Reviews with content warning for Death - The Night Swim

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

92 reviews

poonam's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A

5.0

I could not put this book down.

This book centers around a rape trial. That's a very sensitive topic and I really liked the way it was handled in the book.
There's another story that we follow which took place twenty five years ago. Jenny stills had died. Something terrible had happened that night but no one knew the truth except for Jenny's murderer. This book kept me on the edge of my seat from the very beginning. We follow Rachel who's in the town to cover the trial for her podcast as she receives letters from Jenny's sister, Hannah, in irregular intervals where she tells her the truth of her sister's death or life.
It wasn't an easy book to get through as the topic is heavy but it's handled so nicely that i wasn't able to stop until I finished the book.
I had guessed the murderer correctly but that didn't change my feelings towards the book which usually doesn't happen.

I recommend this book to everyone. Go for the audiobook if you can. It's amazing. I'll also suggest you to go through the trigger warning before starting it.

Content Warnings

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed reading this book! I did figure out a few things early on in the book, hence the 4 stars. I found it really interesting how the 2 seemingly unrelated storylines tied together and I enjoyed the jumping between Hannah, Rachel, and the podcast. I didn't want to put this book down!

***Please make sure to check the trigger warnings before reading!

Content Warnings

missblissreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Content Warnings

sparetimereader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-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? No

4.75

Rachel Krall hosts a true crime podcast. Her newest season features the trial of a possible rape of a young teenage girl by a Olympic swimming hopeful. As Rachel goes to the small town of Neapolis to sit in on the trial, and provide up to date information for her podcast, she finds a somewhat disturbing letter stuck under her windshield wiper. The letter is signed from someone named Hannah, and is begging Rachel to investigate further into the murder of her sister Jenny.

Rachel quickly realizes that “Hannah” won’t leave her alone until she agrees to look into the case. The people of town insist Jenny drowned, but Hannah believes otherwise. As Rachel is digging into the past she soon starts to question if there is a connection between the two girls, 25 years apart.

I’ve seen such high praise for this book, and went in completely blind. I thought the author did a great job at keeping the book suspenseful and kept me flipping pages. I really enjoyed the multiple time lines and different point of views. I also thought it was a fun idea to include the podcast episodes in the book to help tell the story. Highly recommend this one if you’re a fan of true crime (even though this is fictional).

⚠️ Trigger Warnings ⚠️

This book does discuss a case of rape (but does not go into detail), murder, and death.

Content Warnings

maggies's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Listening to the audiobook was interesting because it included "produced" episodes of the Guilty or Not Guilty podcast produced throughout the story. Not sure that was a good addition to the book, though...I didn't like the podcast and it soured my view of Rachel. The dual crimes years apart trope was executed well enough, with a suitable twist to be enjoyable, but it wasn't the most elegant.

Content Warnings