Into the Water
By Paula Hawkins
Riverhead Books, 9780735211209, May 2017, 400pp.
The Short of It:
Highly anticipated but not for me.
The Rest of It:
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. ~ Indiebound
You may recall the popularity of this author’s previous work, The Girl on the Train. That book wasn’t perfect but it was a page-turner and it kept me reading. With Into the Water, I really had to push myself to read it.
My thoughts:
- In case you didn’t know, it’s about witches. Kind of.
- Too much back and forth.
- The characters. I had no interest in them.
- Marketed as psychological suspense. No, it’s not.
- Took a really long time to figure out what was going on.
I’m sure it’s very difficult to top a best seller like The Girl on the Train but this story was a bit underdeveloped. I didn’t mind the numerous points of view or even the format of the novel itself but it just didn’t grab me like her other book did.
Plus, I am not a fan of stories about witches and there was nothing about this book that mentioned witches. It alluded to secrecy and scandal and there was some of that but not enough for me to enjoy it.
Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
Short and sweet review! It’s a shame, because I loved Girl on a Train.
Witches? I had no idea. So weird they didn’t mention that. Well it sounds like a disappointment, which rots since I bought a copy. Oh well.
I know!! There is nothing in the blurb to indicate witches. I mean, there have been some great stories about witches but I was surprised after many pages to see it in the story and it just wasn’t well done at all. I am trying to end the year with a bang by reading some really good books and so far I am losing the battle.
This is one of the few books I’ve given up on recently. Kudos to you for finishing it.
If you gave up on it then it must have really been bad 😉
Have not heard anything good about this one. Dud. Not a big fan of her first book although I did finish it. Just not for me.
The reviews on Goodreads are all 4-5 stars. If you check out Amazon, mostly 1 star reviews. Wide differences in opinions for sure.
I don’t mind stories with witches, but this sounds like one I am going to pass on.
Glad I skipped this one after reading your thoughts.
I don’t enjoy writing up negative reviews but I’ve gotta be honest. I’ve been trying to up my reading game to get to my goal this year but the last few books I’ve read have been disappointing. I sure hope I read some better ones to end the year right.
I never like writing negative reviews either, but I realized it’s helpful to other readers to know what you didn’t like about the book.
I am impressed that you keep persevering when you don’t like a book. If I don’t, I just quit.
I hadn’t planned on reading this as I didn’t love The Girl On the Train and now I really know I won’t…I had no idea this had witches in it! That seems really out there for a book marketed as psychological suspense. A misleading case of marketing it sounds like
Ugh I tried a bit of this one but didn’t have the patience for it.
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Her first book is ok and thanks for your review, I won’t bother with this one. Another I find disappointing is The Woman in Cabin 10.
Too bad, but thanks for saving me from reading it. I thought The Girl on the Train was good, but not great.
I don’t think I’ve seen any super positive reviews of this one. It’s a shame because I did like Girl on a Train.
I was not a fan of The Girl on the Train, so I did avoid this one. Of course, in true Michelle fashion, I was wondering if I was missing out on an amazing story and was thinking about reading it eventually. You saved me from wasting my time!
I didn’t care for it either. Too many characters, and I didn’t care about any of them.
That’s exactly how I felt. I just didn’t care about any of them!