Drowning Instinct

by Ilsa J. Bick

Overview

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 fairy tale. 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 Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and everyone cries 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467731935
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	548,757
Lexile:	710L (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Ilsa J. Bick is a child psychiatrist, as well as a film scholar, surgeon wannabe, former Air Force major, and an award-winning, best-selling author of short stories, e-books, and novels. She has written extensively in the Star Trek, Battletech, Mechwarrior: Dark Age, and Shadowrun universes. Her original stories have been featured in numerous anthologies, magazines and online venues.  Ilsa's YA paranormal, Draw the Dark, was also a semifinalist for the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (as Stalag Winter).  Ilsa currently lives with her family and other furry creatures in rural Wisconsin and across the street from the local Hebrew cemetery. One thing she loves about the neighbors: They're very quiet and come around for sugar only once in a blue moon.

Editorial Reviews

"Sixteen-year-old Jenna Lord has just enrolled in a new school. Her father is a bully and a womanizer; her mother drowns her feelings with alcohol; her step-grandfather sexually abused her as a child. Jenna is a cutter and recently discharged from a mental institution. Her chemistry teacher befriends her, Jenna is attracted to him, and they enter into a sexual relationship; she learns he has a history with 'troubled' female students. Anderson saves Jenna from drowning, but knowingly sacrifices himself. A testament to the author's writing skill is the unanswered question: Was Anderson genuinely in love with Jenna or was he a sexual predator? The multiple issues and dysfunctions may be difficult for some readers to follow. The adult characters are stereotypical, but somehow Jenna remains believable. Language and sexual content make this suitable for mature readers, especially those who favor psychological novels." --Library Media Connection

From the Publisher

Bearing scars both literal and figurative, Jenna Lord, 16, falls for Mitch Anderson, the married chemistry teacher who helps her survive a rocky start at a Wisconsin science magnet school. Years earlier, Jenna was maimed in a house fire. Today she copes with stress by e-mailing her beloved brother, a Marine in Iraq, and by self-mutilation, which recently earned her a stint in a hospital psychiatric ward. Isolated, with a domineering, plastic-surgeon dad and alcoholic, bookstore-owner mom, Jenna's increasingly smitten with Mitch, who goes out of his way to advocate for her and invite her into his life. Jenna's voice is edgily authentic, but other characters seem to consist entirely of symptoms--case studies in uncontrolled violence, rape, self-mutilation, victim-grooming and sexual and substance abuse. The one exception, a refreshingly normal classmate and potential boyfriend, is soon left behind. The framing conceit (Jenna dictates her story to a detective who has given her a digital recorder) is distancing. Readers will easily unravel the tired, central plot twist, but they may be confused when Jenna morphs abruptly, without explanation, from a teenager under surveillance--lacking cell phone, driver's license, privacy--into a free spirit enjoying all of the above. Readers will find a more challenging, original take on abuse, abusers and recovery in Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels (2008). (Fiction. 15 & up)

Kirkus Reviews