Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
This book was okay- It has decent twists and turns & is interesting if you can get past the chapters' POV switching from character to character, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did The Girl on the Train.
An interesting enough mystery but I really disliked how many tropes were included in the narrative. Like, you can see them a mile away so you know how its going to be resolved. Where is the mystery in that?
This is unfortunately yet another book featuring sisters who don't get along because somehow nobody is able to imagine female relationships as being positive. Brothers and fathers get along fine but sisters caring for each other? That's just unheard of! It is so massively irritating. But I decided to give the book a chance.
What really took me out of the book was the fat-shaming. I persevered with it because I thought there would be a good resolution to this side-plot.
There is a former fat character who recalls the horrible bullying and abuse she suffers for the way she looks. Not only does she find happiness only after losing weight, another horrible trope, but the text then paints her as the villain for assuming the worst about her chief bully, who goes on to die. Ummm, why would anyone who has suffered so tremendously through their childhood ever give their bullies the time of day? And why on earth should the narrative say otherwise?
What's worse is that none of the character's bullies get their comeuppance. They blissfully go along with their lives and the text presents this scenario as ideal. The hell?
In addition to this, by some strange coincidence, the last three books I've read have all been by female authors focusing on female characters, and all of them have centred on sexual assault. I really wish I could pick up a book about female characters that didn't include this particular storyline. Especially if the rape plot is so easily dismissed and not properly engaged with. What was the point of including it at all when it plays so small a part in the characters' lives?
And let me not get started on the statutory tape storyline which is so poorly handled and resolved that, had it been introduced earlier in the book, I would have stopped reading. Let's just say the handling of this plot line is more Nabakov than it has any right to be in 2017.
Tl;dr - this book has some serious issues addressing fat-shaming, bullying, violence against women and sexual assault. Even if it was a good story, it leaves too sour a taste in your mouth to like it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I really wasn't a fan of The Girl on the Train but thought I should give this one a try nonetheless. Yeah, I've learnt my lesson. I'm just going to avoid this author from now on.
This is unfortunately yet another book featuring sisters who don't get along because somehow nobody is able to imagine female relationships as being positive. Brothers and fathers get along fine but sisters caring for each other? That's just unheard of! It is so massively irritating. But I decided to give the book a chance.
What really took me out of the book was the fat-shaming. I persevered with it because I thought there would be a good resolution to this side-plot.
There is a former fat character who recalls the horrible bullying and abuse she suffers for the way she looks. Not only does she find happiness only after losing weight, another horrible trope, but the text then paints her as the villain for assuming the worst about her chief bully, who goes on to die. Ummm, why would anyone who has suffered so tremendously through their childhood ever give their bullies the time of day? And why on earth should the narrative say otherwise?
What's worse is that none of the character's bullies get their comeuppance. They blissfully go along with their lives and the text presents this scenario as ideal. The hell?
In addition to this, by some strange coincidence, the last three books I've read have all been by female authors focusing on female characters, and all of them have centred on sexual assault. I really wish I could pick up a book about female characters that didn't include this particular storyline. Especially if the rape plot is so easily dismissed and not properly engaged with. What was the point of including it at all when it plays so small a part in the characters' lives?
And let me not get started on the statutory tape storyline which is so poorly handled and resolved that, had it been introduced earlier in the book, I would have stopped reading. Let's just say the handling of this plot line is more Nabakov than it has any right to be in 2017.
Tl;dr - this book has some serious issues addressing fat-shaming, bullying, violence against women and sexual assault. Even if it was a good story, it leaves too sour a taste in your mouth to like it.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I really wasn't a fan of The Girl on the Train but thought I should give this one a try nonetheless. Yeah, I've learnt my lesson. I'm just going to avoid this author from now on.
Goodness, getting through this book was a slog. The bottom line is that there are way too many characters' perspectives that are being represented here. I was halfway through the novel before I finally pieced together who was who and how they were all connected to each other. Hawkins is asking way too much of her readers here--just pick two or three characters to represent and let the rest of them go--none of them were interesting enough to have their own point of view portrayed, but if I had to pick, I would keep the viewpoints of Helen, Jules, and Lena (as well as the excerpts from Nan's "book"). I'm giving it two starts instead of one just because I think the premise of the story is cool (women throughout the centuries seem to die in the same water-laden spot--what could be going on?) but it reeks of sophomore slump anxiety--Hawkins was most likely nervous about her second novel and overshot. Capable editors probably could have helped her concept to become a really intriguing novel, but they seem to be missing in action here.
Every now and again I will read one of these "grip lit" books and, like this one, I am rarely disappointed. Does exactly what it says on the tin. It probably doesn't warrant 4 stars, but I read some reviews that I think are overly harsh so I upped it one because at the end of the day its all about being entertained, and I was.
The idea of this book is solid, however I found the execution terribly frustrating. For the first half of the book I found myself frequently lost while trying to familiarise myself with the multiple viewpoints, of what are essentially unnecessary characters. The book picks up in the second half, but by that point you are only reading on to find out who is guilty, and of what. It’s a bit of a slog, and if I had my time back I wouldn’t start this book.
Nel is a single mom in the sleepy little river town of Beckford, England. The only trouble is that women keep ending up dead in the river. It all started so long ago when a "witch" was tied up and weighted down and thrown into the river. Witches float, but that poor soul didn't float. So then on, it seems that "troublesome" women end up in the river. Nel decides to write about these women and that gets her in a lot of trouble. Nel's daughter, Lena, has just lost her best friend, Katie, to the river. Too many women, so many suspects. You won't find out the answer until the last page.
Ugh, Paula Hawkins, you can do better. After enjoying the delicious suspense and tight story line of “Girl on the Train,” I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, Hawkins took a huge collection of strange underdeveloped characters and an unclear patchwork of possible plot lines and hurled them against the wall to see which one would stick. None of them did. This was a disappointing hot mess of a book.
This may be the first audiobook I've listened to that had different narrators for different characters. But, with 10 different POVs, I was glad of it. I was hesitant to pick up Into the Water because I was so thoroughly irritated with the end of Girl on a Train. But, Into the Water was available and intriguing at the library so I checked it out to listen to on my runs. I finished it sitting on the bed, staring at my phone.
I'll agree with other reviews that there were quite a few red herrings that were unnecessary and even more POVs than I felt we needed. But, if you take the book as a picture of a small town with a problem, you see a much more developed story. It's not JUST the story of Nell Abott or Katie Whittaker. It's not just the story of the Drowning Pool or Ann Warden. It's the story of what happens in small towns and how it can be silenced for years - without anyone the wiser.
The characters were incredibly well developed and the story flawless - with one hanging exception that doesn't seem to be answered throughout the book. I'll definitely be anticipating another one!
I'll agree with other reviews that there were quite a few red herrings that were unnecessary and even more POVs than I felt we needed. But, if you take the book as a picture of a small town with a problem, you see a much more developed story. It's not JUST the story of Nell Abott or Katie Whittaker. It's not just the story of the Drowning Pool or Ann Warden. It's the story of what happens in small towns and how it can be silenced for years - without anyone the wiser.
The characters were incredibly well developed and the story flawless - with one hanging exception that doesn't seem to be answered throughout the book. I'll definitely be anticipating another one!
I enjoyed the middle 1/3 of this book immensely. It reminded me a lot of the tv series, Broadchurch. A death had taken place and the perspective of was it murder and why is given by various towns members made it very intriguing. But then the story just veers off course and you get submerged (pun intended) into this sea of stories of other drownings and other potential murders and the who and the why get drowned out (pun intended). The ending is a hot mess of, I suppose, red herrings but the obvious answer was obvious from the beginning so just disappointing and anticlimactic. And the first 1/3 of the book is a boring preamble of meet the town.
I think this had a lot of potential to be a really interesting mystery, but lack of editing and the obvious ending made for a disappointing finish. It also is really making me tired of this “Girl On a Train” genre. Can we just write a proper mystery and stop with the trendy multiple view points that aren’t mysterious but tedious and self-serving. Or, at the very least, create some characters that a reader can get invested in. By the end of this book, I honestly didn’t care who did what or went where. I was literally watching the time count down so I could mark this finished. But I can finally get this off my tbr pile so that is something to celebrate.
It’s not a terrible book. And if you’re into the genre, you may find it interesting. The multiple narrators was weird because they did multiple characters so it got a bit confusing. But the audiobook was infinitely easier than reading it.
I think this had a lot of potential to be a really interesting mystery, but lack of editing and the obvious ending made for a disappointing finish. It also is really making me tired of this “Girl On a Train” genre. Can we just write a proper mystery and stop with the trendy multiple view points that aren’t mysterious but tedious and self-serving. Or, at the very least, create some characters that a reader can get invested in. By the end of this book, I honestly didn’t care who did what or went where. I was literally watching the time count down so I could mark this finished. But I can finally get this off my tbr pile so that is something to celebrate.
It’s not a terrible book. And if you’re into the genre, you may find it interesting. The multiple narrators was weird because they did multiple characters so it got a bit confusing. But the audiobook was infinitely easier than reading it.