Into the Water 2⭐️/5

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

2⭐️/5

I came so close to DNFing this book *many* times, but I still haven’t mastered the art of putting a book down if it doesn’t bring me joy, so I trudged through this one.

I really, really enjoyed The Girl on the Train, so I am a fan of Hawkins’ writing. I think her ability to set an eerie scene is brilliant and her characters in The Girl on the Train engaging, but this one just fell flat for me.

The comments about too many POV and too many characters in general proved to be absolutely true. I couldn’t care about the story, the history of the town, the drowning pool itself, or any of the characters because everyone sort of blended together in one, gloomy mess. Even the town witch (probably our most distinct character) read bland to me at times.

The execution and mystery surrounding pool just didn’t achieve what the author intended, and the characters (even though there were many) did not read as compelling.

Finally, the reveals didn’t quite work for many reasons: cliches, took 250 pages of way too much buildup, lack of suspense, but most importantly, I didn’t really care who did what or when because the saturation of characters and POV.
I would say if it’s on your list, I wouldn’t rush to put it at the top.