Book Review: Into the Water // Paula Hawkins

Author: Paula Hawkins

Type: Stand alone

Format: Physical Book

Genre: Mystery | Thriller

Publication Date: 2 May 2017

Synopsis: 

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.

With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present.

Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.

Rate: 3.75 / 5 ⭐

Review: 

I really enjoyed her previous book, The Girl on the Train (I have a review for it on here), which was why I decided to give this one a go. 'Into the Water' is a much slower paced book comparatively. The beginning was too slow for my liking and the too many characters being introduced with no context was quite confusing, and I was wondering whether to DNF it or not. I had a few fellow readers encouraging me to finish the book because it gets better. And it does (ig). 

The multiple POVs do frustrate me but it all makes sense because it is the author's way of trying to confuse us from who the real culprit is. The writing is very simple and the characters are not very likeable. I remember not really liking any of the characters in her other book as well. I feel like all the characters in this book were just shitty in their own way but also served the plot of the book well, if that makes any sense. 

There was also a lot of build up and a lot of mini stories going around, a consequence of the many POVs in the book, so the ending kind of turned out anti climatic. But I still enjoyed it. The last third of the book was what was really interesting to me. 

If you are into a chilly mystery, not very likeable characters and some small town drama I would recommend this book. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

p.s. I know, the review sucks. give me time to get used to writing reviews again.