Into the water - Paula Hawkins

You can purchase books from Rovingheights with the link below 

https://rhbooks.com.ng/?ap_id=Jannaonyemaobi


Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. Today, I will be reviewing Into the water by Paula Hawkins. A lot of you might be familiar with Paula Hawkins' previous book titled the girl on the train. Below is the link to read my review on this book.

https://jannaonyemaobi.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-girl-on-train-paula-hawkins.html


Into the water is a psychological suspense thriller about a girl and her sister. After the unexpected death of Nel Abbott, Jules Abbott; Nel's sister returns to Beckford to take care of Lena; Nel's 15 year old daughter and also find out the reason behind her unexplained death. Jules had an estranged relationship with her sister due to a misunderstood incident that happened in their childhood. 



Lena is caught in the middle of all these. At first she does not like Jules and is furious with her for not speaking with her mom. Lena's friend Katie also died in the same pool Nel Abbott drowned in and before Nel died, Lena blamed her mother's obsession with the pool for Katie's death.

The story continues to unravel the mysteries behind Nel and Katie's death. We also discover the untold tales about this river that runs through the town. There is a bend in this river that runs into a pool which is fondly called the drowning pool because many women have lost their lives in that pool and a lot of dark stories revolves around it.

The book also focuses on how the past comes back to haunt these characters and messes with their present lives and future.

It is told in a mixture of first person and third person narratives from multiple characters point of views, 11 characters to be precise which I found very difficult to differentiate because of the similarities in their voices.

The different voices in the book had both advantages and disadvantages. I liked it because as a reader, it gave me this feeling of belonging, it felt like I was in this community and I knew what everyone was thinking and why everyone did what they did however, it was so difficult to keep track of who was who in the beginning and often times, I got the characters mixed up. 

Themes of the book

- Death

- Secrets 

- Darkness

- Rape

- Family relationships

- A bit of witchcraft ( women perceived as witches, are tied and thrown into the drowning pool)

- Psychic (communicating with the dead).

This is a very weird book to read, it took me a while to get into it because of the different point of views and some of the themes but towards the end, I really began to enjoy it and was eager to find out how it would end. It was a slow read for me, took about two weeks and I did not find the end satisfying at all, I was like after everything, it can not just end like this. 

Finally, I rated it 3 out of 5 stars because honestly, I had mixed feelings about the storyline and the characters. If you have read this book, let me know what you think and if you have not, let me know if it is something you would love to read.


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