Reviews tagging 'Death'

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

33 reviews

tyreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

"𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯."

(Thanks to @prhaudio for the gifted audiobook) 

✦ Read if you like :

~ morbid curiosity 

~ mysterious deaths

~ hints of supernatural 

~ 10+ POVs

~ eerie, closely knit English villages

~ slow burn

~ closets full of skeletons 

✦ My Thoughts :

This book has been on my TBR forever. I’m so glad I waited until spooky season to finally pick it up! It had a haunted, eerie vibe that was exactly what I was looking for. I loved reading the lore around the drowning pool & got really invested in the many mysteries surrounding the deaths of several young women spanning decades. 

Before you dive into the murky waters of this novel, be warned - there is a huge cast of characters. With 10+ narrators, I won’t lie, I got a bit confused at first. I had to make a few notes to keep track of who was who. But once I got a handle on them, I found unraveling all the motives & interconnected backstories so satisfying. 

If you are in the mood for an intricately crafted plot & some spooky suspense, add this one to your shelf!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Murder

madbirks's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.75

I should have read the trigger warnings on this book more closely before reading. It dives deeply into

the guilt and shame that SA survivors experience

and I was not in a place to read that at the time. Otherwise, a really good read with lots of twists and turns. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

paytonbird's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Way too many characters, and very difficult to get into 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault

em_gauts's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cursing, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol

mlsmiley13's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, Suicide, and Murder

cozybritt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a dollar coaster of a mystery/thriller. One of those where you don't know what's real or true till the very end. It was very good! But could also be very triggering. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

cassiereadsbooks_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

greatexpectations77's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this book, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the physical version. There were a lottttt of characters, and it took me a long time to parse everyone apart. I think if I had a better idea of who everyone was, I could have started storing away little details about them to feel more involved in their lives faster. I thought it was written really well though, and I felt like everyone's story had a satisfying conclusion. Love a little witchy gal, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Blood, and Kidnapping

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

This book took the “thrill” out of “thriller” 😅 

There’s wayyy too many POVs (11 different characters PLUS alternating timelines plus a manuscript??). I love switching POVs but this was too much to the point that there’s too many plot points (which apparently not all of them get solved in the end), and I can’t connect with a single person.

This book could use a HEAVY round of edits/cuts to focus on a few things, it tried to do way too much and I simply was not interested. I couldn’t keep up with everyone and the POVs switched too quickly and too often for me to understand any of what was going on.

I loved Girl on the Train, didn’t love or hate Slow Fire Burning, and so after DNFing this I think Hawkins was just a one hit author for me and I won’t read anymore from her 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

mr_cain's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I only docked .25 of a star because the pacing was so slow in the exposition. I understand she's establishing a whole host of characters and I do appreciate it, but it's a book you have to power through the first part of. 

This book genuinely kept me guessing. I did suspect the real culprit several times, but I waffled often. Hawkins does a great job supplying motive and details for each of the suspects without it feeling like a painfully deliberate red herring. 

Hawkins also makes the characters each their own and her style is distinct for each chapter in a different POV (i.e. Helen, Jules, + Sean's chapters all feel genuine vs. the same style with different names as many POV switching books seem to do). She provides a cast of characters who are complex and feel so real. Not every character is deeply complicated but they all have their own established psyches which I loved. 

I can easily call myself a Paula Hawkins fan after this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, and Vomit