Review: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Into the Water by Paula HawkinsMy rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Riverhead Books
One of the highest anticipated psychological thrillers of the year. Paula Hawkins has a way of pulling you into her world like no other. Curious as to why it's a 3.5 ratings, keep reading below.
A river that has claimed the lives of several women in a small town claims the life of another - a single mother of a 15-year old girl, she flings herself off a cliff into the river below, leaving behind questions and a metaphorical shovel to dig up the past to find the answers. Her sister, who has been away for several years, comes back to take care of her niece, never wanting to have to return to a place that caused her considerable heart break. Secrets come to the surface, lives get torn apart, healing begins and questions become answered.
Let me just say that Paula Hawkins is the queen of throwing a zillion things at you to the point where you have absolutely no idea what's going on, but keeps you needing to know what's going to happen and then pulls it all together at the end. I don't know how she keeps track of everything enough to tie it all together at her endings. There are a lot of characters that we are introduced to in this novel and we see through most of their POVs, sometimes have the same scenes revisited through a different pair of eyes. She does this, going from past to present, in a way that's fairly easy to follow. There are definitely some twists you see coming from a mile away and other nuances thrown in that you wouldn't expect. You get a little bit of everything for the price of one! Winner!
However, I will say that I did feel it ran a little slow for me at times. It didn't really surprise me when things were revealed. I just did a little, "Oh, ok...". Not that there is anything wrong with that, I was just a bit underwhelmed with the whole thing. Was it because I saw most of it coming? Was it because of all the hype and anticipation after her success with The Girl on the Train? Probably a smattering of both. Still an excellent novel by all accounts but I didn't find it as compelling as her first. I've debated on the rating and at the end I'm going to have to go with my gut and present a 3 1/2 star rating. *I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date.*
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