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A review by jhutch1324
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
5.0
This is my first novel by Megan Goldin, but it will not be my last. My typical measure of a good thriller is that I cannot guess the ending. I am not measuring this novel in that same way, and let me explain why. This isn't so much a thriller, as it is a mystery novel imo. In a thriller there is some measure of danger for the protagonist or the narrator. It involves figuring out the clues for the safety of somebody typically. This book is all about things that happened in the past, and how the truth unravels itself in the present day. It's been a while, other than Agatha Christie, since I've read a true mystery novel and not a thriller. I do enjoy both genres though so I am happy either way.
The protagonist of this novel, Rachel, is an investigative journalist and true crime podcast host. She's got a couple of seasons under her belt now and she's traveling to a small town in the Carolinas to cover, in real time, a rape trial. Goldin does a really good job of setting the scene here, you really feel like you're in this small Carolinas town. I like how intricately she explains that when somebody says everyone knows everyone, they're not joking. These towns are everywhere, we've all been there on a vacation at some point or another, it looks quaint from the outside but inside not so much.
We are taken through present day spliced with descriptions of the past. The present day goes through the rape trial, it details what happens to a rape victim, what that girl has to go through in order to even bring it to trial. It goes through the trial, and we find out how justice plays out. The chapters detailing the story from the past, are told in the voice of the victim's younger sister. She writes to Rachel begging for her help, as she believes the 'drowning' death of her sister was not an accidental drowning, and was actually foul play. She details how she was witness to the people she believes hurt her sister hurting her sister over a span of time, and I hate to say this but with the way that the world treats rape victims, victims of assault, and any victim with trauma, I am not surprised that the cops get these cases so wrong. There's also special circumstances involved in this specific case that I won't mention because it's a spoiler, but suffice to say this story is not outlandish and inconceivable. Sadly women are treated like this all the time.
This book makes me both angry, and sad. I feel this way because my own personal experiences with the world have told me that the things in this book are sadly a thousand percent true. If I, some nobody special girl from the Midwest, have been treated this way repeatedly in so many different places and settings by men, even when I was a child men said inappropriate things to me, I know that I'm not the only one and I know that the majority of women experience this because we talk about it now. I wish we've always talked about it, but I'm happy that we're finally talking about it now.
Goldin has easily become one of my favorite authors, not only because the subject matter moved me, but also the way she wrote. I was sucked in from the very first part, she had me invested in the characters easily, and even though I was able to assume who the perpetrator was, his associates were unknown to me and the circumstances by which things happened were not clear until the very end, I enjoyed this mystery.
The protagonist of this novel, Rachel, is an investigative journalist and true crime podcast host. She's got a couple of seasons under her belt now and she's traveling to a small town in the Carolinas to cover, in real time, a rape trial. Goldin does a really good job of setting the scene here, you really feel like you're in this small Carolinas town. I like how intricately she explains that when somebody says everyone knows everyone, they're not joking. These towns are everywhere, we've all been there on a vacation at some point or another, it looks quaint from the outside but inside not so much.
We are taken through present day spliced with descriptions of the past. The present day goes through the rape trial, it details what happens to a rape victim, what that girl has to go through in order to even bring it to trial. It goes through the trial, and we find out how justice plays out. The chapters detailing the story from the past, are told in the voice of the victim's younger sister. She writes to Rachel begging for her help, as she believes the 'drowning' death of her sister was not an accidental drowning, and was actually foul play. She details how she was witness to the people she believes hurt her sister hurting her sister over a span of time, and I hate to say this but with the way that the world treats rape victims, victims of assault, and any victim with trauma, I am not surprised that the cops get these cases so wrong. There's also special circumstances involved in this specific case that I won't mention because it's a spoiler, but suffice to say this story is not outlandish and inconceivable. Sadly women are treated like this all the time.
This book makes me both angry, and sad. I feel this way because my own personal experiences with the world have told me that the things in this book are sadly a thousand percent true. If I, some nobody special girl from the Midwest, have been treated this way repeatedly in so many different places and settings by men, even when I was a child men said inappropriate things to me, I know that I'm not the only one and I know that the majority of women experience this because we talk about it now. I wish we've always talked about it, but I'm happy that we're finally talking about it now.
Goldin has easily become one of my favorite authors, not only because the subject matter moved me, but also the way she wrote. I was sucked in from the very first part, she had me invested in the characters easily, and even though I was able to assume who the perpetrator was, his associates were unknown to me and the circumstances by which things happened were not clear until the very end, I enjoyed this mystery.