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The drowning Girl
Caitlín R. Kiernan
2012 · Horror
How it reads
The drowning Girl is horror (psychological literary horror, specifically), and its dominant mood is eerie. It's atmospheric and uncanny, with a sense that something is wrong. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in several locations, in no single period, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, loss and grief and art and creativity. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something eerie
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something cosy or heartwarming
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- horror
- Author gender
- nonbinary
- Author experience
- established
- Setting: place
- multiple locations
- Setting: time
- timeless or multiple
- Mood / feeling
- eerie
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- modern classic
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, loss and grief, art and creativity
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- The Shadow at the Bottom of the WorldThomas LigottiShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- The Wingspan of Severed HandsJoanna KochShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- The Worm In Every HeartGemma FilesShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
- When I Arrived at the CastleE.M. CarrollShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in PiecesEric LaRoccaShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- The Ghost WomenJennifer MurphyShares: horror, eerie mood, heavy and literary tone, ambiguous ending
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