Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

Im beating around the bush. I know I am. I don't want to tell this story, and you know why? Becuase this is a fairy tale with teeth and claws, and here;s what completely sucks; you're going to want black and white, right and wrong. I'm not sure I can give that to you. That's the problem with the truth. Sometimes the truth is ambiguous, or a really bad cliche.

But this is the truth; I'm a liar.

I am lucky, a liar, a good girl, a princess, a thief--

and a killer.

And my reality--

my story--

begins with Mr. Anderson.

BAM! Epic epic epic EPIC. I don't even know where to begin with this one! Like holy crap this is probably my new favorite book EVER...And that's legitimately saying something.

For one, I wasn't really looking for anything new on the shelves, I was just trying to find the paperback versions of books that I've had my eye on recently. But, this thing caught my eye. For one; it's relatively smaller than most of the books on  the shelves, and two, the cover is awesome. Simplistic and mesmerizing in the most awesome of ways. Nothing fancy digital media type, but simple, and leaves the mind wondering just what the heck is this story about?

This story comes from the point of view of 16 year old Jenna Lord. She's a girl whose gone through many things in her lifetime including a cheating father whose pretty much a money grubber sociopath, and a mother whose a drunk and favors her older brother (who's in Iraq) over her. With this, she's a cutter. She's recently been released from a stint at the psych ward and thus, her oh-so-loving parents thought it'd be best to transfer her to a different school.

Alas, comes Mr. Anderson; her chemistry teacher. They meet rather awkwardly but he's the only teacher to actually talk to her like a person rather than a psychotic asshole who just at any moment will try to off-herself (which is not the case anyways)! So instantly, she takes a certain liking to him. DUN DUN DUNNNN

As the story progresses, you learn that their relationship transforms into something more intimate and more involved than your average teacher-student relationship. But as events unfold, Jenna not only begins to look at her life as something worth living now, but she begins to question everything around her. With this, she even questions Mr. Anderson and his intentions, and even why he even tried to get close to her in the first place.

So, yes. This story is epic and amazing and everything that I possibly could have hoped for in a book, especially in my life at this moment. I know this is totally weird and off the record, but it's like I can relate to what's happening even though I've never been hot for teacher....

The books context is from Jenna's point of view BUTTTTT, big factor here, it's her speaking to a detective named Bob through a voice recorder from within a hospital room. Now, we don't know why she's there or what happened but all we know is that she was a "victim" in an accident, and Detective Bob, wants her to tell him the truth about what happened. And with that, the story begins.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants something REAL to read. No fantasy land, no weird awkward nastiness that makes you cringe as you read it, but something honest to God....what's the word....realistic.

Im never quite sure when I will ever give a book a 5 out of 5 review.....but I definitely feel like this is getting pretty close to that. Id say a 4.5 out of 5. It's pretty awesome. GO READ IT.