Title: Into the Water
Author: Paula Hawkins
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Published: May 02, 2017
Pages: 386
The Carpenter Confessions Rating: ★★★★☆
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins is a mysterious and depressing book, at the same time so good you don’t want to put it down. There are so many things about the book you don’t know and it makes it feel all the more mysterious. The past of this story has secrets and you have to keep turning the page to find them out. Never wanting to stop, Into the Water is an excellent change from books I’ve read in the past, definitely feels like a one of a kind.
In the fictional town of Beckford, Northumberland, women keep turning up in the waters of a river that runs through the town. When a fifteen year old and a mother is found only months apart there becomes suspicion of why this keeps happening, especially to women of the town. The most recent case was Danielle Abbot, who leaves behind clues as well as secrets that are being depended on to solve why these women keep dying in the haunted waters of Beckford. There are multiple perspectives in this book going from first person to third person. However, the book focuses on Danielle's estranged sister, Jules, and Danielle’s daughter, Lena. Both being told in first person, their perspectives have a totally different view on the most recent tragedies making for a more captivating story. Jules is convinced something bad was going on with Danielle because while she had a dark fascination with the Beckford water, she would never dare jump into them. While Jules and Danielle have a severed relationship, Jules would like to believe she still knows who her sister was. On the flip side, Lena believes her mother jumped because knowing her fascination and recent depressed state, there could be no other explanation. Lena has spent the last fifteen years with her mother, who would know Danielle better than her. In the end, who actually knew her better, her teenage daughter or her estranged sister?
Into the Water is a book I didn’t realize I would love so much. I saw the popularity of the book but never read the synopsis. While trying to find another book to read, I thought I would try Into the Water, being very skeptical of it and not sure I would be able to finish it. I almost decided not to read it because the whole thought of women jumping to their deaths just sounded so depressing I wasn’t sure I could read it. That being said I am so glad I gave it a chance because it was an exceptional book. It’s very different from anything I have read before, but it definitely didn’t disappoint. Paula Hawkins set the tone of mystery, you felt it in every word you read. The way she also had at least ten characters' perspectives in the book, it all blended together smoothly. I’ve read other books with multiple character POV’s and it can be difficult for it all to flow. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and it won’t be the last I read of her books!
The only reason I gave this a four and a half star was because I wish it stayed between Jules and Lena’s perspectives and didn’t get into all the other characters. Even though it flowed, I felt in some ways it wasn’t needed to have as many perspectives as it did. With having so many characters, I felt a little confused why Danielle didn’t have a perspective from before her death because she was one of the main focuses of the book. She of all people’s perspectives to me would be an important one. Other than that, I can’t find anything wrong with it, it was that good.
Up Next:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
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