Into the Water: The Sunday Times Bestseller

I liked all the different perspectives to the story and trying to piece together the puzzle as another character revealed more information.

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 28th June 2021.

Into the water. Paula Hawkins.

Several readers enjoyed this book, and said they ‘got caught up with the whodunnit aspect’. ‘An easy read’; they commented, ‘a compelling read with so many twists and turns’; ‘well written’; and ‘a novel about the abuse of women’, involving the historical accusations of witchcraft and the punishment for it, as well as the teacher, Mark Henderson’s, relationship with his pupil.

Most of the group however did not like it. The chief complaints were the complexity of the plot and the large number of voices telling the story, plus these narrative voices swapping between the first and third person, all of which made for confusion. More than one person remarked that they did not find the characters very convincing (with the possible exception of Lena), nor were any of them very likeable. One reader commented that it was an ‘unremittingly miserable’ book, and another that having such a large number of people die in the ‘witch pool’ was a bit hard to believe. The amount of bad language used was also disliked; and the historical element was not thought to have added very much to the story.

In mitigation, there were several comments to the effect that the book did paint a good picture of a claustrophobic small town, and that the story if put into the hands of a good scriptwriter would make a good television series.

This reading group also read Paula Hawkins’ first book, The Girl on the Train, in 2017. There were some similar themes amongst our comments on the two books, for instance domestic abuse, and the way it is often hidden from view; and in both books, we found the characters easy to muddle up. Of the two, The Girl on the Train was the favourite.

This book was read during June 2021 and the continuing restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.

I really struggled with this book. There seemed to be too many characters and i kept losing track of what was going on from chapter to chapter. There is such a darkness in this book and it never lifts. I like the opening few pages and i wish more had been discussed about the historical factors of the story i think it would have added more depth.

I found this book quite hard to get in to and to follow. There are a lot of characters and each chapter is written from the view point of different characters. It didn't flow very easily and i found it hard to keep up with who was thinking and doing what.
I didn't particularly like any of the characters and found them all to be a bit flat and lifeless. The plot line isn't cheery but there needed to be moments to break up the darkness and drudgery.
The start with the historical stories about the drowning pool promised so much and i really wish there had been more about the girls of the drowning pool as that did interest me.
I have recommended this to someone who i know likes dark mysterious reads. I hope they enjoy it more than i did.

It must be really hard to write a second novel when your first one was a runaway success. We imagine everything she writes now will always be compared to The Girl on the Train. Fortunately our group had a few members who hadn’t read it, so could read and review it objectively. It did split the group; some liked it, some thought it was okay and some didn’t!
The focal point is the Drowning Pool and it’s the story of the women who have died their; either by their own hand or someone else’s. It was an interesting theme but there are a lot of characters telling their side of the story. It was quite hard to keep track of who was who until you got into the rhythm of the novel. They all had their secrets and these were gradually revealed but in a rather convoluted way. It was too disjointed and a bit boring. We didn’t feel any real empathy or connection with the characters. Yes we had to finish it and the twist at the end wasn’t completely unexpected but all in all a bit of a disappointment.

A twisty, turny, fascinating read. A great page turner that will keep you guessing!