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A review by manikahemmerixh
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
3.75
The Night Swim follows two interconnected stories in the small fictional town of Neapolis. In modern day, Rachel is recording the newest season of her famous true crime podcast, following a trial of town golden boy Scott Blair, who has been accused of rape by a local 16-year-old girl. Upon coming to the town for the trial, Rachel receives a letter introducing the secondary story line, that of Hannah Stills who begs Rachel to help her uncover the true story of what happened to her older sister, Jenny, who supposedly drowned when she was 16 in 1992.
The chapters presented as podcasts episodes were hit or miss for me. Some of them helped to give important information about the trial in a unique way, but they also felt really gimmicky at times. The sign off felt like it would come abruptly, not like a podcast actually coming to end, but like that was all I needed to share in this chapter so *sign off*. If the goal was to make it feel more like a podcast, I think an introduction would have been more beneficial but I don't know that it's needed for a book at all. Very repetitive to read. There were also the occasional random pieces that stood out as weird to me (why was Rachel's voice sexualized as an indication to the success of the podcast? and why did Kelly's father give such a creepily specific recount of what Kelly's friend was wearing the morning they went to pick her up? although in retrospect maybe this is the first time alarm bells are supposed to ring about him as a precursor to the end of the book )
Otherwise I liked the format of the novel. The story doesn't try to take the reader down too many rabbit holes, but slowly unfolds piece by piece, leaving an air of mystery until you get that next reveal. It tackles a rough subject with sexual assault, and seems to do so meaningfully. Parts of this book feel like they could be plucked right from things I've seen on Twitter or in any real life discourse of what it means to be a victim of sexual assault, especially if you come forward to take your abuser to trial; right down to the speculation of "but why would a good, well-rounded boy who could get anyone he wanted need to rape someone?" Why, indeed. If that's a trigger for you, though, it's probably best not to pick this one up.
The chapters presented as podcasts episodes were hit or miss for me. Some of them helped to give important information about the trial in a unique way, but they also felt really gimmicky at times. The sign off felt like it would come abruptly, not like a podcast actually coming to end, but like that was all I needed to share in this chapter so *sign off*. If the goal was to make it feel more like a podcast, I think an introduction would have been more beneficial but I don't know that it's needed for a book at all. Very repetitive to read. There were also the occasional random pieces that stood out as weird to me (why was Rachel's voice sexualized as an indication to the success of the podcast?
Otherwise I liked the format of the novel. The story doesn't try to take the reader down too many rabbit holes, but slowly unfolds piece by piece, leaving an air of mystery until you get that next reveal. It tackles a rough subject with sexual assault, and seems to do so meaningfully. Parts of this book feel like they could be plucked right from things I've seen on Twitter or in any real life discourse of what it means to be a victim of sexual assault, especially if you come forward to take your abuser to trial; right down to the speculation of "but why would a good, well-rounded boy who could get anyone he wanted need to rape someone?" Why, indeed. If that's a trigger for you, though, it's probably best not to pick this one up.