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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
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.
I just couldn't get into this book. I know a lot of people loved it, but I didn't even finish it. I finally put it down and walked away.
I need to stop reading books like this one. It messes with my mind. Takes root and grows. I liked it, but I don’t think I would have read it if not for the book club I’m in. I did like the way it was written, by the point of view of so many characters. However, I think there might have been to many characters. It would switch point of views way to much. I would take about half way through that persons POV before I would remember who they were.
I thought I was really going to like this one for some reason I just found it to be “ok.”Basically, a woman dies by suicide after jumping off a cliff. She had been studying the history of many women before her who jumped from the same cliff-including her daughter’s best friend. Predictably, she was murdered and her murderer was the police officer who was investigating her death who also happened to be her secret lover. It was nothing special.
It could have been a good story, but it lacked depth. Everything was predictable, and I feel like there wasn't an actual story.
I liked it but didn't. there were so many characters and narratives I found myself wondering "who is this again" on several occasions. Each character played their part well but I feel as though I didn't get to really know any of them in depth as much as it's like to.
This one sat on my shelf for a while before being read, and I did actually enjoy the story, just not the style of composition.
All that having been said, I do wish book comparisons would stop, even when they're written by the same author. You know the ones I mean. It seems like fishing, even begging, for readers, instead of letting the material stand for itself. Every title, even those in a series, are independent books. Comparing one to another does no justice to either and often times, does exactly the opposite - it invalidates both pieces and the author(s) who wrote them.
This one sat on my shelf for a while before being read, and I did actually enjoy the story, just not the style of composition.
All that having been said, I do wish book comparisons would stop, even when they're written by the same author. You know the ones I mean. It seems like fishing, even begging, for readers, instead of letting the material stand for itself. Every title, even those in a series, are independent books. Comparing one to another does no justice to either and often times, does exactly the opposite - it invalidates both pieces and the author(s) who wrote them.