Lost Girl of the Lake (by Joe McKinney & Michael McCarty)
I wanted to read a book on my Kindle and decided to try Lost Girl of the Lake by Joe McKinney and Michael McCarty. I’ve owned this e-book for so long that I don’t remember how or why I acquired it. Furthermore, I decided it had been neglected long enough. The setting was a family vacationing on a lake, so it also helps me hold onto the last vestiges of summer.
Fifteen-year-old Mark Gaitlin is on summer vacation with his parents in 1961. The family rented a cottage at a resort on Lake Livingston. (I kept picturing Kellerman’s, in the movie Dirty Dancing.) Mark is bored and looking for excuses to escape the adults and kids his age that he does not connect with. One night, he encounters a girl skinning dipping in the lake and becomes consumed with seeing her again. An abandoned village sits nearby the resort, where decades ago it’s rumored deeply religious people lived as well as snake handlers.
I’m easily drawn to stories about abandoned houses or villages. I love the mystery behind a location and the general spooky nature. I think that is what kept me reading this novella — and the fact that it’s short, so my time commitment was minimal. There were many times I came close to bailing. The story seemed to often deviate from the main story, which was the mysterious girl in the lake and the abandoned village, by Mark’s lengthy interactions with his parents and another boy at the resort. There were really lame jokes that were needlessly inserted into the story. I understand the jokes were meant to be lame, but come on, it wasn’t relevant to the story.
I liked that the story was told from Mark’s adult perspective. It was a reflective story about what transpired with the mysterious girl and the insights he gained about his family’s past and his parents. This style of storytelling reminded me of Gordie Lachance in the movie Stand By Me. During the moments I wanted to close my Kindle and move on to my next book, I kept wondering what was going to happen with the girl and that abandoned village. That portion of the story was satisfying and enjoyable.
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