Local Girl Swept Away by Ellen Wittlinger (review)

When Lorna came to Provincetown, Jackie, Finn, and Lucas were caught up in admiration for the fearless, charismatic girl, and they became an inseparable quartet. One stormy night, Lorna insists they walk on the breakwater, and she appears to fall into the churning surf and drown. Jackie doesn’t know how to grieve the loss of her best friend; she has always harbored a crush on Lorna’s boyfriend, Finn, and other people, including Jackie’s mother, saw Lorna as a pushy bully who manipulated her friends. Four months of grieving and moving on find Jackie involved with a much older man and considering her future away from Cape Cod and her working-class family when the impossible happens, and she has to rethink everything she thought she knew about Lorna, Lucas, Finn, friendship, and love. Wittlinger masterfully captures a strong sense of place as she explores the diverse communities that populate Provincetown, Massachusetts, noting the clashes between the fishing families and the artists who have long called the place home. Her title serves as a double entendre, indicating not only Lorna’s disappearance but also Jackie as a local with deep roots swept away by an alluring, not quite healthy fascination with a troubled girl so different from herself, and the promise of a lifestyle very different from that of her parents. Serving as her foil is Charlotte, an unsentimental local girl who sees Lorna for who she is and Jackie for who she can be. Even though the various plot twists are somewhat expected, the ultimate resolution is not, and it will leave readers with searching questions about what is right when dealing with a situation where there has been so much wrong. Fans of melodrama will get swept up in this.