Jaclyn’s Review: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water
written by Paula Hawkins
published by Riverhead Books, 2017

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, Target, Walmart, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book? I really liked The Girl on the Train by the same author, so I was very excited to get my hands on this book. It had a really long wait list at the library, so I assumed that meant it was a good book. Boy was I disappointed! I typically love a book with multiple narrators, but this book had WAY too many! I couldn’t keep everyone straight. This book had so many opportunities for character development and could really have a “creepy” factor to it, but the author just didn’t go there. This was a very surface level book (small pun intended . . .) and could have been so much better. I am usually pretty appreciative of author’s literary devices, but I simply could not take all the references to water in this book. How many people can be “drowning in their tears” or “sinking into depression” or any of the other myriad of water-related phrases?!?!? These could have been great if used subtly, but it felt like these sentences were in every paragraph! Enough already!

Would I recommend it? This isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but I’m very hesitant to recommend it. There are plenty of other better books to read in this genre.

 

 

About the book – from Goodreads: In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help. Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind. But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped. And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .

 

 

 

* This post contains affiliate links.

** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on June 7, 2019.