★★★★☆
This novel spans over a few generations, and it's not always immediately clear what's going on, so it make take a little while getting settled into the story. It did for me, at least.
The story opens with Eleanor...the first, that is (there are two in this story). This first Eleanor is a competitive swimmer, now pregnant with her second child and struggling with some feelings of malaise within her domestic life. Though she often does training swims out in the ocean tide, one day in 1962 she lets her feelings consume her, taking a swim she never returns from. It's not directly said that this is done with suicidal intent... but it's heavily suggested and quietly assumed by the general public that that's what happened to Eleanor.
Jump to 1985 --- Agnes, Eleanor's daughter (who was only 5 at the time of her mother's death / disappearance) is now the mother of six year old identical twins Eleanor and Esmerelda. We meet adult Agnes as a frazzled mom trying to manage her kids in the car while trying to get to the airport on time to pick up her husband. Another car unexpectedly collides into Agnes' vehicle while they wait to meet up with her husband. Everyone is knocked out from the impact, and when Agnes comes to, she sees that daughter Esme has been killed.
Now fast-forward to 1993. Surviving daughter Eleanor is now a teenager who we soon find out has had little childhood to speak of in the years since her sister's death. Agnes is now a divorced alcoholic, reliant on Eleanor to take care of her but also secretly, cruelly blaming her daughter for the other's death. While Eleanor is just trying to get through this period of her life the best she can, things are further complicated when she starts experiencing moments of being violent thrust into what appears to be alternate worlds or timelines, each "leap" costing her more and more time within her own world. She doesn't know why or how it's happening or how to stop or control it.
There are interludes in the story where we meet mysterious voices Mea and Efah. It's not until way late in the novel that their identities are fully explained. Early on in my reading I was trying to figure out if these were beings in a different timeline trying to communicate with Eleanor, or if it was going to be revealed that perhaps Eleanor had developed DID somewhere in her life from those early traumas. What ends up being revealed has a much more sci-fi / magical realism-ish lean to it.... a little tricky to grasp at first, but ultimately pretty moving in concept when the reader takes some time to think on things.
The overall presentation, to me, felt somewhat reminiscent of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time... that combination of sci-fi / fantasy elements blended with the message of the importance of family and taking care of those bonds. Occasionally, I was also having flashbacks to years ago, the first time I watched that movie The Cell, where Jennifer Lopez uses technology to enter the mind of Vincent D'Onfrio and finds all kinds of weirdness LOL
I'll be honest, this novel is not the easiest read. I spent much of the time trying to figure out how I felt about it, trying to make sense of these bits of scenes and information we're given, but trust me, it's going to make sense if you stick with it. The payoff is pretty cool too, even if I didn't entirely agree with where the storylines eventually ventured off. I was still thinking about several of the characters days after finishing the book. I'm definitely curious to check out what Gurley's other novels are like. But I'll have to give it a minute. The subject matters addressed in this novel (as far as family conflicts, drug addiction, suicidal thought, and such) left me in a bit of a book funk afterwards.
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