The Weight of Water
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The Weight of Water Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

W. A. Schwartz (Author), Erin Mead (Narrator), Beacon Audiobooks (Publisher)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 294 ratings
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Rachel and Talia Fontenot are sisters born into brutal, rural poverty of southeastern Louisiana in the 1960s.

Raised with one another until tragic circumstances intervene and they are separated. Talia disappearing into a life of drugs and petty crime, Rachel fleeing to New Orleans. It is now present day and Talia has been missing for many years. Rachel in New Orleans is living what appears to be the perfect life, but underneath she is struggling with constant anxiety, prescription drug abuse and tremendous grief over the loss of her missing sister, as well as her oldest son to an accident several years earlier.

One night, she receives a call from a nurse she's not heard from since Hurricane Katrina. The information she is given sets in motion a series of events that will unravel. Rachel's life forced her to examine her past choices and takes her on a psychologically arduous journey to save her sister.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 1 minute
  2. Author
    W. A. Schwartz
  3. Narrator
    Erin Mead
  4. Audible release date
    January 9, 2024
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Beacon Audiobooks
  7. ASIN
    B0CRRY5L7F
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 1 minute
Author W. A. Schwartz
Narrator Erin Mead
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date January 09, 2024
Publisher Beacon Audiobooks
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0CRRY5L7F
Best Sellers Rank #85,336 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#127 in Southern United States Literature
#586 in Southern Fiction
#2,001 in Psychological Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
294 global ratings
Folks from New Orleans remember...
4 Stars
Folks from New Orleans remember...
This is a Good story. Sadly, there were portions with NO editing.Commas were strewn across a page without regard to content.One chapter was repeated. I just began to fill in the missing words.My sixth grade English teacher was spinning in her grave! LOL
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent content! Terrible editing—many incomplete sentences!
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2021
Verified Purchase
The content is excellent and the storyline is well-developed. I felt like the author could have been more descriptive of her characters. There were numerous incomplete sentences, word usage errors, spelling and punctuation errors, that were distracting to me as the reader. That being said, barring the poor editing, the story grabbed me right from the beginning, was thoroughly absorbing and hard to put down!
4 people found this helpful
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koby goddard
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
The story is great! The editing on kindle version is horrendous! If you can ignore extremely poor punctuation, it’s a book worth reading.
One person found this helpful
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bscs
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Story!
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is a novel about two sisters born into an abusive and neglectful poor trash family, and their love for each other. The older one has taken over the responsibility of caring for and protecting her sister, because there is no one else to do it. They live with their mother, who abandons them one day, and then are shuffled on to a grandmother, who takes decent care, until the alcoholic father takes them and brings them to the house he shares with his girlfriend, who doesn’t want them, and her trashy kids. The story switches between the girls’ childhoods and adulthood, as each tries to survive the life they were born into. They live in the ninth ward of New Orleans, and Hurricane Katrina is on the horizon. The tension builds as you realize what they are going to have to contend with it. This was a beautiful, sad story, with very believable characters. As other reviewers have noted, there was a lack of editing, with capitals in the middle of sentences, phrases ending in periods that weren’t sentences, unfinished quotation marks. But none of that could detract from the fact that this was a great, well written story. It was the best book I’ve read in years.
One person found this helpful
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Alipit
3.0 out of 5 stars horrible editing
Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
I'm only about 50 pages into this book and the plot seems very interesting. BUT, holy crow, did anybody actually edit this book? There are random capitalizations in the middle of sentences, the punctuation is atrocious. I'm going to continue reading it because it has kept my interest, but the author needs to know that whatever she paid the editor, it was too much!
2 people found this helpful
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Susan C
5.0 out of 5 stars A very realistic New Orleans story
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021
Verified Purchase
I lived in NO in the 80's so I recognized so many settings. This book is true to life. Very well written.
Wonderful believable characters. One of the best Katrina stories yet. This is a story that lingers and will be remembered. How many times does that happen for a voracious reader?
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AnnieLiz
5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2021
Verified Purchase
I lived in Houston when Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans and the surrounding area. I am haunted by Katrina, Rita and Ike - three hurricanes that devastated the area of the Gulf Coast I considered home. The Weight of Water perfectly captures the intricacies of the devastation that can happen when Mother Nature and irresponsible elected officials conspire - consciously or not - to disregard the needs of the humans they serve.

This book will haunt me, as do the hurricanes I mentioned. Thankfully, the ending is positive but Ms. Schwartz kept me in suspense the full length of this novel. I can't wait to read more from her!
3 people found this helpful
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Christmas Carol
4.0 out of 5 stars Great story
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021
Verified Purchase
Children fighting to stay alive, young women doing what ever it takes, and finally women protecting their own the best they can.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a Wonderful book!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
I haven't read a book quite like this in a long time and I loved every second I was reading! The characters, the sisters, were so different and I wanted to tell them it was okay and all would work out but then something else would happen..I stayed up way too late last night finishing this book😋. Not sorry and I know you will enjoy it as much as I did!!
4 people found this helpful
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