The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

By: Katya Apekina

Narrated by: Amy Melissa Bentley, Roger Wayne

It's 16-year-old Edie who finds their mother, Marianne, dangling in the living room from an old jump rope, puddle of urine on the floor, barely alive. Upstairs, 14-year-old Mae had fallen into one of her trances, often a result of feeling too closely attuned to her mother's dark moods.

After Marianne is unwillingly admitted to a mental hospital, Edie and Mae are forced to move from their childhood home in Louisiana to New York to live with their estranged father, Dennis, a former civil rights activist and literary figure on the other side of success. The girls, grieving and homesick, are at first wary of their father's affection, but soon Mae and Edie's close relationship begins to fall apart - Edie remains fiercely loyal to Marianne, convinced that Dennis is responsible for her mother's downfall, while Mae, suffocated by her striking resemblances to her mother, feels pulled toward their father. The girls move in increasingly opposing and destructive directions as they struggle to cope with outsized pain, and as the history of Dennis and Marianne's romantic past clicks into focus, the family fractures further.

Moving through a selection of first-person accounts and with a sinister sense of humor, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish powerfully captures the quiet torment of two sisters craving the attention of a parent they can't, and shouldn't, have to themselves.

©2018 Katya Apekina (P)2018 Tantor

dark and sad

but I like dark and sad. I was engaged most of the book, it really faulted at the end for me

In the palm of my hands, I hold multitudes

4/5 stars

I don't like being flattened by my trauma. I'm more than just my pain. I'm more than just a victim. I can be cruel, manipulative, delusional, romantic, ambitious, angry, brilliant, and sad. In the palm of my hands, I hold multitudes.

I resonate with Mae. I resonate with Ediie. I resonate with Dennis. I resonate with Marriane. I resonate with Doreen—and even Amanda.

Ironically Good

In the book club that I belong to, everyone was replying to the thread on what was the best books we read all year and one of them was "The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish."  I never heard this book before and surely never read anything from Katya Apekina.  After a few nudges from my friend who recommended that I should this one a try (we often have the same blizzard interests when it comes to reading materials), I bought it, read it and enjoyed it.   The reason why I like this book so much, it's very different from what I'm used to.  The subject matter is disturbing, but I also found comfort in the entire story.  Don't let the synopsis turn you away.  There are multi-layers in the pages and it's ironically good.

A very enchanting, insightful talented!

Loved the book. This young righter is already having her very distinguish voice and style. Bravo!

Very interesting if you can stand the incest and pedophilia

This book was definitely a lot but it was an interesting listen. I wish I was warned before hand about the trigger warnings but I did love the ending