Elephants, meet Nessie

I recently received and read a copy of Sara Gruen’s At the Water’s Edge. Here’s the pretty cover:

Gruen is the author of Water for Elephants, a book I haven’t read, but inspired a movie with one of the most terrible lines I’ve ever heard:

“You’re a beautiful woman; you deserve a beautiful life.” #whataboutthenormalsandtheuglies

I read At the Water’s Edge immediately after my finals ended, and it was the perfect book at that time. I think, in general, the book is fairly enjoyable. But it was particularly nice to read a novel that didn’t make me think too much, but that wasn’t completely stupid or ill written, either. I would recommend it as a beach read.

The novel revolves around the character Maddie, the wife of socialite Ellis who gets dragged to Scotland with her husband and his friend Hank during WWII. Ellis and Hank can’t fight in WWII, because the former is color blind, and the latter is flat footed; looking fairly physically capable, however, the two are often subjected to derision, which they generally handle via getting drunk, until they decide to handle it via traveling to Scotland and finding proof that the Loch Ness monster exists.

#logic

In Scotland, Maddie discovers herself, faces the reality of the man she married, falls in love, and becomes immersed in Scottish supernatural lore.

A fairly good read, and one that I would recommend to most people. On my completely biased scale for books, At the Water’s Edge rates one ghostly castle on the Scottish highlands.

#readit