Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

MY RATING: ★★★★/5

“Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.”

― Paula Hawkins

To be honest, I was one of those who didn’t like The Girl On The Train. But with Into The Water, Paula Hawkins has shown me her brilliant cinematic writing. I now understand why she got her first book adapted into a movie so easily.

Into The Water transports us into the mysterious deaths of young girls in the Drowning Pool, a name of a river in Northumberland. The young girls’ deaths has a pattern of The Roanoke Girls. But when you start this novel, the author wanted it to be shocking, and it was. We gradually get introduced to our narrator Jules who came back in the town after her sister’s suicide.

She played a lot with the structures and the word-plays of the term Water. I can feel the currents of events, beneath all the layers, transporting us into a suspense and thrill like a river. But each character has their own perspective, creating their own rivers and flows until one day, in the end, everything converges in a confluence. And in this book, I actually felt the fast pacing of suspense and that feeling of beating hearts. That’s when you know you read a good thriller book.

The only reason why I wouldn’t give it a 5 stars is the 11 narrators… yup, that can be confusing (A lot of people seem to freak out but they are SHORT POV AND she succeeds to implement an element of suspense and keeps us on hold just fine) and the not so mind-blowing plot. But that’s very personal in my reviews haha I always expect the stories to be as creative and imaginative as possible. This is the kind of book you’ll love as a reading experience but when it’s finished you’ll be asking yourself…okay that’s it? That’s it. It’s quite simple. BUT The little twists in between the story? They’re genius.

A lot of the critics say that this one is a let down from The Girl On The Train. In my opinion, The Girl On The Train was not even at the same podium as this one. The subtleties were more spot on and her writing, definitely more refined. 

Thank you to Penguin Random House for giving me a free copy to review!

You can purchase a copy @Amazon Canada now!

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