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jve's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-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
2.75
To be honest, I thought The Girl on the Train was over-hyped and this novel felt similar. I found it tedious to read over and over again how much her female MCs are stuck in self-pity.
Having each character narrate their own chapters made the story especially confusing in the beginning, when you had no idea who they were. It was too many voices trying to tell the story. The ending also was not surprising. The whole book just fell flat for me.
Having each character narrate their own chapters made the story especially confusing in the beginning, when you had no idea who they were. It was too many voices trying to tell the story. The ending also was not surprising. The whole book just fell flat for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Rape, and Suicide
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
tdk's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
3.0
jenndub34's review against another edition
3.0
Not Difficult to Figure Out
You think it's a book about sisters and mother and daughters...but really it's a book about father and son. I thought it would be more about witches, but there wasn't anything supernatural about the book. Good ending.
You think it's a book about sisters and mother and daughters...but really it's a book about father and son. I thought it would be more about witches, but there wasn't anything supernatural about the book. Good ending.
jenpaul13's review against another edition
3.0
Water can be both a source of comfort and of peril, circumstance depending. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins explores the lives of those connected to a body of water known locally as the Drowning Pool.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In a small English town, there's a river that runs through it and it has a storied history as a place where many women meet their demise. After Nel Abbott turns up dead in the river, months after her daughter's best friend Katie was found dead in the river, the police investigation gains the perspective of a Detective Inspector reassigned from London. As more information about the events comes to light through inquisitive minds, the uncomfortable truth about the relationships in the town become clearer and provide a rationale, albeit disturbing, for the tragic events that transpired.
A rather eerie story that touches upon some socially unconventional or unacceptable relationships and beliefs, which was interesting to read. There were a lot of characters' perspectives used to compose this narrative. In a way this large cast helped to spread out suspicion and guilt among a variety of people, drawing out the reveal of what exactly happened, although it wasn't suspenseful - rather understanding the relationships connecting the characters drove me to keep reading. In another way the large ensemble of characters was initially quite difficult to keep straight, but once you get into the story a bit it gets easier to maintain the thread of the story, who's who, and who knows which secrets.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
In a small English town, there's a river that runs through it and it has a storied history as a place where many women meet their demise. After Nel Abbott turns up dead in the river, months after her daughter's best friend Katie was found dead in the river, the police investigation gains the perspective of a Detective Inspector reassigned from London. As more information about the events comes to light through inquisitive minds, the uncomfortable truth about the relationships in the town become clearer and provide a rationale, albeit disturbing, for the tragic events that transpired.
A rather eerie story that touches upon some socially unconventional or unacceptable relationships and beliefs, which was interesting to read. There were a lot of characters' perspectives used to compose this narrative. In a way this large cast helped to spread out suspicion and guilt among a variety of people, drawing out the reveal of what exactly happened, although it wasn't suspenseful - rather understanding the relationships connecting the characters drove me to keep reading. In another way the large ensemble of characters was initially quite difficult to keep straight, but once you get into the story a bit it gets easier to maintain the thread of the story, who's who, and who knows which secrets.
hikelsie's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
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
3.0
winecellarlibrary's review against another edition
2.0
This review is also available on my blog: Wine Cellar Library
Having just finished Paula Hawkins' [b:The Girl on the Train|22557272|The Girl on the Train|Paula Hawkins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490903702l/22557272._SY75_.jpg|41107568], I was expecting to really enjoy this novel. Unfortunately, I never really got into it. There are so many narrators. SO. MANY. And then, in addition to narrators, there is also the intermittent narration of a book that the character Nel was writing prior to her death, bringing even more characters into this complicated cast!
It was difficult to figure out just exactly what was going on, and why the reader should even care about what is going on. Several girls and women have died in the river. We are told that aside from the first, who was drowned as a witch, the rest have been suicides. For the first two-thirds of the book, I was bored. Were all these peeks into the numerous narrators' lives going to point to a murder or just confirm the suicides? It was not until I passed the two-thirds mark that the book finally became entertaining. Had I not read this as an audiobook, this would have taken me ages to read.
Nel's daughter is a frustrating creature, but she is easily the most likeable. She will withhold information out of a sense of misguided duty, even if it will help investigators. It's both frustrating and admirable. Paula Hawkins did a fantastic job writing this character in particular.
Everyone is flawed. Everyone is suspect. Everyone knows more than they are letting on. Will you have the patience to find out the reasons behind each death in the Drowning Pool?
Having just finished Paula Hawkins' [b:The Girl on the Train|22557272|The Girl on the Train|Paula Hawkins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490903702l/22557272._SY75_.jpg|41107568], I was expecting to really enjoy this novel. Unfortunately, I never really got into it. There are so many narrators. SO. MANY. And then, in addition to narrators, there is also the intermittent narration of a book that the character Nel was writing prior to her death, bringing even more characters into this complicated cast!
It was difficult to figure out just exactly what was going on, and why the reader should even care about what is going on. Several girls and women have died in the river. We are told that aside from the first, who was drowned as a witch, the rest have been suicides. For the first two-thirds of the book, I was bored. Were all these peeks into the numerous narrators' lives going to point to a murder or just confirm the suicides? It was not until I passed the two-thirds mark that the book finally became entertaining. Had I not read this as an audiobook, this would have taken me ages to read.
Nel's daughter is a frustrating creature, but she is easily the most likeable. She will withhold information out of a sense of misguided duty, even if it will help investigators. It's both frustrating and admirable. Paula Hawkins did a fantastic job writing this character in particular.
Everyone is flawed. Everyone is suspect. Everyone knows more than they are letting on. Will you have the patience to find out the reasons behind each death in the Drowning Pool?
emmabeckman's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this story better than The Girl on the Train, but not good enough to give it 5 stars (which does make me question my un-reviewed 4-Star rating of GotT.......). I thought the story was a bit more interesting than I remember GotT to be, probably because for that one I’m pretty sure i saw the movie before reading the book. I liked the way that this story interwove the history and the fantasy and the “real story”. However, I did think this story was fairly predictable. When elements were revealed, I sometimes found myself saying “well, duh” because I had seen it come from hundreds of pages before. Details in spoilers below. Overall though, I enjoyed the mystery and the way that Paula Hawkins whore the chapters with the overlapping elements.
SPOILER BELOW
One thing that confused me was the “wasn’t there a part of you that liked it?” quote that Jules remembers Nel saying. It seemed like the reader was supposed to have the epiphany along with Jules that Nel was asking about the feeling of drowning and not her reaction toward being raped. But I thought the question was about the feeling of drowning the whole time? Perhaps it’s my liberal youth mindset, but the idea of asking if she liked being raped was so disgusting to me that I couldn’t even conceive of it? I don’t know. It seemed like I was supposed to be like “oh my god she WASNT talking about liking the feeling of having sex, even if that sex was rape?” Hmm. I guess I just thought that was an especially disgusting element and I’m not sure that it was really necessary for a book published in 2017, even if the setting was 1991 in that part.
Also, why does Jules insist on being called Jules instead of Julia and why did that insistence only come up twice in 386 pages (and just to say “Jules (and not Julia)”)?
SPOILER BELOW
One thing that confused me was the “wasn’t there a part of you that liked it?” quote that Jules remembers Nel saying. It seemed like the reader was supposed to have the epiphany along with Jules that Nel was asking about the feeling of drowning and not her reaction toward being raped. But I thought the question was about the feeling of drowning the whole time? Perhaps it’s my liberal youth mindset, but the idea of asking if she liked being raped was so disgusting to me that I couldn’t even conceive of it? I don’t know. It seemed like I was supposed to be like “oh my god she WASNT talking about liking the feeling of having sex, even if that sex was rape?” Hmm. I guess I just thought that was an especially disgusting element and I’m not sure that it was really necessary for a book published in 2017, even if the setting was 1991 in that part.
Also, why does Jules insist on being called Jules instead of Julia and why did that insistence only come up twice in 386 pages (and just to say “Jules (and not Julia)”)?