Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The Night Swim

Too much mention and detail of rapes and other traumas. The author seemed to want to write a book of her own musings regarding the treatment of sexual assault cases by the criminal justice system. She didn’t seem to come to an explicit conclusion. I slogged through this book for a very disappointing and predictable “twist.” I should have DNFed this one. All trauma and a poorly formulated plot.

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marieeh's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad

1.0

I don't know how this book has such a high rating. I really didn't like it at all. I actually almost DNF'd for the first time but since I had this book selected for a challenge, I decided to power through and skimmed the last 25%.

Of course, the content itself makes the book very depressing and difficult to read. But aside from that, I felt like the writing was not very good, the characters very surface level, and the format difficult to follow. I understand that during some of Hannah's chapters the author had to be intentionally vague in order for the twist/reveal to be shocking at the end, but it just made things confusing when characters were being mentioned but not by name. Rachel's chapters were better but still felt like we were meeting too many characters and it felt difficult to keep everything straight. It also felt extremely unrealistic that just about everyone Rachel wanted to talk to or interview agreed and just gave her that information, no (or very few) questions asked. This is supposed to be a pretty small, insulated town. Those kinds of places are usually not so open to outsiders poking around and asking questions.

The podcast chapters were the worst, in my opinion. For the most part I felt like very little new information came from them (since Rachel was gathering this information during her POV chapters and we had already heard a lot of it). It seemed like they were there as a way to pad the length. It is also very obvious that the author has listened to the Serial podcast - it seemed like she was trying to imitate the voice of that podcaster, and she really did a good job, however that voice is quite grating to me so it made those chapters annoying to read. It felt like she was trying too hard to be someone else.

Overall it was quite a sad read with no one really receiving great closure or justice.

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kelley_beth's review against another edition

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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.

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forthelove's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Whew this was a book! The book has two stories running in tandem, one in the past and one present. Rachel is our main character and has created a popular podcast. She is covering a rape trial in a small coastal town and is mysteriously approached by another woman to help solve her sisters murder. The story has lots of twists and turns and there really aren’t that many plot gaps. The ending was well paced and didn’t leave you scratching your head. I will definitely read more by this author

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sarah2438's review against another edition

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4.0

This is so hard to rate because it was not enjoyable. It was emotionally exhausting to listen to on so many levels as you listen to the trauma of these characters. For someone that's uncomfortable with r@pe/SA content, I really went big here.
Despite that, I have to admit that the atmosphere and pacing was well done. We could've gotten bogged down with boring trial details and that didn't happen. As someone that works in these settings, I appreciated the accuracy of the trial details. (I'll even forgive the author for not including a victim witness coordinator.) The novel contained important social critique and questions about how we treat victims, without ever placing that blame on prosecutors or law enforcement. Don't get me wrong, no one is perfect-- but far too often those two parties are taking the bulk of the blame.
The main critique I have is how underdeveloped Rachel was. She seemed to really only exist as a storytelling mechanism and didn't have any personality or motivations beyond what she said on her podcast. I also thought the big reveal of Jenny's offender was a bit of a disappointing and random choice. I think my guess was better...
Did I enjoy it? No. Do I recommend it? Yes, with a long list of conditions. But it's well written and makes you think.

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katyannreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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