For one, I don’t really recall Jenna actually mentioning Mr Anderson’s age… which of course, shouldn’t matter when we’re dealing with a student-teacher relationship, but my point is, Mr Anderson could be 24 (Jenna says he attended Stanford), he could be 30 or he could be 40. On the other hand, there are a couple of things our unreliable narrator Jenna omits. And indeed to a certain extent (and up until the big reveal, which I’m not going to reveal!) we see that both characters are thoroughly messed up, and both need each other to fix them back to normal. Jenna insists that in the complicated relationship between her (a student) and Mr Anderson (a teacher), she was not a victim…which is of course the first thing that pervy Bobby-o (Jenna’s words) would think of. First of all, there’s the device of the unreliable narrator, used here in the best way possible. There are a couple of things that make of Drowning Instinct a captivating and thoroughly twisted read. This is where she meets Mr Anderson, who she claims is the way her story of the truth should start. She now has to attend Turing, because her emotionally demanding father (aka PsychoDad), insists this will be the best way to adjust to normal life again. She’s just returned from an extended stay in a psychiatric hospital, courtesy of her cutting, a fire and a dysfunctional family life or all of that combined.

At 16 Jenna is already deeply scarred, figuratively as well as literally. The book starts when Jenna Lord, 16, is dragged out of the water and Detective Pendleton (‘Bob’) gives her a tape recorder so she can give him her story… the truth, the truth, and nothing but the truth. It’s set very much in the tradition set by a someone like Laurie Halse Anderson, introducing us to stories that are thoroughly character-driven, and delving into the deepest human emotions possible, wherever that may take you. Drowning Instinct is contemporary YA at its best.

However, the voice of its protagonist/narrator is as powerful as the reach of Bacigalupi’s (geo)political ambitions (BTW, ‘drowning’ seems to be a keyword these days). Drowning Instinct, though, is a whole different ballgame than Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Drowned Cities.

Bick’s Drowning Instinct is the second Printz contender the cat has read in as many weeks.

Drowning instinct book