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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
I was so excited for Into the Water you guys. I tore through Girl on the Train back in 2015 and spent the last few months impatiently waiting to get my hands on this book from my local library.
I finally got the notice that my copy was available 2 weeks ago and immediately started on it. And immediately stalled out. There are so many characters and Hawkins felt the need to write chapters from each one's point of view! Add to the constantly shifting narrative the fact that this is one of those stories where you are dropped into the middle, after the biggest events have occurred and it just made for such a confusing read.
There's a story here, a good one, but it's lost in so many layers of alternating POV's that it just gets to be too much. I love the whole unreliable-narrator-with-a-twist-ending thing that's so trendy right now, but this one just tries way too hard and, as a result, it all falls flat. The book drags and drags at the beginning and then at the end the conclusion feels so, so rushed.
I didn't consciously realize I was avoiding the book until 3 days ago when I got the "your items are about to expire" auto-email from my library. With a wait-list as long as they have for Into the Water, I didn't want to be that person and keep the book past its due date so I powered through the last 2/3 and finished up late last night.
I know it must be daunting to have such a great success as Paula Hawkins did with her first book and then to have to try to follow that up. So I'm going to give her some credit. As I said before, there's a damned good story here. And maybe if I'd had the time to sit down and just read it in one or 2 large chunks rather than a chapter here and a chapter there every day instead, I'd have enjoyed it more. It's a busy time of year right now and I've got a lot on my plate, so I'm totally willing to take some of the blame for lack of enthusiasm over this novel. That said, I really hope Hawkins' third book is better.
Anyway, enough of my bitching - here's a summary so you can see if you might be interested in reading this one too:
Jules and Nel had been estranged for years. When Nel drowns, Jules travels back to their childhood vacation home in Beckford where Nel has been living, to take care of her now-orphaned niece Lena. Once back in town, she realizes that something deeper is going on. Did Nel kill herself, as everyone seems to believe, or was she pushed? Does her death have anything to do with the suicide-by-drowning of Lena's best friend only a month earlier? Or does it have to do with the book she was writing about the very spot where she, and so many other women in the town's history, died?
I finally got the notice that my copy was available 2 weeks ago and immediately started on it. And immediately stalled out. There are so many characters and Hawkins felt the need to write chapters from each one's point of view! Add to the constantly shifting narrative the fact that this is one of those stories where you are dropped into the middle, after the biggest events have occurred and it just made for such a confusing read.
There's a story here, a good one, but it's lost in so many layers of alternating POV's that it just gets to be too much. I love the whole unreliable-narrator-with-a-twist-ending thing that's so trendy right now, but this one just tries way too hard and, as a result, it all falls flat. The book drags and drags at the beginning and then at the end the conclusion feels so, so rushed.
I didn't consciously realize I was avoiding the book until 3 days ago when I got the "your items are about to expire" auto-email from my library. With a wait-list as long as they have for Into the Water, I didn't want to be that person and keep the book past its due date so I powered through the last 2/3 and finished up late last night.
I know it must be daunting to have such a great success as Paula Hawkins did with her first book and then to have to try to follow that up. So I'm going to give her some credit. As I said before, there's a damned good story here. And maybe if I'd had the time to sit down and just read it in one or 2 large chunks rather than a chapter here and a chapter there every day instead, I'd have enjoyed it more. It's a busy time of year right now and I've got a lot on my plate, so I'm totally willing to take some of the blame for lack of enthusiasm over this novel. That said, I really hope Hawkins' third book is better.
Anyway, enough of my bitching - here's a summary so you can see if you might be interested in reading this one too:
Jules and Nel had been estranged for years. When Nel drowns, Jules travels back to their childhood vacation home in Beckford where Nel has been living, to take care of her now-orphaned niece Lena. Once back in town, she realizes that something deeper is going on. Did Nel kill herself, as everyone seems to believe, or was she pushed? Does her death have anything to do with the suicide-by-drowning of Lena's best friend only a month earlier? Or does it have to do with the book she was writing about the very spot where she, and so many other women in the town's history, died?
I give this four stars, and I'll keep it there but after rethinking the whole book I would maybe consider three instead. It's an intense book. I enjoyed the twists, the secrets slowly revealed, the guessing-even if it's frustrating at times. But the ending seemed...I have trouble describing it...rushed? Incomplete? Unfulfilling? There were some things left unresolved at the end. And I'd rather not include spoilers. I'm ok with open endings, but this just really left me disappointed. The audiobook was especially interesting. There were multiple narrators and that added lots of character and animation to the story.
Sometimes a novel just has too much going on for the reader to keep on top of it. When you've got a lot of characters, and those characters are not particularly well constructed or differentiated, I'd recommend NOT switching between narrators each chapter.
Even a good author would struggle with this creative choice. Unfortunately, Hawkins is not that. I'm surprised it made it to print in this state, to be frank.
Even a good author would struggle with this creative choice. Unfortunately, Hawkins is not that. I'm surprised it made it to print in this state, to be frank.
This one kept my attention until the final sentence. The amount of characters seemed daunting to remember at first, but I liked the different viewpoints. Overall, I liked Into the Water much more than The Girl on the Train.
After reading Paula Hawkins' first book 'The Girl on the train' and not loving it (see full review here) I thought I would give her second book a go and see if her writing had improved any (so many people were talking about it I figured they had to be on to something)
In this book we follow Jules as she has to move back to her family home after her sister apparently jumped off a nearby cliff and died. There Jules is left trying to figure out what happened to her sister - a sister who never would have jumped - and who might have wanted her dead.
Well I think it is time to give up with Paula Hawkins' books. This book was ridiculous, I picked it up believing that there might be a mystery/witchy element to the book because after all it is about a pool where they used to drown witches. However there was none of that, it was literally just about Jules and various other people in the town.
The reason why this book is getting such a low rating from me is the fact that there are SO MANY PEOPLE! There must be about 7/8 different points of view in this book and they all sound alike. They speak exactly the same so halfway through a chapter I was having to go back to the start to see who was speaking. That many characters meant that the story lost all meaning for me as it was just far too confusing trying to figure out what was going on that I couldn't actually get into the story.
The parts that I did actually read though were incredibly disturbing, I think there should be a warning at the front of the book for triggers - there is a child rape scene which I found particularly disturbing. It wasn't exactly graphic however it was still enough that I think people would be affected if you are sensitive to this topic.
The tension was lost throughout this book because of the various POV's, by the time we were informed who the killer was I had absolutely no idea who that character was and why they had any motive to kill Nel. So for me I just didn't get this book, I think it tried to do too much and if Paula would have just used 3/4 characters instead of 7/8 then the story definitely would have flowed better and we could actually build up some tension towards the ending and figure out who had done it. Instead it was just a confusing mess.
In this book we follow Jules as she has to move back to her family home after her sister apparently jumped off a nearby cliff and died. There Jules is left trying to figure out what happened to her sister - a sister who never would have jumped - and who might have wanted her dead.
Well I think it is time to give up with Paula Hawkins' books. This book was ridiculous, I picked it up believing that there might be a mystery/witchy element to the book because after all it is about a pool where they used to drown witches. However there was none of that, it was literally just about Jules and various other people in the town.
The reason why this book is getting such a low rating from me is the fact that there are SO MANY PEOPLE! There must be about 7/8 different points of view in this book and they all sound alike. They speak exactly the same so halfway through a chapter I was having to go back to the start to see who was speaking. That many characters meant that the story lost all meaning for me as it was just far too confusing trying to figure out what was going on that I couldn't actually get into the story.
The parts that I did actually read though were incredibly disturbing, I think there should be a warning at the front of the book for triggers - there is a child rape scene which I found particularly disturbing. It wasn't exactly graphic however it was still enough that I think people would be affected if you are sensitive to this topic.
The tension was lost throughout this book because of the various POV's, by the time we were informed who the killer was I had absolutely no idea who that character was and why they had any motive to kill Nel. So for me I just didn't get this book, I think it tried to do too much and if Paula would have just used 3/4 characters instead of 7/8 then the story definitely would have flowed better and we could actually build up some tension towards the ending and figure out who had done it. Instead it was just a confusing mess.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
For me, this was a solid yet somewhat predictable mystery. I greatly appreciated the roster of characters at the beginning of the book; I found myself referencing it often at the beginning. Overall, I was engrossed enough and looked forward to reading more. I’ve had a copy of this book on my shelf for years. I’m glad I got around to it - it was a quick read to kick off my 2024 reading challenge!
I actually liked this book more than Girl on the Train. lot of different POV'S but I didn't feel that it detracted from the story at all.
I found the first 20-30 pages of this book highly frustrating - there were so many voices introduced and I had to keep reading back to see how each person was connected to any of the others, or if I'd read something in their voice before, or was there a date and did it matter, or . . . But once I'd got the people sorted out in my head it was fine and I got totally absorbed.
Aside from that, I'm writing no review. Others have written some very good ones.
Aside from that, I'm writing no review. Others have written some very good ones.
Loved the theme of the book. It was defintely creepy but I wanted it to be a little more paranormal. But I understand the choice behind making it about the sins of men and defliant women. Yet, I was not satisfied with the ending hence 4 stars instead of 5. There was not any characters I really related too. But they pissed me off which I always feel means the writer did well. FYI, I hated Louise who blames a child. A Child. Not the grownup. A child.
The story has multiple POV which is a favorite of mine. The one downside was that I knew who were the suspects by the way there POV was writing. Although, she fixed this a little bit with unrelatable first persons. But I don't know if we were supposed to be surprised. But creeped out about what people do to each other. How our past haunts us. How we treat women and girls. What can we learn if we just would listen to the wise women.
The story has multiple POV which is a favorite of mine. The one downside was that I knew who were the suspects by the way there POV was writing. Although, she fixed this a little bit with unrelatable first persons. But I don't know if we were supposed to be surprised. But creeped out about what people do to each other. How our past haunts us. How we treat women and girls. What can we learn if we just would listen to the wise women.