Review: Prepared to be PULLED UNDER!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2013
Be prepared for an anguishing emotional experience. Pulling Me Under pulls the reader into the heart and soul of Kate Anselin, a young widow with a six-year-old daughter, who drowns in grief over the death of her husband, a horrible death she witnessed and believes she caused.In deep stream of consciousness, the reader stumbles through Kates' life, groggy, confused, angry, and at times incoherent, haunted by nightmares, flashbacks and guilt. Kates is failing to deal with her reality and even though her husband's faithful friend, Liam, is there to give her a hand, she is unable to grasp his friendship. Instead, she falls deeper and deeper in to the morass, seemingly unable to pull herself out, or allow anyone close enough to help.Meanwhile, her mother implies Kates is an unfit mother. She insists on babysitting Ella and questions Kates on everything. Things come to a crisis one night when Kates goes to a party at her parents' house and Mom gives her the third degree about bottles in her trash. She takes off, has too much to drink and ends up back at the wrong party.Things go bad fast, and in the aftermath, Kates has to face up to her dire situation, or sink further under. Some of the best stream of consciousness I've ever read is in Chapter eleven. Chapter eleven's are oftentimes at the 25% mark, exactly where the protagonist is at the point of no return, unable to go back to whatever state he/she was in, yet not equipped to deal with what's coming ahead. The die is cast, and Kates has to face that her drunkenness has caused something horrible to happen.I hate to leave you at this point, but what follows is an incredibly inspiring, yet PAINFUL journey as Kates wakes up to the realization that she must go forward and get help, or destroy the lives of all those around her.You'll root for Kates to overcome her demons and drool over Liam, her faithful friend, while trying to figure out the evil person who hurt Kates when she was at her most vulnerable. A satisfying, suspenseful ending.