Reading Drowning I was truly torn between two polar extremes: my delight in the compelling story-telling talent of its author, Susan Wingate, and my distaste for the poor attention she gave to editing and proofreading her work. For the first I would have awarded her 5 stars--for the second, alas, only 2. The writing lacks in its grammar, punctuation, spelling, which give it a shaky underlying structure. I think it is imperative that indie authors proofread their work. Not doing so is a slight towards the reader, and a disservice to themselves.

So to help me come up with a reasonable way to weigh these opposite impressions, I made a note to myself that story-telling is a natural talent, one that comes from the heart and guts and cannot be taught. Not so with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Which is why I ended up giving the author the benefit of the doubt, hoping she will come back to improve the technical aspects of her writing. Therefore I am awarding the story 4 stars.

The cover image of a bluish head over which you can discern the flow of water is somewhat morbid, and fully becoming of the theme of the story, which includes an episode of physical drowning as well as that feeling of suffocation Euly feels, faced with the secrets in her family. She is far from being a 'likable' protagonist, and her actions are far from following any logical reasoning, which makes for surprising twists and turns in this story. ( )