Rating: 
Summary: Honestly written, compelling
Review: This book was one I'd not heard of, but chose based on Amazon recommendations. I am so glad I did. The minute you open this book it is impossible not to be immersed in the harrowing stories of the main character of the book -- Vangie. A product of a lower class divorced couple, Vangie was not dealt the easiest or best cards in life. The language in this book is incredibly explicit and does not hold back; anyone who cannot handle that should think about reading it. That said, the language is not just thrown in wrecklessly. It is used necessarily to convey the thoughts and the actions of the characters. We see Vangie and her best friend from when they graduate high school and cannot wait to move out on their own with their boyfriends to what they go through when they enter the lives they imagined. However, June, Vangie's friend, takes a path that worries Vangie. A path of danger, and one that cannot end well. Vangie's growth is what makes this book most compelling, for she is a complex woman with intelligent and thought provoking ideas despite her humble upbringing or the unfortunate life she chose of drugs and alcohol -- and in time she questions all the choices and decisions she made. She looks at everything with a keen eye and learns to sort through right and wrong. She also is imressive in her ability to hold her own, to question the right issues and to take care of herself. She is someone whom in real life I might never encounter, so I am glad I have in this book. I was sad to see it end and will not soon forget Vangie. I hope for much more from this author. Her talent is exraordinary.
Rating: 
Summary: Read in one sitting
Review: This book was unlike anything I have ever read. This book's focus is the sexual experiences between Vangie and her boyfriend Del. I really enjoyed this book the only complaints I have are the ending, I wish there was more resolution, or some kind of understanding of what happened to Vangie. Also I wish there could have been more characters integrated into the story. This book is perfect for women in the high school age braket.All and all I would reccomed this book, one of the better ones that I have read in a while. Can't wait to read her next novel.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this book everyone
Review: This novel has the most remarkable in-your-face honesty - Vangie is a strong, yet struggling, young woman. I was utterly hooked by her life, her friendships, her boyfriends, her jobs and, last, but by no means least, her sex. Swimming Sweet Arrow is a beautifully written book, everyone buy a copy, you'll be glad you did so.
Rating: 
Summary: Swimming Sweet Arrow
Review: This was the worst book I have ever read. There was no development of the characters, the storyline was weak, and the language was vulgar without conveying the point at hand. Don't waste your time with this one!
Rating:
Summary: Candid, loving and daring...
Review: What first attracted me to this book was the picture on the cover and the fact that is was a first novel for Maureen Gibbon. From the very first words I read I knew I was going to enjoy this book. The heroine, Vangie Raybuck tells a candid tale of her life starting in high school with her boyfriend Del and her very best friend June and her boyfriend Ray. All the emotional, excitable trials and tribulations of two young women growing up in a working class life style are translated through their multiple sexual encounters. The language is raw, honest, simple yet very meaningful.
Vangie's daring, caring, loving voice defines her love, her sexual behaviour, her frienships and her jobs with such passion and candor that I could not help loving her. Her story involving drugs, drinking, sex, violence and religion is so moving, it touched me in such an unexpected way that I will never forget this beautiful novel.
When Vangie states ; ''Here is what they never tell you about being a girl'', it made me think of my own youth and all we had to learn through experience. Even though the sexual details are very explicit, Maureen Gibbon's writing is sharp, expressive, bold even risqué, it is never cheap.
I loved this book and highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Coming of Age Story?
Review: When I finished reading this book I really didn't know what to think of it. While reading it I constantly felt like I was reading a trashy romance novel with all the explicitly sexual imagery and at other times I found myself wondering if the plot was going to go anywhere at all. The book is described as being a coming of age story of two best friends, but I think it is just a teenage pornographic novel. I probably won't read this book again and even though it was only two hundred pages long, I feel that my time was wasted on this unsatisfying book.
Rating:
Summary: A Coming of Age Story?
Review: When I finished reading this book I really didn't know what to think of it. While reading it I constantly felt like I was reading a trashy romance novel with all the explicitly sexual imagery and at other times I found myself wondering if the plot was going to go anywhere at all. The book is described as being a coming of age story of two best friends, but I think it is just a teenage pornographic novel. I probably won't read this book again and even though it was only two hundred pages long, I feel that my time was wasted on this unsatisfying book.
Rating:
Summary: scorching sex and debilitating lies combine in poweful work
Review: You need to know that reading "Swimming Sweet Arrow" will be both a harrowing and compelling experience. Laced with extremely explicit descriptions of sexual acts, Maureen Gibbon's debut novel traces the desperately joyless life of Vangie Raybuck and her close friend, June Keel. We watch, with horror and fascnation, as Angie's relationship with her lover Del flowers by the intensity of their mutual sexual passion and collapses by Del's drug addiction and Vangie's debilitating capacity to engage in lies and self-deception. Indeed, the novel brilliantly chronicles the theme of self-destruction, and its irony of portraying that immolation through the most intimate of human intercourse gives "Swimming" its power. The sheer power and volume of sexual activity detailed in the novel should not be mistaken for the author's parallel emphasis on the halting, but very real discovery of personal integrity and authentic identity by Angie. Her growing awareness of the emptiness of her life is fueled by her self-reproach over a series of actions and lies which lay bare the non-existence of her relationship with Del and her increasingly complicated friendship with June. Personal betrayal, lies and deceit flow like subterranean rivers throughout this fast-paced novel. Contemporary authors are giving increased scrutiny to the despair and frustrations of blue-collar Americans, and the interpretation Ms. Gibbon provides is not a comforting one. Trapped by tough jobs, limited by a sense of powerlessnes and bound by a lack of future, both Vangie and June allow their bodies to be the means of expressing discontent and yearning. Their inability to articulate the nature of their attraction to the men in their lives, their willingness to submit to (and to abet) sexual degradation, their anger and frustration with the results of this submission, the seeming non-existence of horizons...all these combine to add to the aura of bleakness in this novel. "Swimming" deserves the praise and attention it will undoubtedly receive.
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