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A review by winecellarlibrary
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
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?