Helpful Score: 3
Book Description:
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 fromâa 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 surfaceâyou never know what lies beneath.
My Review:
I listened to this book on audio. I found it too confusing because the story is told with the point of view of at lest ten characters. It was hard to understand who was speaking at different times and who they were in relation to the story. Changing from person to different person upset the flow of the story. This book should have been edited better. This book cannot compare to The Girl on the Train. Paula is lucky getting 2 stars from me because I found this book to be one jumble of a mess. Don't waste your time on this one!
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 fromâa 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 surfaceâyou never know what lies beneath.
My Review:
I listened to this book on audio. I found it too confusing because the story is told with the point of view of at lest ten characters. It was hard to understand who was speaking at different times and who they were in relation to the story. Changing from person to different person upset the flow of the story. This book should have been edited better. This book cannot compare to The Girl on the Train. Paula is lucky getting 2 stars from me because I found this book to be one jumble of a mess. Don't waste your time on this one!
Helpful Score: 2
I should've loved this book. It has many ingredients I usually love in a book: connected story-lines, multiple viewpoints, mystery, plot twists, but something seemed to be missing. I didn't dislike the book, but I didn't love it. I liked the writing style and the plot kept me guessing until the end. I think the main issue for me was the characters. I didn't like any of them, nor were any of them interesting enough to hate. My other main complaint is that the historical parts didn't connect well with the modern mystery. It seemed like they were just plopped it to make it more interesting, but not necessary to the plot. There are so many stories going on that they end up not being developed enough. I think it would've been better to just focus on three or four characters. A good book, that could have been great.
I have rarely, if ever, not finished reading a book and I tried and tried to like this book. It was way too confusing for me. Too many characters from too many different times. It became a chore to read so I quit (and my husband cheered because he was tired of me griping about it!)
On another note I loved The Girl On The Train!
On another note I loved The Girl On The Train!
Helpful Score: 2
While I was not a fan of The Girl on the Train, I thought I would give this one a try. I liked it much better - but it was still just okay! There was just enough mystery and suspense to keep me entertained, although the teenage protagonist was very unlikable. She did things way too advanced for a fifteen year old and I kept forgetting that she was just a child. The relationship between her deceased mother and her aunt was infuriating and sad. The reason her friend went "into the water" was infuriating and unbelievable. The way in which she acted and responded to people was infuriating and rude. The fact that I finished the book and wasn't upset that I did, says something for the story. This may be my last Paula Hawkins book - we'll see
I really did not like this book. Too many short chapters of so many characters. Definitely not worth my time. I just wanted to hurry up and finish it. The ending was just not worth the time.
Described as a mysterious thriller, while compelling tends to drag some. Takes a while to get started. There is a plethora of characters, and everyone gets several of their own chapters. I found The Girl on the Train a little more intriguing.
I just couldn't get into this book. On page 35 I didn't know who was who and by page 120, I had enough! So many characters and points of view made it very confusing. Besides hating the storyline, the vivid visuals of the drownings created panic and anxiety; that was it for me.
I also did not like The Girl On the Train!
I also did not like The Girl On the Train!
Excellent psychological thriller. A bit slow at times, but worth the wait!
When the police show up at her door, Jules Abbott knows it isn't good news, but she isn't expecting this. Her older sister, Nel is dead--drowned in the lake known as the Drowning Pool back in their hometown. Jules has always vowed to never return to that place, but she finds herself back: in her childhood home, where Nel lived with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Lena. The assumption is that Nel committed suicide in the Pool, but Jules knows that isn't possible. Even though she hasn't seen her sister for years, she is convinced her water-loving sibling would never willingly die in the water. Meanwhile, Jules discovers that Nel was looking into other local residents who died at the Drowning Pool over the years for a book she was writing. What exactly happened to them--and Nel?
It's never easy to follow up a blockbuster like The Girl on the Train - I cannot even imagine the pressure. I didn't adore that book, but I do remember that I basically read it in one sitting. That wasn't the case with INTO THE WATER, though in its defense, I read it during an extremely busy period with work, where I basically collapsed in bed each night to read a few chapters.
This is not a bad book, but it wasn't a great one, either. It's not one that will stay with me. For one thing, much of its plot is predicated around one of my most reviled literary pet peeves: ridiculous miscommunication. You know, that whole thing where if the characters would just talk to each other, as normal folks do, for about 5 minutes, we wouldn't have to go through any of this? Yes. That. So that irritated me to no end.
There are also a lot of points of view in this book. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly took a while to keep everyone straight. I was glad I was reading this as an actual book, so I could flip back and see whom I'd been reading about earlier. Slogging through those early portions of many characters slowed things down for me and made it harder to get into the story.
As I said, it's not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it. The storyline is fairly interesting, overall, and it held my attention, even when I was pretty tired. I had a pretty decent suspicion of "whodunnit" fairly early on and turned out to be correct, but about halfway through, I was still second-guessing myself and pretty captivated. Nel, Jules, and Lena are intriguing characters, if not fairly frustrating in their lack of ability to talk to one another.
Still, overall, I was left feeling a little deflated by this one. There was no big "gasp" moment for me (perhaps because I had a decent inkling what had happened early on?) like GIRL. It was just a fairly good thriller that kept me entertained for a few days. More at http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com
It's never easy to follow up a blockbuster like The Girl on the Train - I cannot even imagine the pressure. I didn't adore that book, but I do remember that I basically read it in one sitting. That wasn't the case with INTO THE WATER, though in its defense, I read it during an extremely busy period with work, where I basically collapsed in bed each night to read a few chapters.
This is not a bad book, but it wasn't a great one, either. It's not one that will stay with me. For one thing, much of its plot is predicated around one of my most reviled literary pet peeves: ridiculous miscommunication. You know, that whole thing where if the characters would just talk to each other, as normal folks do, for about 5 minutes, we wouldn't have to go through any of this? Yes. That. So that irritated me to no end.
There are also a lot of points of view in this book. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly took a while to keep everyone straight. I was glad I was reading this as an actual book, so I could flip back and see whom I'd been reading about earlier. Slogging through those early portions of many characters slowed things down for me and made it harder to get into the story.
As I said, it's not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it. The storyline is fairly interesting, overall, and it held my attention, even when I was pretty tired. I had a pretty decent suspicion of "whodunnit" fairly early on and turned out to be correct, but about halfway through, I was still second-guessing myself and pretty captivated. Nel, Jules, and Lena are intriguing characters, if not fairly frustrating in their lack of ability to talk to one another.
Still, overall, I was left feeling a little deflated by this one. There was no big "gasp" moment for me (perhaps because I had a decent inkling what had happened early on?) like GIRL. It was just a fairly good thriller that kept me entertained for a few days. More at http://justacatandabookatherside.blogspot.com
I give up. Kindle says that I have read 52% of this book, but I can't do this anymore. Generally I finish every book I start or at least give up sooner as I am compulsive, but my husband got tired of listening to me complain that I didn't want to go to bed because I didn't want to read. Tonight he said "Your life is going to be too short anyway, so don't finish the book."
This has nothing to do with expectations from The Girl on a Train; I did not read The Girl on a Train. I may never read The Girl on a Train now. (I'm not even sure I have the title correct).
Into the Water was just too confusing without being engaging. Chapters are narrated by what seemed to be 20 different characters, and it was difficult to remember who each one was and the relationships between the other characters. Every time I put the book down and picked it up again I'd forget who everyone was. The plot had something to do with a bunch of women killing themselves in the same body of water, and a bunch of the survivors are mad and pointing the finger at each other. The town cop may have been a perv or something too...... I am not sure, like I said, very confusing.
This has nothing to do with expectations from The Girl on a Train; I did not read The Girl on a Train. I may never read The Girl on a Train now. (I'm not even sure I have the title correct).
Into the Water was just too confusing without being engaging. Chapters are narrated by what seemed to be 20 different characters, and it was difficult to remember who each one was and the relationships between the other characters. Every time I put the book down and picked it up again I'd forget who everyone was. The plot had something to do with a bunch of women killing themselves in the same body of water, and a bunch of the survivors are mad and pointing the finger at each other. The town cop may have been a perv or something too...... I am not sure, like I said, very confusing.
Absolutely a page turner. The ending was most definitely a surprise. A must read
Terrible story, if there were one! Just confusing with way too many words. Don't waste your money
Others gave such a poor review so here's mine. I read it in almost two sittings while traveling and really enjoyed it. There are lots of characters but there is a reference page in the front for easy clarification. I can see the audio might be challenging. I found the story and the characters enjoyable and believable. Lots of characterization of family dynamics and differences in age related behavior. I felt I knew what was going on only to be surprised by a twist and another and another. Definitely worth my time.
Wanted to like it but the changing person chapters every couple pages drove me nuts by the time I was halfway through. Wanted to scream 'why didn't you just write dialogue between the people' rather than this deck or cards method? It got very tedious because of that and I reached about that I didn't even care to solve the mystery. I did finish it though, so give me credit for that.
This story is told from many points of view, which is confusing in the beginning but also makes it interesting. Kept me guessing until the end. Worth a creepy read!
Not as nail biting edge of your seat suspenseful as The Girl on the Train, but a very good book. The "who did it" was not obvious and could have been any of the characters. I liked that I couldn't figure it out until the end. Well written from the perspective of multiple characters.
This novel is about a small town in England that has experienced many deaths by drowning in a local river. The characters that have died all seem to be women and the first character is drowned as a witch. There are current deaths that have not been ruled suicide, accident or murder. That is what the novel is taking us through.
There are many characters in this novel, but I found that really smart. We really come to understand each character and the interplay involved in trying to find out whether the recent deaths were committed or not.
There are many underlying currents within this story. Sisters hating each other, affairs taking place (or having took place), teenage angst, etc.
There were a few really unanswered questions in the end, but I thought that this was well written and it certainly kept me reading.
There are many characters in this novel, but I found that really smart. We really come to understand each character and the interplay involved in trying to find out whether the recent deaths were committed or not.
There are many underlying currents within this story. Sisters hating each other, affairs taking place (or having took place), teenage angst, etc.
There were a few really unanswered questions in the end, but I thought that this was well written and it certainly kept me reading.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved all the POVs! At first, I had to do a lot of backtracking until I became familiar with all the characters but I have no issue with that. Dare I say, I liked it better than "The Girl on the Train". I'm going to leave you with some advice given to me before I read it, "You just have to get all the characters in line, then it will grab you!"
This was an excellent thriller! You slowly, gradually peel the layers away, and the clues mount up and are revealed. Some reviewers were not happy about the number of characters to keep track of in the story. I admit it was a challenge to keep track of all of the voices, but each one propelled the plot along in a logical and sequential manner. There were also back stories to flesh out the characters and reveal their motivations. It is an in depth study of human nature and emotions, something I value in a good book. I enjoyed the book immensely, and recommend it to everyone. D.
