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A review by kristineisreading
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
4.0
I had the worst case of decision paralysis trying to figure out what to read for my first book of 2024. My to-read list is a mile long and I couldn't figure out how to narrow it down. Ultimately I decided I wanted something fast paced, that would suck me into the story, but that wasn't a typical mystery/thriller. I wouldn't call The Night Swim particularly fast paced, but it definitely struck the other two notes.
There are actually two stories to get sucked into - the trial Rachel is covering for her podcast, and the case she finds herself investigating on the side. Following Rachel follow the trial and do some investigative work herself is equally interesting. The use of a podcast as a narrative structure sets this apart from a traditional true crime story. We get Rachel's in-the-moment reactions to the trial and then we get to hear her summarize her thoughts for her listeners in the bried podcast episode she records each day. It works as a nice juxtaposition for Hannah's story. Ultimately Hannah eventually tells Rachel the truth about Jenny's death, and Rachel is busy covering the trial so she doesn't have a lot of time to focus on uncovering it anyway, but we do get to see some real time sleuthing as she follows up on leads, runs around town (sometimes literally) to talk to people or do research, and generally proves herself to be good at her job.
One thing I really like is that Rachel herself is a pretty uncomplicated character. She doesn't have any unresolved traumas (or unresolved relationships) that pop up at inopportune times. We actually don't get to know much of her history at all, but somehow she still feels like a well crafted character. We get to know her steadily throughout the book as she balances covering the trial for her job with her new side quest of helping Hannah. Even when I found a few of her actions to be somewhat risky and poorly planned out, they were consistent with what I had come to know of her character. She's a competent reporter who occasionally gets distracted by her own curiosity, someone who refuses to be afraid even when a small dose of fear may do her some good, and unwaveringly compassionate. We get a few brief mentions of her family, an ex-boyfriend, her previous podcast success, but the Rachel we get to know is the present day Rachel. I appreciate this because I think too much of Rachel's backstory would detract from the much more important backstories of the two cases. I wasn't reading to hear Rachel's story, I was reading to hear Kelly's story, and Hannah's, and Jenny's.
The plot itself is somewhat slow, as it takes place over a fairly short period of time while the trial is going on. It does pick up the pace towards the end, as Rachel's investigation into Jenny's death starts to come together. The two stories converge and everything wraps up, not in a neat bow necessarily, but in a bow nonetheless. I found the ending to be satisfyingly realistic. Real life is not always back and white and it's okay for a happy ending to be written in shades of grey.
There are actually two stories to get sucked into - the trial Rachel is covering for her podcast, and the case she finds herself investigating on the side. Following Rachel follow the trial and do some investigative work herself is equally interesting. The use of a podcast as a narrative structure sets this apart from a traditional true crime story. We get Rachel's in-the-moment reactions to the trial and then we get to hear her summarize her thoughts for her listeners in the bried podcast episode she records each day. It works as a nice juxtaposition for Hannah's story. Ultimately Hannah eventually tells Rachel the truth about Jenny's death, and Rachel is busy covering the trial so she doesn't have a lot of time to focus on uncovering it anyway, but we do get to see some real time sleuthing as she follows up on leads, runs around town (sometimes literally) to talk to people or do research, and generally proves herself to be good at her job.
One thing I really like is that Rachel herself is a pretty uncomplicated character. She doesn't have any unresolved traumas (or unresolved relationships) that pop up at inopportune times. We actually don't get to know much of her history at all, but somehow she still feels like a well crafted character. We get to know her steadily throughout the book as she balances covering the trial for her job with her new side quest of helping Hannah. Even when I found a few of her actions to be somewhat risky and poorly planned out, they were consistent with what I had come to know of her character. She's a competent reporter who occasionally gets distracted by her own curiosity, someone who refuses to be afraid even when a small dose of fear may do her some good, and unwaveringly compassionate. We get a few brief mentions of her family, an ex-boyfriend, her previous podcast success, but the Rachel we get to know is the present day Rachel. I appreciate this because I think too much of Rachel's backstory would detract from the much more important backstories of the two cases. I wasn't reading to hear Rachel's story, I was reading to hear Kelly's story, and Hannah's, and Jenny's.
The plot itself is somewhat slow, as it takes place over a fairly short period of time while the trial is going on. It does pick up the pace towards the end, as Rachel's investigation into Jenny's death starts to come together. The two stories converge and everything wraps up, not in a neat bow necessarily, but in a bow nonetheless. I found the ending to be satisfyingly realistic. Real life is not always back and white and it's okay for a happy ending to be written in shades of grey.