The Floating Girls
A Novel
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
“A masterly achievement.” – Publishers Weekly STARRED review
“Many readers are looking for the next Where the Crawdads Sing, and will find The Floating Girls…is a close cousin.” – Augusta Chronicle
Fierce 12-year-old Kay can't ignore the problems surfacing in her troubled home—or the mysterious marsh outside. It will take all of her courage and perseverance to survive her family drama as their dark secrets come to life in the wake of a small-town murder.
One hot, sticky summer in Bledsoe, Georgia, twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker stumbles across a stilt house in a neighboring marsh and upon Andy Webber, a boy about her age. He and his father have recently moved back to Georgia from California, and rumors of the suspicious drowning death of Andy's mother years earlier have chased them there and back.
Kay is fascinated and enamored with Andy, and she doesn't listen when her father tells her to stay away from the Webbers. But when Kay's sister goes missing, the mystery of Mrs. Webber's death—and Kay's parents' potential role in it—comes to light. Kay and her brothers must navigate the layers of secrets that emerge in the course of the investigation as their family, and the world as they knew it, unravels around them.
At once wickedly funny and heartbreaking, perfect for fans of Kim Michele Richardson, The Floating Girls is a stunning southern mystery, a wonderfully atmospheric coming-of-age family drama told from the perspective of a fierce 12-year-old marsh girl—reminiscent of a modern-day Scout Finch—as she unravels the secrets that threaten her entire family.
Praise for The Floating Girls:
"A powerhouse of a Southern novel. At once a poignant coming-of-age tale, a murder mystery, and an evocative tribute to the marshlands of Georgia. Lo Patrick is a standout new Southern voice." —Andrea Bobotis, author of The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt
"Kay is the smartest, funniest, most curious young narrator I have come across in some time. Her voice stuck with me long after I finished reading. If I met Kay on the street, I’d beg her to be my best friend.” —Tiffany Quay Tyson, award-winning author of The Past is Never
"A cracking story that unfolds in gorgeous prose in the stultifying heat of the American South." —Hayley Scrivenor, author of Dirt Creek
"Fans of Where the Crawdads Sing will love this immersive mystery set against the salty air of Georgia's marshes. In Patrick's atmospheric prose, the water and its characters come to life." —Lindsey Rogers Cook, author of Learning to Speak Southern
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Both comic and heartrending, Patrick's superb debut sets a bildungsroman and murder mystery in the wetlands of coastal Georgia. Brash and lonely Kay Whitaker, 12, is frustrated by her unemployed father, Clay; her emotionally absent mother, Sue-Bess; and her remote older sister, Sarah-Anne, whose favorite activity Kay describes as "standin' in the yard like a twig in mud." While exploring the wetlands beyond their isolated home, Kay meets Andy Webber, a handsome boy her age who lives with his crabber father, Nile. Clay orders her to avoid the Webbers but won't explain why. Later, Kay discovers Nile was suspected in the drowning death of his wife a decade earlier. As Kay defies her father by jockeying for Andy's attention, unidentified authorities her parents refer to only as "people from the state" routinely visit the Whitaker home. (Her parents also hide Sarah-Anne during the visits.) Then Sarah-Anne disappears, and secrets begin to surface. The crackling energy of Kay's narration—a winning mixture of insight and naiveté, humor and pathos, vulnerability and strength—provides a welcome counterbalance to the oppressive setting and the pain the characters try to suppress. It's a masterly achievement.
Customer Reviews
Dreary, irritating story
I like regional fiction—usually. I read this to the end primarily because I couldn’t believe how awful it is. The author writes well, but her narrator, Kay, is the most grating, superficial character I’ve ever encountered. Don’t waste your money.