Watermark: The Broken Bell series

by Elise Schiller

Overview

The oldest child in a troubled Philadelphia family, Angel Ferente struggles to care for her three sisters while pursuing her goal of attending college on a swimming scholarship. She has a problematic relationship with her mother, Pic, who uses alcohol and drugs to self-medicate and at one point lost custody for a year, and an outright hostile relationship with her stepfather, the only father figure in her life. Angel is the center of stability in the household—making sure the younger girls get to school, ensuring that holidays are observed, doing the family’s laundry at her part-time job at a Laundromat, and even taking care of Pic when she is sick or depressed. It’s 1993, the midst of the crack epidemic, and Angel and her sisters are witness to the everyday events of life in a community beset by poverty and drugs: dealers on the corner, shoot-outs that kill bystanders, prostitutes on the job, and more.

Then Angel goes to a team party on New Year’s Eve—and doesn’t come home afterward. In the wake of her disappearance, her teammates, her coach’s church, and her family search the city for her. The result changes their lives forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684630363
Publisher:	SparkPress
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Elise Schiller has been writing fiction, memoir, and nonfiction and actively participating in writing groups since adolescence. She has published several short stories and a number of articles and essays. In August of 2019, SparkPress published her memoir, Even If Your Heart Would Listen: Losing My Daughter to Heroin. She is now working on the second book of her Broken Bell series. Schiller also blogs about the opioid epidemic, books, and family history on her website. After a thirty-year career in education and family services in Philadelphia, Schiller retired in 2015 to write full time. She is an active volunteer and served on the Philadelphia Mayor’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic. She currently serves on the advisory board of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and disAbility Services and is an active member of the Friends of Safehouse. When not writing, reading, or volunteering, Schiller enjoys visiting museums and historical sites, often with one of her seven grandchildren or various nieces and nephews in tow.

Editorial Reviews

2021 IPPY Awards Silver Winner in Autobiography/Memoir II (Coming of Age/Family Legacy/Travel)
2020 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Bronze Medal in Fiction: Sports
2020 Sarton Awards Finalist in Contemporary Fiction

“A measured, affecting look at a struggling and burdened teenager . . . tight, unembellished prose makes for an easy read and even adds a hint of mystery.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Watermark is a shrewd and unflinching mystery set in some of the less charming parts of Philadelphia. Great characters, broken hearts, and lots of twists make this compelling reading. Elise Schiller makes her mark with this book.”
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author of V-Wars and Rage

“I found this book to be fascinating and insightful . . . incredibly compelling and a wonderful read. I can highly recommend this story and look forward to the next iteration of the Broken Bell series.”
—Reader’s Favorite (5-star review)

“Schiller’s Watermark is a perfect start to what will surely be a compelling series.”
—San Francisco Book Review

From the Publisher

2020-02-04
A talented Philadelphia high school swimmer with a bleak family life turns up missing in Schiller’s (Even if Your Heart Would Listen, 2019) dark melodrama.

After a New Year’s Eve party to usher in 1993, Angel Ferente doesn’t make it home. Angel is a senior at Kennedy Academic High School, where she’s a star on the swim team. The team also includes her best friend, Alex Williamson, and her “sometimes boyfriend,” Jamal Joyner. Her home life, however, is troubling. Her mother, Rita, who goes by “Pic,” has spent time in rehab and, several years prior, lost custody of Angel and her little sister, Jeannine. But now the girls live with Pic and her spiteful, unemployed husband, Frank, along with the couple’s young daughters, Kathleen and Joy. Before she disappeared, Angel had been caring for the other girls in between seemingly endless arguments with Pic and Frank. Though Angel has run away in the past, as when she suddenly left to see her biological father in New Jersey, Alex and Jeannine are worried because no one has any idea where she has gone. While some in the Philly community search for the missing teen, her friends and family can only hope that someone will find Angel—and that she’s still alive. Schiller’s tale, told through the alternating narrative perspectives of Alex and Jeannine, is an absorbing character study of Angel as well as of Jeannine. Both narrators provide insight into Angel, who uses swimming less for personal achievement and more as an escape from the home that occasionally leaves her with visible bruises. But readers learn just as much about Jeannine, an exceptionally smart girl whom many disregard because she rarely speaks in public. The author balances the generally somber story with amiable characters, from tough but compassionate swim coach “CJ” Rhodes to Alex’s mom, Claire, who’s a teacher at the same school. The tight, unembellished prose makes for an easy read and even adds a hint of mystery, as readers know neither Angel’s fate nor the identity of the person sending her anonymous, suggestive letters.

A measured, affecting look at a struggling and burdened teenager.

Kirkus Reviews