which has been optioned for television by a major Hollywood studio.
McDonald applied the Page 69 Test to These Still Black Waters and reported the following:
The Page 69 Test works really well on These Still Black Waters. The setting is a flashback to Neve’s childhood days, arriving in Black Lake for her last ‘normal’ summer. The scene shows Neve’s character as a child, as well as foreshadows how things are about to change, most importantly with her friend Bee.Visit Christina McDonald's website.I was a shy and anxious child, terrified daily by my father’s vivid images of the rapture and end times, of being left behind and getting my head chopped off or worse, committing unforgivable sins and being sent straight to Hell. He thought A Thief in the Night was a perfect Sunday School movie.While this page gives a good representation of character, I’m not sure it gives a good idea of the whole book, nor that it would make people grab the book and take it up to the cash register. They might be intrigued by the characterization, and readers interested in teenage dynamics might like it, but this one page doesn’t explore the plot in the most suspenseful way.
But Bee had the easy confidence that came with not having a lot of parental input. She invented our games, and I followed along. We climbed trees and built forts, caught fireflies, roasted marshmallows, went kayaking, and swung on rope swings into the lake.
But that day, when we arrived, there was no Bee. After a while, I made my way over to her house. Her mom answered the door, looking gaunt and grim, her cheekbones jutting like straight arrows. She gave me a one-armed hug. She was already half-drunk, her eyes glassy, even though it wasn’t yet lunchtime. She had a giant insulated thermos in one hand, and the reek of whiskey came off her in waves.
“Good to see you, doll!” she exclaimed, too loud. “Bee’s up in her room.”
When Bee opened her bedroom door, I gasped.
“Bee, wow, you look…amazing!” She was all angles and sharp lines. And her boobs were huge, or was her bra padded? Her pink crop top and short shorts left little to the imagination.
“Neve! I didn’t know you were back!” She threw her arms around me, then twirled dramatically. “It’s my new diet, doll.”
There was something about her mother to this new Bee—the sharp cheekbones, the padded bra, the airy use of the word doll. I didn’t like it.
What it does do is set up the characters of Neve and Bee, who they are in relation to each other, and it foreshadows how much that relationship is about to change. It also shows what a troubled girl Bee was, and that Neve noticed, and followed her anyway.
I love that this page showcases Black Lake and how the girls’ relationship blossomed in this lakeside town. Black Lake is completely fictional, but the essence of it is loosely based on my visits to Lake Chelan (Washington State) when I was a kid.
We didn’t go for entire summers, just long weekends camping, but it had that small-town vibe about it, eating lunch at hamburger stands and building forts and swinging on ropes swings. We’d spend hot, sandy days at the beach, then eat our ice cream cones in the shade as they melted down our fingertips, and at night we’d roast marshmallows or catch fireflies. I really wanted to capture that feeling of nostalgia, that familiarity in the confines of this story, and I think this page does that.
The Page 69 Test: The Night Olivia Fell.
--Marshal Zeringue
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