At first sight I wasn't sure about this title or the description but as I continued to read Wriston weaves an interesting tale of the lives of this troubled family. A grandmother struggling to raise a grandchild whom she has had little to do with before taking over custody of her; they both come to grips of understanding each other, family, and life in general after believing it should all come together in a totally different way. Daniel a shut in uncle/son also brings a colorful addition to this story and between his telling of tales from old Celtic days to his struggles of current life his shut in life is him avoiding the pain of processing. Heaven and Daniel form a bond that helps them both. This story is one of pain and loss, struggle and heartache but also redemption, growth and love. Family is something to lean on no matter your past you can control your future.

Thank you so much to jet galley for giving me a copy of this audiobook. This book was just plain gross. I love a strange book but this just gave flowers in the attic. I do not recommend.

The storyline sounds like it could be enjoyable. The characters had potential. Amelia, or Grandmelia, as she has her granddaughter call her, is a former model now in her seventies. Her son, Gavin is an addict that drowns at the opening of the book and so Grandmelia is granted custody of his daughter, Heaven, since her drug addicted mother is behind bars for his death.

Next up enter Gavin’s brother, Daniel the grown man agoraphobe that stays locked in his room, telling Heaven magical tales through a hole in his wall and spying on his neighbor, Mercy the washed up diner waitress with anger management. The magical tales were weird and I started to get lost.

But it got weirder. suddenly, we are transported back to 1862 where Maggie, Grandmelia’s ancestor from Scotland starts detailing her journey to America. This is where I get totally lost and then there is a recurrent drowning theme? Why? I just didn’t get this book at all.

I thought this audiobook was fine, I felt like the story was a bit long and slower paced but the audiobook definitely helped with that!!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Very long read, not really my cup of tea and found some of the characters really annoying but not horrible

How not to drown by Jaimee Wriston, is about Heaven, a 12 year old girl, entrusted to the care of her grandmother, after her mother is convicted in the death of her father. Heaven has not had an easy life, as she has been basically raising herself due to the drug habits of her parents. When she is sent to live with her grandmother, it is not an easy transition (for Heaven or her Amelia). Heaven does find an ally in the house, her Uncle Daniel. Initially, I found it difficult to follow the characters in the story, and did not enjoy it. However, I was drawn into the story when Heaven was bullied at her new school and tried to find ways to deal with it and combat it. My heart was broken when listening to her visits with her mother in prison. Heaven’s life has been ripped apart in all capacities. At times, the story was hard to follow, but I did find it engaging and relatable. I did enjoy the narrator. I received a copy of this audiobook from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review

I really really enjoyed this book! I listened to the audiobook, and the narration was wonderful, although sometimes difficult to understand with Maggie’s chapters. Another thing with Maggie was, while I understand she is the family’s ancestor I didn’t feel like her story was very necessary and it took me out of the main story. I felt as though I was just waiting for her chapters to end so I could get back to the main story. I did love the characters dynamics with one another and how they grew together. Mercy was a wonderful character, as was Daniel. I do not know anyone who suffers from agoraphobia, but his representation felt accurate and inoffensive. Sometimes Heaven felt very whiny and annoying, and her and her schoolmates felt wildly inaccurately portrayed and very stereotypical, but I still felt for her. The dialogue felt unnatural at times and most of the conflicts felt like they wrapped up too quickly and easily. Overall though, this was definitely worth the read and the ending was quite beautiful.

( I was given this audiobook for free from netgalley for honest review. ) long and somewhat rambling but i you can get into the flow of the book then it is not bad.

Books like this are difficult for me to review. There is a solid atmosphere and good character development, but it doesn’t have a strong plot.

We meet Heaven, her grandmother, and uncle after she goes to live with her grandmother following her father’s suspicious death, which her mother is in prison for. At this point, I’m thinking so far so good because there is going to be a lot to unpack with these characters. I’m not wrong because there totally is, but there are these strange, I’m not even sure what to call them, mini plot points (?) that are just kind of in there & gone without really moving the story along. One of the plot points did give a better understanding of the characters, but because they don’t seem like full parts of the story, it felt disjointed.

Similarly, there was a strange additional perspective of someone from a different generation that never really came full circle. It felt like the very end of the book was referencing it, but because it was siloed throughout the rest, it was really hard to tell. Unfortunately, I think it only distracted from the main story.

I did, however, think that the author was able to develop the 2 main characters well, and their relationship and the tension definitely came through.

So, this was kind of a miss for me, but I think it would be great for fans of Elizabeth Strout.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Jaimee Wriston for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not a parent but I still really enjoyed this. I like to learn about different things that may not apply to me and this one did just that. It brought up things I never even though about.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book. To start with that, there seemed to be an echo at times with the audio. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and have have never experienced this previously, so that was annoying at times. The narrator used different voices for the different characters. I found the voice of Amelia to be similar to Moira Rose from Schitt's Creek. So if you liked that show, it will crack you up. The character herself is uppity, like Moira, and the actresses's voice sounded like it, so it made me laugh several times.

How Not to Drown is filled with many different topics, but it didn't feel like too many. It felt like a dysfunctional family that has experienced a lot of trauma throughout life and one who does not know how to deal with that trauma. So instead, they retreat inside themselves instead of leaning on each other. You will find such topis as addiction, mental heath, body image, bullying, divorce, death, and incarceration. I think you can see the negative impact these topics have on the children in the book. When I say children, I mean the literal 12 year old and also Daniel, who is an adult child and never dealt with the trauma in his life. Heaven could eventually be like Danile if she does not face all of the difficulties in her life. There are some instances of bullying that seem farfetched, but I get the point of it.

I enjoyed the author's writing style and found this to be a book that is more on the literary side. So if you typically enjoy a light romantic romp, this is not for you.

After her favorite son drowns and her daughter-in-law is convicted in her death, Amelia MacQueen is given temporary custody of her 12-year-old granddaughter, Heaven. Heaven, the daughter of drug addicts, is used to being left to her own devices, and she doesn't appreciate her grandmother's scrutiny. She bonds instead with her uncle Daniel, an agorophobe who never leaves his room in his mom's house. To deal with the bullying at school and missing her parents, Heaven “snakes” things she wants from people and stores and dreams of ways to get back at her bullies.

The blurb on this book calls it a tale of redemption, but as the book ended, the most I could say would be that the family was slightly less intolerable. I listened to the audiobook; perhaps the characters would have seemed more likable if I hadn't heard the narrator's snark in their words, but then again, maybe not. I felt sorry for Heaven with the cards she had been dealt, but I couldn't help but think that she might have been better in foster care. Most of the time, Heaven seemed more like she was 6 years old than 12. The premise sounded interesting, but unfortunately, this story just wasn't for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

I absolutely couldn’t put this book down. Filled with quirky characters that I grew to love. Reminds one of the bonds of family and the need for connections. Love the underlying theme that family always will show up for you.

Listening to the audiobook How Not To Drown by Jaimee Wriston I was pretty sure I did not like anyone in it. Slowly it changed for me. It wasn't that they changed as much as I started to understand the reasons for their personality defects and the brilliance of the author's writing.

Amelia is 70 years old. She is angry, tired and more hurt than she will even admit to herself. Her favorite son Gavin drowned and his wife Cassie is in prison for manslaughter. Cassie does not remember what happened that night. Amelia thinks she is lying and knowingly murdered Gavin.

Now Amelia has custody of her 12 year old granddaughter Heaven who she barely knows or understands. Heaven is so broken. Her dad is dead. Her mom is in jail. Her grandmother makes her call her grandmelia so she doesn't feel like an old lady, and she is viciously bullied at her new school. Her one joy is being on the swim team.

Then there is Amelia's oldest son Daniel who in his 40s never leaves his room diagnosed as an agoraphobic; most likely a result of almost drowning as a child. He tells Heaven tales of their ancestors from the Isle of Skye who came over to the U.S. by boat. Many of them drowned on the way. When their history takes on a somewhat mystical turn it took me out of the real world problems of this dysfunctional family.

The narrator Hillary Huber @hillaryoutloud does whiny and frustration almost too realistically because at times I wanted to just yell at Heaven or Amelia to stop complaining when they didn't get their way.

This novel may not be for everyone but the obvious theme of drowning from all we often have to endure from life is relatable to all. I could not stop thinking about this book and I think that is the highest compliment for a writer.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher via #Netgalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own

Wow. I quicky raced through this book to finish it. But not because I loved it. Because I wanted it to end. “How Not to Drown” was jerky, slow paced and not my cup of tea. The characters were not likable and although Heaven was dealt a terrible hand, her story didn’t win me over.

Hillary Huber, the narrator, did her best with the story, but even she couldn’t save me from wanting it to end.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for an advanced copy of the audiobook via the NetGalley app. This is my honest review.

The story was interesting and the characters definitely grew on me. The only thing that grated on me was the very poor attempt at a Scottish accent. It was very distracting and took away from the story, but to be honest that character felt unnecessary and a little forced into the story. Otherwise it was enjoyable and I would recommend it to other.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley and am leaving my honest feedback willingly.*

This was an interesting look at how we all deal with grief differently. I enjoyed all the characters in this book, even though they weren't all "likable" characters. I think this book would have been a lot stronger either without the dual timeline or if the past timeline would have been more fleshed out. The current timeline held the main plot of the story and the past timeline just seemed out of place and underwritten. However, I still think this book had some interesting things to say and had a lot of important underlying themes. I would recommend this book.

How Not to Drown is a story about a family trying to work through the tragic loss of the "favorite" son. I found this book boring, the characters terrible, and the lack of any redemption extremely frustrating.

Amelia is so self obsessed and her extremely toxic treatment of Heaven made me want to scream. Also, her granddaughter was living with 2 drug addicts and she never made any attempt to help this child before?!? Never thought to contact child protective services? She seemed to have zero relationship to Heaven before taking custody of her. The way the narrator played her was funny though, because she sounds EXACTLY like Moira Rose from Schitt's Creek 😂
I could never wrap my head around how old Heaven was supposed to be. One minute she's acting like a typical teen and then, the next minute, she's behaving like a toddler. We are CONSTANTLY reminded of just how "fat" she is though...
Daniel was the only semi-likeable character and that's only because he seemed to genuinely love both his mother and his niece. He was still pretty creepy though.
The 1850s Scotland/coming to America storyline felt out of place and too random.
Not 1 character became a better person by the end of the story. Not 1!
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I didn’t enjoy this book, it was really sad and had very few high points. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters either. I listened to the audiobook and I love the narrator and usually she can keep my interest in anything, but this one just wasn’t for me.

I definitely did not know this was audio version. Cannot download it. Print version, I see, is not available. Would not have requested if I'd seen it was audio