The Memory of Water

Marnie Maitland has returned to her childhood home in the lowcountry of South Carolina after an absence of 10 years. She has been summoned by her ex-brother-in-law Quinn hopes that Marnie, an art teacher for special education children, can help reach his son, Gil, who has not spoken in 3 months after a sailing accident. Gil's mother, Diana (Marnie's sister), inexplicably had taken him out on their sailboat during a storm. The sailboat was heavily damaged, Diana was seriously wounded and Gil became frightened to be alone with his mother and stopped speaking. Marnie is hesitant to become involved as the accident is frighteningly similar to one that happened when she and Diana were young and their mother, suffering from mental illness, show more took her two daughters out on their boat during a squall. Diana and Marnie were rescued but their mother's body was never found. Marnie is quickly won over by the sweet-natured Gil, not to mention his handsome father, but is devastated by the friction she feels from Diana. Diana has been having 'episodes' mental instability and believes that she is suffering from what she calls the "Maitland Curse", a family history of unbelievable tragedy. Marnie, despite her misgivings, finds herself falling in love with the lowcountry again and decides she must swallow her own fears about sailing in order to help Gil regain his voice.

This book started out very nicely with the voices of the 4 main characters telling the story from their own point of view. However, I did have a few issues with the rest of the book. Even though Diana and Quinn are divorced, he does live in a cottage next to her house and for Marnie and Quinn to begin a romance is just a tad to 'icky' for me. The book became very predictable when Diana began visiting an elderly woman at the local nursing home just calling her a 'friend'. Gee, who could that be? The ending goes right where you know it's going, so no surprises there. The author does a nice job of fleshing out her characters and I did care about what happened to them. I would definitely try another by White. show less

Karen White is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Her latest book, The House on Tradd Street [review], was an amazingly written book that was as gripping as it was beautiful. The Memory of Water is equally as haunting, and though I didn't enjoy it quite as much as The House on Tradd Street, I still thought it was an excellent novel.

The setting of the book is in the Lowcountry marshes of South Carolina. White does an amazing job describing the locale. Though I have never visited the area, I have a vivid picture of it in my head from White's descriptions. They are as beautiful as they are haunting.

White is also a master at building suspense. She manages to keep the reader hooked throughout the novel without giving out too much show more information. The disquieting feeling her novels evokes in the reader is reminiscent of Carol Goodman, whose virtues I have previously extolled in this blog. [Review of The Night Villa][Review of The Drowning Tree]

The character of Marnie was extremely well written; she had many ghosts of her own that she had to face. Diana was a little more difficult. She was very difficult to sympathize with, and the way she treated Marnie was disappointing at best and cruel at worst. When the mystery is finally revealed at the end of the book, Diana moves even further away from the reader.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Memory of Water. It had a little bit of everything - mystery, character development, a wonderful setting, and the connections of family. I'd definitely recommend it to other readers and can't wait to pick up another one of her novels.

From S. Krishna's Books show less

Not as good as some of her others but good. On the night their mother drowns, sisters Marnie and Diana Maitland discover there is more than one kind of death. There is the death of innocence, of love, and of hope. Each sister harbors a secret about that night-secrets that will erode their lives as they grow into adulthood.

After ten years of silence between the sisters, Marnie is called back to the South Carolina Lowcountry by Diana's ex-husband, Quinn. His young son has returned from a sailing trip with his emotionally unstable mother, and he is refusing to speak. In order to help the traumatized boy, Marnie must reopen old wounds and bring the darkest memories of their past to the surface. And she must confront Diana, before they all show more go under. show less

The writing was good, but the story was flat. The mystery was no mystery, the characters played out their roles without ever transcending into reality and the ending was just what I expected to wrap everything in a tidy package. Disappointing.

The story starts with Marnie coming back to her childhood home, after a call from her sister’s ex-husband. His wife and son have been involved in a sailing accident, and Gil is traumatised, and refusing to speak. As Marnie is a special needs teacher, he hopes that she can help him.

As Marnie sets about doing just this, she also has to deal with the relationship she now has with her sister. Once close, they haven’t spoken for ten years, following their own traumatic boat trip with their mother. This story is slowly unravelled, along with the present one.

Karen explores many family relationships within this book, with the strongest being between the two sisters. All the characters are strongly written, with Diana being the most show more complex.. and frustrating! One of the major issues is how bipolar (manic depression) can have such a profound effect, not only on those affected, but those around them too.

This is the third book recently that I’ve read to explore this condition.. they are all very different, but the central themes remain the same. All three are up there amongst my favourites. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So true how perception can differ so from reality. I also thought the struggle with mental illness of the one sisters really gave you a sense of the internal torment she went through.

I was oddly....disappointed with this one. I had expected to love it. But I think enjoying the audio version instead of a physical/ebook was a huge factor.

The voices/View Points were hard to tell apart in the audio book and I kept having to start sections over because I wouldn't catch when it switched from Diana to Marnie and then Quinn and Gil. Add in Grandpa and it was just way too many POV to juggle with an audio book
I also found it slow moving and the twists and turns not very surprising.