Reviews

Undertow, by Elizabeth Heathcote

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jesstheintellectual's review against another edition

4.0

It was a good book but almost seemed as if Heathcote had so many ideas that they were all spilling out of her into this soup. The plot was brilliant and I would recommend.

gareindeedreads's review against another edition

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3.0

I would consider this one more of a fun, beach read. With the cover and the plot, I was expecting something darker and more similar to a "Girl on the Train" kind of vibe.

I loved how this began. A woman and her daughter walking their dog on the beach and they stumble across a body. Unfortunately, within 100 pages I had the ending guessed and really continued to work out a few of the details I was questioning. I did have a hard time pushing through this one.

While it was a genuinely good book, I was expecting something darker with more suspense. This was more of a psychological thriller than I had expected with the story being more about Carmen's journey for a year in her life and the death of Zena was just something that was kind of...there.

A lot of characters were introduced in this with no purpose other than to add to the red herrings and a lot of things happened that made me question where this was going. I believe we could've shaved about 50 pages off from this one.

I will say, while I struggled with this one and wasn't really into it, that doesn't mean it's not good. This was well-written and there were a couple of shocking things that were revealed in the ending. I did find the last 50-70 pages very enjoyable.

So when this is released, I wouldn't not recommend it, but if you want an easy and light thriller for the beach or a quick flight, this is the one for you!

imlothmelui's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

fullybookedsara's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

When I picked this book from the shop, it was in a section that said something among the lines of "for those who enjoyed The Girl On The Train", thus I recognize I might have gone into with unfair expectations which lead to some disappointment. The plot seemed quite mysterious at first, and the writing was quite suitable for someone who at the time wanted to sharpen their English as a non-native, but I found the plot quite predictable. Halfway through the book, I already knew "who dunnit", and I found the author's attempt to use a child as a red herring quite forced in my opinion. I think this could be more enjoyable for someone who would not usually read this genre or doesn't like their books to be too dark, but it was not for me, unfortunately.

Content Warnings

thesheward_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

bibliophilebookclub's review against another edition

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4.0

Undertow is a gripping psychological thriller. Combining domestic noir with psychological elements makes for a great read. The author has done a brilliant job in portraying the characters and their various back stories. I really enjoyed the sense of menace and tension that builds throughout the novel leading up to its climactic ending. While I had made some guesses along the way, it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the book. In a market saturated with this genre, Elizabeth Heathcote has done well to stand out. Undertow is an assured and confident book, and I would definitely recommend it.

mfrabbiele's review against another edition

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5.0

Plot twist after plot twist! Truly something that kept me intrigued from start to finish. Can’t wait to pass this along to a friends. Great read!

pridiansky's review against another edition

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0.5

This book was terrible. Incredibly bad. So bad in fact, that I hate-read it to the end. I laughed out loud at scenes because they were so terrible and I just did not care. All of the characters are vile people. They even managed to make one of the kids seem like a psychopath-in-training because he murders a bird for no apparent reason. Wowee, the ending is bad too, because not only was it incredibly unsatisfactory, but unethical. Oh, and there's a rape scene and the main character just lets it slide and it's never addressed again. Thanks for doing us a solid, woman author!

Content Warnings

meggyroussel's review against another edition

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4.0

A dead woman is brought onto the beach by the sea and found by a little girl and her mother.
Miles from there, happily married Carmen and Tom live in the city. What is the link?

No need to grill me, I admit this book is a cover choice. That blue is mesmerizing. Now that I think of it, I could have picked it for Halloween, and not just because of the cover. If some of us find happiness in magic worlds or intergalactic wars, I get all the feelings from psychological thrillers. I ain’t scared of monsters! Except when they look and sound like your husband.

Carmen is finally happy. She almost has it all. A nice apartment in London, a handsome and caring husband, and step kids to take care of on weekends. Yes, she was made redundant because of the economic crisis but free time is a good thing, right? Well, it depends on what you do with all those hours.

The worst had happened and all was calm and all was clean.

The perfect blended family and couple bliss image take a hit when a remark by a strange about a murder makes Carmen think about her husband Tom’s past. It all happens quite early in the book, and from that moment on, I could not put it down. Tom had confessed it all to Carmen a long time ago. How his marriage had ended, how he had met Her, younger, beautiful, how he used to take her to St Jude’s just like they did now with the kids, how she had gone missing and been found later, dead on the beach. But knowing about it does not mean you are not curious.

For once, there is no big secret hovering over heads and fears of a happy bubble exploding. Many elements are in the open air, known to the main character, and when I thought it would only take the thrill away, I was proven wrong. How so wrong! Knowing a truth does not mean you know the whole truth, and this is what the book is about. How much do you say to make people believe you? How much do you keep hidden, stored away in a box? And why is the entire story better left unsaid? These are the questions I kept asking myself while devouring chapter after chapter. I was growing more curious with every page while Carmen was getting more puzzled with every hour.

One remark, it is all it takes to create a doubt. Suddenly words turn into doubts, and your mind won’t snap out of it. A word, a look, a question unanswered, and a woman’s mind goes wild. One thing leading to another and before you realize it you are making every possible scenario in your head. From there goes the snowball effect. I am not saying we all are crazy paranoid beings ready to jump on our better halves at the first sign of something sketchy (says the girl who made a scene about a lipstick stain on a towel before noticing she was wearing the same shade of lipstick on her lips that same day… :p) But the right circumstances and a series of details can lead to something so much bigger than you could ever imagine.
The shady husband trope is my thing. Husbands make for the perfect suspect, and Tom is a brilliant lawyer, a loving father, and a wonderful character to doubt.

How quickly life swallowed death.

I love that Carmen’s suspicions are all based on substantial details, leaving the reader questioning her mindset and sanity. Is it okay to erase something from a computer? I do it every day, does that make me a killer? Is forgetting to mention something a lie? I warmed to Carmen very early on, when her life was all about what to eat and how to keep the kids busy, and it was very interesting to see the impact of the events on her decisions and actions. Every character is portrayed in a way that makes them real, sometimes relatable, sometimes despicable, but always real. Tom and the children are no simple secondary characters, and the family ties are strongly represented, giving the story a heavier tone. After all, all families are complicated!

So many questions came in waves as I was scrabbling to reach the end. I doubted everything, and even though I managed to get a couple of answers before the end, the steady pace kept me on my toes and the race of the last pages left me breathless.

Undertow is a strong psychological thriller using our deepest fears and playing with the —sometimes blind — trust we put in others. It will make you think twice about what you think you know and keep you turning pages long after curfew!

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

This book was originally reviewed on my blog.

bibliophilebookclub's review against another edition

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4.0

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