The Drowning Girl

"With The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan moves firmly into the new vanguard, still being formed, of our best and most artful authors of the gothic and fantastic-those capable of writing fiction of deep moral and artistic seriousness."-Peter Straub India Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is schizophrenic. She can no longer trust her own mind, convinced that her memories have somehow betrayed her, forcing her to question her very identity. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about an encounter with a vicious siren, or a helpless wolf who came to her as a feral girl, or something that was neither of these things, but something far, far stranger... A complex, haunting novel that explores a schizophrenic young artist's struggles with her perception of reality... including an intriguing ghostly woman who appears to her in the most mysterious ways. India Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is trying to write her memoir, but she struggles with the unreliability of her own mind. Suffering from schizophrenia, as well as comorbid anxiety and OCD, Imp has a difficult time separating fantasy from reality. But for her, it's most important to tell her "truth." And for Imp, that truth comes through a stream-of-consciousness tale of her love story with her transgender girlfriend, as well as Imp's obsession with a mysterious woman whom she finds naked and mute at the side of the road. Imp must push past her mental illness-or work with it-to piece together her memories and tell her story. A rich exploration of mental illness, gender identity, and creative process, The Drowning Girl delivers an eerie and powerful story of a woman's efforts to discover the truth that's locked away in her own head. "Caitlin R. Kiernan moves firmly into the new vanguard ... of our best and most artful authors of the gothic and fantastic-those capable of writing fiction of deep moral and artistic seriousness."-Peter Straub