The Drowning Woman
Ratings37
Average rating3.9
Review: The Drowning Woman
Whoa, what a ride this one is. Quite possibly a Perfect Thriller. This novel starts out with our protagonist down on her luck, and I mean DOWN on her luck. It's bad. It's also a scenario that is altogether plausible in the world we live in today. Robin Harding draws a pitch perfect examination of homelessness, but before long, we are swept up into new and fresh chaos.
We know this is going to be messy for our protagonist. It just takes a while to see how. One of the bits I really appreciated is that this protagonist is not an idiot and she doesn't make stupid mistakes.
We get two POVs which I love. What was brilliant here is that neither POV... wait, I can't finish that sentence. No spoilers.
Harding peels back the layers not slowly, but masterfully. It's not until the very end that we the reader realize how this will play out. And it is brilliant.
I couldn't put this book down.
Plus I have it in hardback and it is a GORGEOUS cover.
3.5 ⭐️
This was fun and thrilling. Although I wouldn't say there were any twists, it was all pretty predictable. But it was a well written and engaging thriller.
The beginning was great but I feel like the last 1/4 of the book I was just being strung around. I loved the dual perspective, but it really went downhill when we just got one. I was super interested in what happened to Lee, and it feels like it was just tied up too perfectly. I am grateful to get some insight with the epilogueI thought this was on track to a 5 star, but the drawn out last chuck of the book docked it. The twists to me were predictable, but I still had fun
I received an ARC of this book as part of the Novel Suspects Insiders Club.
To quote that great philosopher Shrek, this book was like an onion. When you thought that you understood what was going on or that you knew where the plot was going, you found yet another layer of deception and treachery. It was like riding a rollercoaster... And I loved every minute of it.
4.5 ⭐️ Stars
The Drowning Women
It was an addictive thrilling read. You want to know what in the world was happening. So many good twists. You knew something was up, but you were sure what. A must read!!!!!
(-.5 the ending needed a cleaner end. I loved the Epilogue though, was what I needed.)
I really enjoyed this! Both of the main character's motives were questionable but I was mostly ok with it. One is a woman who recently moved across the country with nothing to avoid a man she owes a lot of money, and the other is a woman stuck in an abusive relationship and feels like there's no way out. Definitely look into trigger warnings if you are senstive to anything mental health related! My biggest issue is that I HATED one of the main characters because all she did was lie and expected it to not come back to bite her? Ok. Otherwise, I really enjoyed following these characters as their lives intertwined and their dark secrets came to light. I haven't read anything by Robyn Harding before but I'm excited to read a few of her backlist novels that have been on my radar for a long time!
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.
overall: 4.15/5 ✮⋆˙
plot: 4/5 ‧₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.
MAJOR trigger warnings. the story was well thought out, well developed, twisty and dark. it has a dual POV, and all the plot points link well together and everything felt like it had meaning and was intentional. the ending was a bit lacklustre, but personally i love the way this ended.
characters: 3.5/5 ✧˖°
some of the characters felt a bit bare bones. particularly hazel and lee, which was disappointing. when i was reading each of their POV's, they didn't seem too distinguishable. the antagonists are a lot more well developed, and did send a shiver down my spine.
writing: 5/5
it was well structured, well paced - when the first twist comes in it does really well at creating a sense of urgency that keeps you hooked. i read this in less than 24 hours.
would i recommend? yes!
I absolutely LOVED this book it was so twisty and had me flipping page after page. When I wasn't reading this book it was all I could think about. I am DEFINITELY reading more of Robyn Harding's backlist now because this was PHENOMENAL
3.5 stars.
One of the better domestic thrillers I've read (considering that I don't typically enjoy domestic thrillers). However, one gripe that I had with this book was that I could barely distinguish between Lee and Hazel, they read very similar and I was confused.
Such a fresh take on classic domestic thriller plots. Loved the sisterhood between Hazel and Lee throughout the book, very refreshing to see strong, level headed female protagonists and a healthy friendship between them.
Loved this.
Innovative Use Of Multi-Perspective. This is one of those tales that repeats itself a decent amount - something like 50-60% or so of the text is the same events through two different perspectives, each providing their own wrinkles. It is within the back third that the overall tale really begins to take off, and is quite explosive in its own right. Quite a few twists and turns - some even bigger than the ones we've already experienced to this point - occur through this section, and indeed at times it feels like we may be going a much darker direction (of a couple of different variants) than we ultimately do. Indeed, the ending itself is quite reminiscent of a particular 90s era movie, but revealing which movie would likely be a significant spoiler, so I'll just point the reader of the review in that direction and allow them to figure it out for themselves. Ultimately a fun book that raises some challenging points without ever being preachy about them. Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.