Blog tour: The Polite Act of Drowning

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Polite Act of Drowning by Charleen Hurtubise!

More about the book…

Michigan, 1985. The drowning of a teenage girl causes ripples in the small town of Kettle Lake, though for most the waters settle quickly. For sixteen-year-old Joanne Kennedy, however, the tragedy dredges up untold secrets and causes her mother to drift farther from reality and her family.

When troubled newcomer Lucinda arrives in town, she offers Joanne a chance of real friendship, and together the teenagers push against the boundaries of family, self-image, and their sexuality during the tension of a long, stifling summer. But the undercurrents of past harms continuously threaten to drag Joanne and those around her under...

More about the author…

Charleen Hurtubise has lived in Dublin, Ireland for over 25 years, having moved from Michigan, USA.

She is a teacher and artist as well as a writer, and her short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in various publications.

She holds an MFA Creative Writing from University College Dublin (UCD) where she has also facilitated creative writing modules.

My impressions…

A coming-of-age story that truly touched me with the most eye-catching title that I’ve come across of late. I felt such sadness at times, and such hope at others, that I’d say this book is an emotional rollercoaster. However, despite the heaviness of the subject matter, it is also an elegant and evocative novel. There is great beauty in the descriptions of the landscape, which are so vivid that I could see everything as if I was standing right there.

Three words to describe it. Descriptive- Heart-breaking. Emotional.

Do I like the cover? Yes, I was immediately drawn in.

Have I read any other books by the same author? No, this is a debut novel.

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