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  • The First Time She Drowned

  • Written by: Kerry Kletter
  • Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
  • Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
  • 3.3 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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The First Time She Drowned cover art

The First Time She Drowned

Written by: Kerry Kletter
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
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Publisher's Summary

The beautiful struggle of a girl desperate for the one relationship that has caused her the most pain.

Cassie O'Malley has spent the past two and a half years in a mental institution - dumped there by her mother, against her will. Now, at 18, Cassie emancipates herself, determined to start over. She attends college, forms new friendships, and even attempts to start fresh with her mother. But before long, their unhealthy relationship threatens to pull Cassie under once again. As Cassie struggles to reclaim her life, childhood memories persist and confuse, and Cassie must consider whose version of history is real, and more important, whose life she must save.

A bold, literary story about the fragile complexities of mothers and daughters and learning to love oneself, The First Time She Drowned reminds us that we must dive deep into our pasts if we are ever to move forward.
©2016 Kerry Kletter (P)2016 Listening Library
Depression & Mental Health Bullying & Abuse Family
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What the critics say

"Kerry Kletter’s The First Time She Drowned is the kind of book I love best - a lovely and haunting keep-you-up-all-night heart-wrencher that is both beautiful and raw, painful and uplifting. It’s utterly amazing. An incredible read. Be warned though - you will want to read Cassie’s story, start to finish, in one sitting. And then you will want to race to put it in the hands (and hearts) of everyone you know and love." (Jennifer Niven, New York Times best-selling author of All the Bright Places)

"Kletter’s exploration of a dysfunctional family through the eyes of a daughter is raw with emotion…a sophisticated read…lyrical.” (School Library Journal)

"[An] excellent debut novel....heart-wrenching....Readers who enjoy the suspense of unreliable narrators, as in Adele Griffin’s Loud Awake and Lost or Stephanie Kuehn’s Complicit, will appreciate this one." (Booklist, starred review)

What listeners say about The First Time She Drowned

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Profile Image for Ali from the Hunted Shelves

Oh my god

That was a beautiful read
Painful but relatable. We all suffer we all have mental and family issues we all need help in some way or another and it’s just nice how this book tackles the issue successfully and not romanticize and exaggerate any of it

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