I chose this book because it was free from Amazon's kindle downloads. I'm usually disappointed by those books, but always give them a try (because they are free!). This novel started off weird, I immediately sensed the drama that was coming my way (really sick child, marital problems, teenage angst...) but was surprised by how "un-fake" it felt (as apposed to feeling "real"). I think McMahan did go a little overboard with the drama, but I still enjoyed reading it. I think if you're looking for an interesting novel, but not one that "changes our world" this is a good book. I might have been able to enjoy this story more if it hadn't been set in my own little town of Pawleys Island, so I had to grind my teeth to the nubbins over the amount of things the author got so very wrong about both Pawleys and nearby Georgetown's history, geography, and culture. Yes, I know it's fiction, but keep the fiction, fiction and the real, real or else use a fictional place name. Petty, I know, but blatant errors are like chalk squeaking on the blackboard and detract from anything else the writer has to say. It is impossible to fully enjoy a book in which a couple in 1989 looks sadly at the Hurricane Hugo damaged remains of the Pawleys Pavilion when the Pavilion burned down in 1970 and was never rebuilt--so Hurricane Hugo was also a time-traveler. I did get a giggle out of the developer picking up Waccamaw Riverfront property, some of the costliest real estate in South Carolina, "for a song." Yeah, if the song were Billion Dollar Baby sung by fairies waving magic wands. The author had this annoying thing about adding little generalities about Southerners, such as they boil and fry their foods--yeah, just like every other culture in the known universe. If the author knew anything about this segment of the South there wouldn't have been a character like promiscuous, drug-snorting Georgetown City Manager (actually, we call it Administrator) Caroline Crawford. Pawley's may be Yankeefied, but Georgetown is still Bible Belt with double capital B's. Any woman in such a position better be as irreproachable as Caesar's wife or the genteel Steel Magnolias of Georgetown would have her rear tarred, feathered and ridden out on a rail the first time she waggled it at someone's husband. Somehow, the author as an expert of all things Southern must never have heard of Southern Baptists. Beside, we are not Shabby Chic; we are Arrogantly Shabby. There's nothing chic about us, but we are arrogant. I guess it is unwise to read a book set in your home area by an outsider who knows not of what she speaks--it is a miserably painful experience. By the way, there isn't a lion in the Brookgreen Gardens statue of Fighting Stallions--those are stallions, thus the name.
What do You think about The Ocean Inside (2009)?
Kindle version-free downloadSetting South Carolina island community.
—Jaeyeon
Jodi Picoult like story....enjoyed it.
—shalia1468
