Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Night Swim

A heavy, heavy read. I found the author did a wonderful job at delicately yet honestly describing rape culture from multiple perspectives / time frames. This is a difficult topic that honestly is just recently started to get support for survivors. The podcast aspect was also a unique way to tie everything together with current pop culture. There were a couple things that kept it from being 5 full stars from me but I appreciate this book and the challenge it took on.

Content Warnings

unlyke_li's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Content Warnings

heniaakbar's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

This is simple yet powerful story. I understand that most of thrillers have some degrees of relatability to us in a real life, but this is one of those which hits the nail. Spot on.

What I Like:
1. The theme. Although rape and sexual crimes are something as common as murder, this theme will never get exhausting.
2. Fact-spitting honesty: when murder occurs, no one doubts its wrongness, no one doubts that the guilty party is the killer. When rape occurs, however, some people, even the rapist, still see it as "depends", or worse, they blame the victim. It's what the victim is wearing, it's their fault because they go out and drink with men, it's their fault to walk alone in the dark. They're asking for it.
3. Sometimes people even defend the perp, especially if he has power, wealth, money and if they're good looking.
4. Not much plot twist which can be explored in the end, but still managed to be engaging.
5. This book jumps back and forth between the present (Rachel and the Podcast) and the past (Jenny's story, through Hannah's POV), and all of them intertwined just neatly without being overlapping.
6. Jenny is what happened when a group of men see a beautiful girl, can't keep their pants off, and then blaming the girl for being pretty. The crime happens "just because" and that's the worst kind of crime. At least Scott Blair has motives.
7. The courtroom trial is EXCELLENT!
8. It's devastating that we are this close to lose the case. Imagine if Vince wasn't there to testify, what will happen with the case? It's frustrating to see so many rapists walk free because the victim is just to afraid to speak.
9. Also learn the humiliating state of rape kit examination. Didn't think it would be this hard.
10. Some thrillers don't need to be all complicated and twisty, yet still give you the thrill. With its narration, delivery and the simplicity of it all, Megan Goldin gives a spine shivering tale and at the same time gives us a hard slap on the face.

I love this book so much.

Content Warnings

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I listened to the audiobook version of this story. I liked the different narrators for Rachel and Hannah, and it really made the podcast chapters come to life.

This was a heavy story, so check the trigger warnings before reading, but I really liked the discussion around rape and sexual assault, and the difficulties victims face in trying to find justice, as well as how this tied the two components of the story - the trial and Hannah’s story - together.

The story was paced well and the twist at the end was reasonable and wasn’t completely out of the blue, though it wasn’t completely shocking either as I did expect the stories to blend together somehow.

Overall, I really enjoyed this but it was more of a mystery than it was a thriller.

Content Warnings

peony_xo's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

suzyh5317's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

kelley_beth's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Well… this was a mediocre crime thriller. The podcast interjections were kind of lame. It would have flowed better without them. I really like a court room drama. And the story was relatively interesting until the final twist. It was just TOO out there. Like.. she was aiming for a big surprise that people wouldn’t guess and it was true.. i didn’t guess it, but she way overshot it. The last 50+ pages were overly dramatic and a bit eye roll inducing. I’m also not sure why she made Hannah seem like a stalker.. it was clearly added for creep factor but it really added nothing to the story. It felt ridiculous. Pacing on the thriller aspect and unwinding of the clues was pretty solid though.

Content Warnings

elsebeok's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

More...