Girl Out of Water

Narrator Laurence Bouvard has the voice of surfer-girl Anise down pat. The summer before her senior year finds her looking forward to surfing, partying, and hanging out with her friends on the beach--until a family emergency sends her and her father to Nebraska to help out when her aunt is seriously injured. Anise sounds confident and self-absorbed yet often unable to be honest and open with friends and family. She has the singsong voice girls of that age use, making everything seem sooo important and exciting. Most of the other characters' voices are appropriate to their ages and cultures, except Lincoln, who sounds much older than a recent high school graduate. The overuse of expletives cheapens the story. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine