“She sinks. By the time they drag her out the second time, her lips are the blue of a bruise, and her breath is gone for good.”

Rating – 3/5 stars

Plot – Single mother Nel Abbott is found dead in the river that runs through her hometown of Beckford. Not long before, her daughter Lena’s best friend Katie Whittaker was found there too. Many ‘troublesome women’ have died in that part of the river, locally known as the ‘Drowning Pool’. Lena is alone now – except for her aunt, Julia, who lived in Beckford as a child and keeps a dark secret about her time there.

“I’ve always been a little bit afraid of you. You knew that, you enjoyed my fear, enjoyed the power it gave me over you. So I think, despite the circumstances, you would have enjoyed this afternoon.”

Review – This isn’t a book where there’s a clear protagonist or antagonist – everyone’s horrible. The perspective keeps changing, and this makes it a bit confusing. That makes it really hard to like anyone, but don’t think I mean that negatively. This book definitely wouldn’t be the same without the revolving perspectives. There are about 10 people, so it takes a little while to see how they all fit in.

The middle of this book was great. It wasn’t incredibly gripping or anything, but I did really enjoy it. That said, I don’t think that the character building was very good. What I really mean by that is that you get to know certain characters, but the ending isn’t as shocking as it’s obviously intended to be because the characters weren’t detailed enough.

The ending is a bit odd. It seems like Hawkins intends it to be something that you’ll think about for days, but, as it’s only revealed in the last sentence and no motive is explained, I just left the book annoyed at the ending.

This is an enjoyable read, but don’t expect anything as good as The Girl on the Train, because it’s not. I will be reading any new books of hers, as I thought that TGotT was a really good read, and this book was okay.

Happy reading!