Into the Water

I liked the characters and the overall plot of multiple murders at the drowning pool spanning decades. Hawkins has a gift for writing punctual, thrilling chapters that keep you hungry for more, which is how I managed to finish this book in a day!

What I didn't like was that the story seemed very guided by one character in particular and that was the least believable character throughout the entire novel. When the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, it wasn't a natural unraveling but more like one of the characters just spouting all of the information in a hurry. This left a lot of questions; if this character didn't exist would any of our leads solve the case? I don't want to draw assumptions but it felt like Hawkins was show more writing this for the screen (fast-paced and suspenseful) but even then, I hope the ending is rewritten. show less

Disappointing Melange of Voices

In nto the Water, Paula Hawkins employs a succession of characters and voices to advance the story of what happened to Nel Abbott when she turns up dead in a river. Was it suicide or murder? Unfortunately, with so many characters, all of whom sound similar, readers will find themselves confused in short order. This novel has been purchased for film production so maybe the producers and screenwriter will help the whole thing make sense.

Nel’s death by drowning stirs up lots of fuss in the small town in Northumberland. Her daughter, Lena, believes she was murdered. Nel’s sister, Jules, becomes involved and old animosities resurface. Another woman, mother of a daughter, Katie, who died in the river, shows show more relief at Nel’s death. She holds Nel responsible for her daughter’s death, because Nel inspired girls’ interest in the section of the river Katie died in, called the Drowning Pool. The police get involved, but it turns out the inspectors are intertwined in the drama. Other murders are revealed and committed, and in the end, doubt reigns supreme as to whom really killed Nel.

Hawkins’ blockbuster The Girl on the Train was a straightforward race to discover what Rachel saw on the train, marred by a twisty and unbelievable ending. Fans of the book will find Into the Water a different experience, one that twists and loops to no really good effect. Read only if you must. show less

This novel has many characters telling the story from many points of view, and this tends to make the mystery more disjointed than suspenseful. The drowning pool has a long and sorrowful history. So-called witches were thrown into it only to drown. Lately, it seems to draw suicide-minded women. And perhaps a murderer or two. This tale is an interesting one, but it is so convoluted and contrived, with so very many narrators, that it is easy to lose track of the truth as it is doled out. But if you like twisty tales with many narrators, some unreliable, then you may like this story.

Written from multiple points of view, this novel made me work very hard to ithe action together and to sort the characters out.

Given her preoccupation with the Drowning Pool and her research into its history and the women who had ended their lives there, perhaps it wasn't surprising that Nel Abbott had drowned there. But her sister Jules found it hard to accept and her daughter Lena feels abandoned.

A few weeks earlier Lena's best friend Katie had drowned there too and Katie's parents are grieving and, for some reason, blaming Nel for Katie's death.

But in the close knit community there are those who don't think Jules should just accept things,

The narrative is interspersed with items that Nel had written as part of here research and a show more number of the community members add their opinions and narratives. The structure gives the story a rich complexity. show less

I wasn’t a big fan of ‘The Girl on the Train’ so didn’t go into this with big expectations, in fact I only started it because I need something to listen to when walking to work and my wife had it on Audible. I was surprised then by how much I liked it. Whereas the multiple narrators in GOTT felt like a gimmick and didn’t add anything to the book (IMHO), the technique works perfectly in ‘Into the Water’. There are far more narrators here, and they’re all convincing, meaning we end up with a mystery the reader has to piece together paired with a telling commentary on the effects of sexual violence on the victims. Whilst there are male characters, this really is a book about women, full to the brim with females of all ages, show more backgrounds and motivations. It’s compelling, emotional and satisfying from start to finish. show less

I was not a fan of The Girl on the Train. Because of that I was hesitant to read Hawkins new novel, but I'm glad I took the chance. I loved this one! Interestingly, it appears from reviews I've read that readers who loved The Girl on the Train despise Into the Water, but those that disliked her first work love this one.
In this book, Jules returns home upon the death of her sister, Nel. Jules and Nel have been estranged for years. An incident in their teen years has created a deep resentment in Jules for her sister. Still, Jules has to go home for her sister's funeral and because her sister was the single mother of a teen aged girl.
Nel has drowned in The Drowning Pool, a place of local legend where supposedly witches and other show more "troublesome women" have been disposed of. Nel's is the second recent death in the pool, and there is some question as to whether Nel killed herself or was killed.
The story is told by a variety of characters with narration shifting in each chapter. This gives the same sort of confusion that Hawkins created in The Girl on the Train with her unreliable narrator. I found this much more appealing because I could not find a single character in her previous work that I cared about. In this work, although everyone is flawed in some way, they are each also sympathetic.
There are lots of twists and turns, red herrings, and surprises. It kept me reading late into the night. I would highly recommend it. show less

The Drowning Pool. That's what the locals call the spot in the river where many women have drowned. But the question always is: did they commit suicide, or were they murdered? Lena's mother is the most recent woman to drown in the river, and her death, along with that of a teenage girl earlier in the summer, has opened up a mystery that will reveal secrets thought long-buried. As Lena's aunt Jules tries to discover what really happened, she finds a manuscript among her sister's things. The manuscript is for a book about the deaths in the river, and it brings up even more questions than it answers, along with controversy; the townspeople don't like the idea of their secrets and heartbreaks being aired to the world. Through each show more character's narrative in the story, more connections among the townspeople, and more secrets, are revealed, and people's lives and views of the world are destroyed. Characteristic of Hawkins's writing, this book keeps you turning pages to search for the answers to the mystery. In some ways, I felt some of the mysteries revealed were anticlimactic, but overall, this was a good story. I liked the connections going back to the drowning trials of witches. show less