Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

36 reviews

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

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Eating disorder, and Chronic illness

paronomaniac's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious relaxing 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

Graphic: Grief, Suicide, and Rape

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Infidelity, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Fatphobia

exrthalex's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book closely followed several seemingly intertwined unfortunate “drownings.” Throughout the most recent tragedies, the characters are forced to confront past trauma and mistakes, so they can understand, learn, and heal. I expected the plot to have a closer connection to witchcraft/the previous “witches” drowned, but it instead felt like a side note. I enjoyed the plot overall, but would have loved if this element was explored more. While the use of multiple character perspectives can be confusing at times, it ultimately complements the story by providing an omniscient POV. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Grief, Murder, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Rape, Pedophilia, and Suicide

bbrewer14's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Difficult start due to constant skipping between characters. Once you grasp the characters and their relation to the story and each other, the book smooths out and carries well. Overall, the story has a good premise and an interesting twist of a conclusion. The issue is the number of voices given to the story makes it difficult to care about what happened or happens to any of the characters. A solid story, but one I had to push myself to finish reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

This book touches on several controversial and somewhat difficult topics. None of them is expounded on so fully that they became completely uncomfortable, but the subject matter may be difficult for some readers.

brenxbee's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Suicide, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Fatphobia

Minor: Animal cruelty and Dementia

kkalicky94's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Eating disorder

eleasmarvels's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Honestly I love Paula Hawkins ! Her books are beautifully written. 
After reading girl on the train I was a bit worried to start another of her book not wanting to be disappointed.. and I wasn’t. It’s a brilliant psychological suspense novel and I can only advise you to read it. 

I am rarely able to read book with

Spoiler

rape

warning, but with her writing I could. 

I truly loved the idea behind those stories

Spoiler

"a place to get rid of troublesome women"

. She push us to question about gender dynamic, bond between family members, morally grey characters,… 

I thought the switch between each pov was well done, it was captivating and very interesting to hear all those voices. 

And yes there are unloveable characters but that’s what makes it interesting and honest. 

Paula Hawkins is truly brilliant 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Rape, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

rhaselpaq's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Rape, Murder, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Body shaming

eshiltonn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Grief, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Murder, and Death

livjcarver's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

the book is split into 4 parts, with the first two being extremely slow and heavy on setting up the plot. there’s too many perspectives for my liking, switching between almost everyone in the small town and not really getting to know any in-depth. however, the last two parts had me hooked. much more fast paced, if you tried to guess the ending you were rethinking it all. having read previously a slow fire burning by the same author, it felt like that was a more refined version of this, like into the water was a practice run for a later book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Adult/minor relationship