Book Review: Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

4 ⭐️’s from me

Goodreads Synopsis:  “A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother’s sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she’d never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.”

My Review:

After a runaway hit with The Girl On The Train, Paula Hawkins had set the bar high for anything that was to come next. Although it didn’t blow me away quite like it’s predecessor, Into the Water is a gripping read.

I heard an interview on NPR (click here for interview) where Hawkins discusses the mystery of water and what lies beneath the surface – her inspiration from her novel. That idea – intrigue and fascination with the unknown – is vividly described in these pages. A simple body of water in a small town, a place for fun in the sun during the day becomes so much more in darkness – taking womens’ lives in its tow.

I do have to say I think there may have been too many narrators here
with similar voices as I was checking to make sure I had characters straight until about halfway through the novel.

The pace is familiar and welcome – like that of The Girl on the Train and will keep you wanting to read just one more page long after bedtime. However, the ending was not as twisty and almost felt a little predictable if not contrived.

Still a great book and a recommended read! Enjoy!