There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)
Jenna Lord’s first sixteen years were not exactly a fairytale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Afghanistan. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.
There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and we all shed tears for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)
Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain... magnetism.
And there are stories where it’s hard to be sure who’s a prince and who’s a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)
Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds—and the rules.
Wow what a ride. I loved the way this book was written. It starts off with our narrator, sixteen year old Jenna, in the E.R. having just been pulled out of a frozen lake. The story continues from there through Jenna's words on a detective's tape recorder telling the events that led up to this moment during the last four months or so.
**Spoilers**
I feel weird saying this (because you know student/teacher relationships are bad okay) but I really liked Jenna and Mitch together. They were a pretty perfect match. I was kind of disappointed by the Mitch lying/stalking bit at the end. I was hoping he would be a good guy all the way through but honestly the stalking didn't bother me that much. Wait let me explain! Because through the whole book I kept expecting Jenna to go online and try to find info on Mitch and Kathy. I was really surprised that she never did and since Mitch had well.. it put him more on Jenna's level to me rather than an obsessive level. I did not like his lying though, it did not make sense to lie about siblings and such if you planned to be with someone since the truth would come out eventually. Well actually since these lies were told when they barely knew each other maybe Mitch was just being awkward and trying to relate to Jenna to get to know her better. As you can tell I am confused about how I feel about him!
All I know is that I do not see him fully as a bad guy. Mitch and Jenna both are so mentally and emotionally messed up that despite the age difference I see them as equals rather than victim and predator. I will tell you that open endings bug the hell out of me. I really wished we knew what happened to Mitch, if he was telling the truth about his time with Kathy and his reasons for lying to Jenna. Oh! And what happens to Jenna's mom?? Having had an alcoholic mother myself, I really understood Jenna's relationship with her mother.
Quote:
“Everybody breaks sooner or later, Bob. Anyone can drown. Sometimes you see it. Most often, you
don’t because the body protects and the skin hides, so drowning doesn’t look like drowning and some
people scar so nicely. Take it from an expert.”
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