#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERGOODREADS CHOICE AWARD WINNER FOR MYSTERY/THRILLERAn addictive new novel of psychological suspense from the author of #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train and A Slow Fire Burning. “Hawkins is at the forefront of a group of female authors—think Gillian Flynn and Megan Abbott—who have reinvigorated the literary suspense novel by … Gillian Flynn and Megan Abbott—who have reinvigorated the literary suspense novel by tapping a rich vein of psychological menace and social unease… there’s a certain solace to a dark escape, in the promise of submerged truths coming to light.” —Vogue
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.
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If you had told me last week, as I checked the mailbox every day for my Book of the Month package containing Into the Water, that I would be as disappointed in it as I am, I wouldn’t have believed you.
Into the Water is about a river, and the many deaths that happen around and inside of it over the years. The most recent is Nel Abbott, a single mother who had been fascinated with the river and its many secrets. With such an intriguing premise, I expected A LOT more from this one, and i think ultimately people are going to be disappointed.
It feels like it was written from a completely different person than the woman who wrote the blockbuster hit that was The Girl on the Train. There were about 10 points of view throughout the book that could have been eliminated and made for a more streamlined read. There were plot lines that didn’t need to be included at all, and at the end I closed the book and thought, “okay and?”
Definitely a disappointment, but it was undoubtedly hard to follow up a hit like The Girl on the Train.
If you’re a fan of multiple points of view (as I am), you’ll love this book for its crisp, clear writing and intricately woven plot. There’s no question Hawkins is a brilliant writer (though I just wish I hadn’t seen the end coming quite so early, satisfying as it was). That said, in my mind, it’s better than Girl on the Train, though very different. A dark, disturbing look at human nature. Put this one on your to-read list and then go ahead and read it. Lights on, of course.
I’ve been impatiently waiting for this book to the released, the second novel by Paula Hawkins of “The Girl on the Train” fame. I was not disappointed and I absolutely devoured it chapter by chapter.
Jules’s sister Nel was found in a river after dying from a fall off the overhanging cliff. This came mere weeks after the similar death of Katie, the best friend of Nel’s daughter, Lena. Something that is haunting Jules is that Nel was researching mysterious deaths at that same spot in the river that had been happening for centuries. Is this a spot for suicides or murders? And how would anyone be able tell?
With a large list of narrators, the book feels a bit larger and more complex than “The Girl on the Train”. Each does have a distinct enough voice to make the different perspectives work. It does take concentration for the reader to remember who is speaking, what he/she knows, how he/she is connected, and so on. But, in my opinion, it just draws a more interesting (and thus rewarding) picture of the story as a while, proving how interconnected we all are with people around us.
A solid addition to the list of Hawkins’s works that will presumably continue to grow in number and popularity.
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins was the book selected by my blog followers as my Book Bucket read for January 2018. Each month, I hold a poll where you can pick from 12 books I want to read, rotating a new one in and out each month. I was excited to read this one, but hadn’t read Girl on the Train before, so Hawkins is a new author for me. I enjoyed the book a great deal, despite a few areas that didn’t quite work for me, but I’d still recommend it to others as a strong thriller and suspense novel.
The novel focuses on a small town in England, following a core set of about 10 characters. Chapters alternate to provide the history and perspective of multiple deaths by drowning in a local river. It all begins with the death of a suspected witch from several hundred years earlier, culminating with a few deaths in modern times that could be suicide, accidental or murder. As each character shares parts of the story, readers learn what truly happened to each victim.
Ignoring the historical murders, the current day plot is intricate. Several teenagers fight to be popular or earn respect while in high school. Sisters struggle to accept their differences with one another. Parents and children argue about parenting styles. Families are broken by affairs. Police detectives walk a fine line of doing the right versus the wrong thing. Each of the stories are weaved together in a way you can’t help but want to know all the connections. And there is, of course a ‘surprise’ twist in the end… which for many readers, probably won’t be a surprise.
I’m primarily a plot reader, followed closely by character. The plot is definitely strong; however, at least 50% of the characters have some flaws or issues in how they were written. Keeping characters in the grey zone is important within a suspense novel; readers need to know that they might be missing part of the picture, but in the end, it should be clearer than it was in this book. For 3 characters, I felt like the actions didn’t quite match what we’d come to expect from the personalities we’d gotten to know – and it wasn’t due to the grey area. It felt like a totally new character had replaced the ones we’d spent attaching ourselves to. If there are connections we just failed to see because of how good the writing is, then I am OK with it. But if it feels disconnected, then I think the book fails a bit. That’s what I felt happened here… what started out as a 4.5 rating began going south as parts of the plot unraveled. It was clear the entire way that something wasn’t right with a certain character, yet the twist in the end doesn’t do any justice to ‘why’ certain things happened.
All that said… as I kept turning the page, my interest was held and I liked many aspects of the book. I lowered my rating by 1 star because of how it seemed to fall apart in the end… ending somewhere between a 3.5 and a 3.75, rounded up to a 4 in the rating. I’ll keep reading Hawkins’ novels, but if another has a similar downturn, I might not stick with it.
Another of my book club’s picks, Into the Water kept me up late, frantically reading through to the end. I give it four stars and not five only because I wasn’t crazy about the twist at the very end. Maybe it’s because I liked to think I had the whodunit all figured out until—bam—I didn’t.
This was an intriguing read with twists and turns and every character is a suspect. It keeps you reading with questions about how history links with current tragedies. Although darker than what I normally read, I enjoyed the mystery of it.
I’m going to say this right out of the box, this was not as good as Girl on the Train. It had its moments but if you expected this to be anything like Hawkins’ first book, you’re going to be sorely missed.
The premise of the book is a small British town having to come to terms with the death of a single mother. With everyone in the town feeling guilty but essentially no one willing to take the blame, the town’s hate and love of the local Drowning Poll draws in the focus of not only the single mother’s death but other women’s deaths there too.
While it was twisted and even suspenseful at parts, it was hard to get into. There are tons of diverse characters and you’re essentially trying to keep up with who’s who and what’s happening. The amount of characters, and how they unraveled with other plots, made it difficult to keep up. I essentially had to make a mental flow chart of who was with which family and what they had done. But, like I said, there are parts that get you sucked into the plot.
Hawkins’ style of writing is really what kept me wanting to go further and further into the book. Her descriptions and visuals of the scenery were enthralling. As someone who lived in England for sometime it was almost like taking a wee trip back down memory lane, but a rather dark one. Take for instance this line:
“They never saw what the water really was, greenish-black and filled with living things and dying things. Out”
While there are some shortfalls to this book, in terms of numerous narrators, and a shit ton of plots to follow, this is an excellent crime thriller that packs one hell of a plot twist ending. Like Hawkins wrote:
“Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.”
Read more of my review here: https://bit.ly/2xpDyId
I loved “The Girl on the Train,” but I was somewhat disappointed when “Into the Water” did not meet expectations. Although it is a good read, I found it a little confusing, getting to the grips with each character and the recounting of Nel Abbott’s apparent suicide.
The book was a tad dark in places, and I found it quite depressing.
Really enjoyed it. I thought it a much better book than Girl on the Train. I found it easy to follow and loved the way the story was told by different characters, all with secrets and their own versions of the truth. Loved the concept, the theme of different family relationships and wronged women. More like this please.
Wow! What a tangled mess of lies, misunderstandings, moral failures, misogynistic feelings, good intentions and karma! This book blew my socks off. It’s told from many points of view with each character doling out information, misinformation and hints about things to come. Somehow the author is able to keep each voice distinct and relevant while leading us through a labyrinth of a plot! …and as an aside, the author must really hate men!…and I really disliked ALL of the characters!
Its a really amazing book. If you enjoy reading subtle mysteries, then this book is for you. It is charmingly structured. Its a page turner, your mind won’t rest until you finish the whole. As you move further into the book you will eventually come up with a ending but you will only discover the real one in the last chapter. Believe me, you will love it better.
If you have read the author’s other book (the girl on the train), you would wonder if lnto the Water is as good as the former ? But its better. The twisting plot will keep you guessing.
I really enjoyed this book! J was very intrigued by the story the characters the twist… very good
I love her writing style and the dark qualities of her settings and characters. The river and the town play just as in important part of the story as do the tormented, secretive residents. I couldn’t wait for people to leave me alone so I could spend time in this world.
Absolutely amazing. Could not put this down. Brilliant!! Paula Hawkins
One of the greatest books around!
This book pulled me in from the beginning and kept me wanting to come back for more. The way that Hawkins reveals information slowly throughout the book allows the reader to be one of the detectives, which is fun. Although, it was hard to keep that detective hat on since the story jumped heads from one character to the next, and the characters are so compelling it was easy to get caught up in what that particular character believed to be the truth. So that aspect of the story was well done. However, the story was told from so many perspectives, I had trouble remembering who everybody was at the beginning, especially when characters that I had deemed as tertiary to the story, were given a chapter. I wound up going back to reread where I had met some of those characters. I think the story would have been clearer had Hawkins been a bit more discriminating on who got to narrate. I also feel that the end was rushed. The entire book had this nice leisurely pace, and then everything wrapped up at the end at warp-speed. It felt incongruous with the rest of the book, and an unnecessary switch.
I liked this mystery that centered around the drowning pool, a place to get rid of troublesome women…
Into The Water by Paula Hawkins touches a lot of serious, sensitive topics, and she handles them so well. Her portrayal of what secrets and misunderstandings bring about could be a warning to us all. Secrets do not stay buried.
I feel for all the lives forever changed.
I had some confusion switching to so many points of view, especially early on. My head was spinning, there is soooo much happening, so many angles, but Paula Hawkins wraps the story up nicely.
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I actually didn’t finish this book which is rare for me. I usually stick it out with books. I read over 100 pages and If one more woman went into the water… well, I don’t know what. It was depressing, and I didn’t care that much for the characters. Life is too short so I moved on to something much more pleasant and fun.
This was a well written story but the subject matter was too dark.
After reading this book and previously reading The Girl on the Train I decided I am not a fan of Paula Hawkins.