Just days before her sister plunged to her death, Jules ignored her call.
Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules must return to her sister’s house to care for her daughter, and to face the mystery of Nel’s death.
But Jules is afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of this small town that is drowning in secrecy . . .
And of knowing that Nel would never have jumped.
After hearing so much praise for The Girl on the Train I had very high hopes for Into the Water, but I was a little let down. I found this book to be a little disjointed, confusing and not very interesting. At one point I did consider putting this book down and leaving it unfinished. I am glad that I did read to the end because it really bugs me when I leave a book half finished, and I think it did redeem its self towards the end a little as well, but not enough to totally win me over.
One problem I had with this book was that there were so many different points of views that it made it awfully confusing to get your heard around the plot and the characters. There is a total of eleven different characters point of views, so you have to try and connect with eleven different characters, while also trying to understand the plot. I love books that have different characters perspectives because it gives you a chance to get to the know the characters a little bit more, but I think eleven is a little excessive. I think if this book was told from just a couple of perspectives, then I would of found this book a little more enjoyable.
This is the first book I’ve read from Paula Hawkins and I had some very high hopes even before starting this because of all the rave reviews The Girl on the Train got when it was released a couple of years ago. I didn’t not like the writing in Into the Water, but it didn’t grab me as much as I hoped it would. I was expecting to be hooked from the very beginning, but I felt the writing was a bit of a let down.
I have to say that I thought the parts of the plot did grab my attention and I did find parts interesting, but my interest didn’t hold for the entire book. The beginning was a bit of an effort to work through, at one point I did consider not finishing the book at all. I think this would of been perfect as a short story, with all the filler parts of the plot taken out. I found the plot to be over complicated and over thought out. If it was a little more simpler, then I might of enjoyed reading it a bit more than I actually did.
I am a little disappointed with Into the Water as I had hopes that it would be just as good as The Girl on the Train but sadly it was not meant to be. It hasn’t put me off from getting round to finally reading The Girl on the Train because I think that perhaps Into the Water is a book that needed a little bit more thought, whereas The Girl on the Train is a book that just ticked every box for readers. I think I would only recommend this to readers if they don’t go into this book with any expectations, and only then would I think they might find this book enjoyable.
I rate this book 3/5 stars
***I was sent a copy of this book for review. Everything in this review is my own honest opinions.***
Mike Reads 