Reviews with content warning for Death - The Drowning Summer

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Drowning Summer by C.L. Herman

7 reviews

decembermagpie's review

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adventurous challenging emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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chezoree's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was actually good. It held my attention, and the chapters were short. One thing though the mystery was a little confusing to me, I don’t know maybe I wasn’t paying attention at one point but it was good for the most part. It has decent bi rep with a sapphic relationship. I liked the whole ghost murder mystery idea, I thought it was cool.

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brokereader's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I found it really draggy - there weren’t many moments where I felt I couldn’t put down the book - still a good book. Just didn’t really get into it.

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katdotniche's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Drowning Summer was one of those books I picked up on a whim, I liked the cover, and I was feeling good about a mystery book. It turned out to be so much more than that. The ghosts were fascinating, and the story behind them felt like it could be a whole other book, which I would love to read if the author ever wanted to write it, but they were just a part of the story, a backdrop for Christine Lynn Herman to deal with the complications of family life: depression, the way it feels to be the result of a teen pregnancy, how siblinghood survives when only one of you manages to get out. And she deals with incredibly complex emotions around loneliness.

Personally, I felt that I could most relate to Evelyn, especially with the way she shut herself off from friendship to avoid being hurt by anyone else close to her but didn’t realise she was setting herself up for the pain that being lonely brings. Her struggle to let people in and let them know her for who she is, was incredibly evocative and it brought me so much joy to watch her learn to love herself again, after being trapped with herself for six years.

The other half of the main characters was Mina, who seemed to have very much the opposite struggle; she wants to be loved and have friends, but she doesn’t know how to do that when she has to keep so much of her life a secret. Mina’s closest friend was her mother, and that relationship and the way it deteriorated could very much be a mirror for Mina’s fears – when she learns that her mother has been keeping secrets, regardless of the fact that she very much believed it was to protect her, she felt incredibly betrayed to the point that she nearly destroyed her relationship not only with her mother, but also the budding one with Evelyn. I felt that what pushed her to keep her distance was that exact scenario, but with her on the opposite side, and that was why her relationship with Evelyn was so important, because Evelyn knew the truth.

Lynn Herman also deals with the effects of climate change on the ocean, and on the ghosts – something new and fresh in this genre. It was fascinating to read her take on ghosts being connected to water and how that changed when the water was polluted, and I absolutely cannot wait to read more of her work.

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