughout the book – the main character Annie, her friend Chris, and her not so close friend Dina. I enjoyed the differences between these women and yet the way they are all connected via the swim team and the murder of one of the swim team members. Their individual relationships with their husbands are also explained in the book. I could see this being a good story without the unique writing style, but the style only adds to the interest of the book, and I appreciated it greatly.
What have you been reading lately?