Miss.Honest and her Honest Reviews

"Dive into the Drowning Pool"

Book title: Into the Water

Author: Paula Hawkins, a British author who wrote the New York Best-Selling #1 novel - The Girl on the Train, the book was later adapted into a motion picture acted by Emily Blunt. In the early 2017, she returned with her highly anticipated book "Into the Water", which we will be reviewing today.

Plot: Jules Abbott is now back to the place where she vowed to never return to, the place that was washed with her childhood tears and continue to bring her adversity. Her heart is knotted with indescribable sensations when the news came: her older sister Nel was found dead in the river, and she is left with a 15 years old rebellious niece. Before she died, she was excavating the stories of the many women who lost their lives in the dark, cold water. One of them is the mother of Sean Townsend, who happens to be the detective sergeant conducting the investigation of Nel's death. And another was the lovable best friend of Nel's very own daughter. Are these all coincidences or direct clues to her death? As the police force examines the case further, the Abbott family find themselves to be tangled with even more submerged secrets of the unhappy town...

Rating: 4 out of 10

The Analysis: This book in my opinion, is a continuation of the style of The Girl on the Train, and that is exactly why I hesitate to give it a high rating. In the former novel, the protagonist was deeply hurt by her former husband, but somewhere in between the pain, love existed. Surely not exactly copied, in the new book, our female protagonist (again) also has a love-hate relationship, but this time, it is with her older sister. Believe it or not, this is not the only love-hate relationship that exist within the bunch of characters! Lena - the daughter of Nel has a love-hate relationship with her best friend Katie as well, the two had a huge argument about Katie's inappropriate relationship with their teacher, and that kept them distant months before the poor girl drowned herself. The DI Sean Townsend is even more "interesting", he has TWO love-hate relationships! One with Nel, whom seduced him yet hurt him by revealing the truth behind his mother's death. And one with his father Patrick, who is the glue to their small family but killed his mother "out of self-defense", which I 100% doubt because he was a police officer! OK HERE IS THE FIRST PROBLEM WITH THESE MESSED-UP RELATIONSHIPS. Love-hate relationships are usually used to describe couples, but apparently, the author is a rebel and decided to go against the rules. When the relationship is applied to Sean, it seems alright, because he is straight enough to not cause any misunderstandings. However, it is not the same for Jules and Lena. It is utterly intolerable that the author cannot describe sisterhood and friendship in a proper way. When Jules went to see the body of her dead sister, it is written in her perspective that "I thought perhaps that I should kiss you, if like Sleeping Beauty that might to the trick", and also "I wanted to touch you again, to feel your skin". Just read these sentences and tell me honestly, if you don't know the relationship between the two, won't you agree that there's something going on between them? Now, for Lena, she just directly confessed that she loves Katie... With all the hatred she has towards Katie's lover and her personality that makes her seem boyish, the confession just stirs things up even more. If Jules didn't kiss Sean and there isn't a love line between Lena and Katie's brother, I might actually be confused about the plot.

The other thing is the elements of the book. In The Girl on the Train, there was the many improper love relationships between the characters. The cheating husband, the wife who still miss her former husband but has love spark with a dead woman's husband, a young girl who cheats on her husband with two other people... In this book, with even more characters, the weird relationships doubled. A father-in-law who likes his daughter-in-law? A cheating husband (again) and three women who feel lonely in their marriage (but don't want to divorce)? A love relationship between an engaged teacher and his young female student? I can spend half a day telling you these stuff in the book. Here comes the second problem. How am I able to remember who is who? The novel is narrated in a way that every character tells their own perspective, and by the end of the book, I still can't figure out who is the actual protagonist. Jules, Lena, Nel's article, Erin, Patrick, Helen, Sean, Louise, Josh, Mark, Nickie, the truth is revealed slowly as the perspective switches among all these listed people. But there are still other characters, these 11 ones are just the main ones, while I am already struggling to remember who each person is. Also, what is the theme? Every good book should have a theme and something meaningful that the author wants to express, but in this novel, there doesn't seem to be anything of that. It's just a mashup of loathsome characters living in an abnormal town and their messed-up interactions. Trust me, none of the characters are not guilty of something. Some know the truths but try to cover them up, some hold grudge towards people without knowing the whole truth, in one sentence, you won't like anyone in this book. The place where everything happened - Beckford must have some kind of disease, and all the citizens are somehow affected... This is exactly like the desperate housewives!

The ending also doesn't make sense. How can Jules forgive her sister? In Jules' story, Nel always told her creepy stories that troubled her from sleeping, Nel always looked embarrassed/ashamed when people bullied Jules, and Nel let Jules who was only 13 to witness an inappropriate, sexual scene. This irresponsible older Sister also chose to believe in her boyfriend's false accusations of Jules and not asked the poor little girl what had happened. Nel didn't only affect Jules, but also her daughter Lena. According to Lena, her mother brought home men and she let Lena witnessed the bad scenes that Jules had witnessed. Nel also seduced Sean who is already married only to get information about his dead mother. When Lena begged her to help Katie, she couldn't, which wasn't her fault, but she wrote about Katie's death afterwards. This crazy woman also showed disrespect to the ones drowned in the black water by categorizing them as "troublesome women". Ironically, she later became one of the troublesomes as well. Perhaps Jules want to start a new life and forget the past, but it doesn't make sense that she forgives Nel even more easily after she discovered more ugly stuff of her. More importantly, how can Lena like such a mother?

Favorite Quote: "The things I want to remember I can't, and the things I try so hard to forget just keep coming." (Which I believe many find relatable.)

Overall, I won't suggest reading this novel :(

Feel free to suggest me any books to read and review :) Also feel free to ask any questions! I hope you are all having a wonderful day, my fellow book lovers!