Book Title: Into The Water
Book Author: Paula Hawkins
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Publication Date: May 2nd 2017
Though I did enjoy, The Girl on the Train, I was still surprised by the major popularity it gained. Heck, it was even made into a movie which I also thought was fairly well.
So I decided to pick up Paula Hawkin’s second book Into the water and give her another chance. I would start by saying I was not impressed at all.
I know it became a trend that books have POVs, and alternating between the past and present but I believe not all books could pull it through. Some work and some don’t. This one obviously didn’t.
And the main reason why?
There were just way too many characters – most with their own POVs. If that’s not enough for you, add in snippets of the past which I thought some were truly unnecessary and adds or explains nothing to the plot.
I didn’t find it easy to get into the book once I started reading. I had to reread the first chapters more than once then gradually started to get impatient and didn’t really care to reveal “the mystery” behind all the events and to expose each character’s secret.
Overall, in my opinion, it wasn’t an intense read. It wasn’t as gripping and you won’t find me recommending it to any thriller fans.
Africaanah's Book Blog 
I like different POVS, but I do agree that it doesn’t always work. I think i might just try this on audio.
Deanna Reads Books
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Ya they were too many. You need to jot down everyone’s names and what they do.
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I think Into the Water may have been equally as popular as Girl on the Train, except that the “female protagonist psychological thriller” genre has been popping out books left and right, therefore we are forced to critique this one even harder.
But you’re 100% right…way to many characters.
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Yep so true. Lots of psychological histories out there.. so the competition is fierce. I wouldn’t recommend any of those.
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Oh man, this book finally came in at my library and I had just picked it up yesterday. Bummed that you didn’t enjoy the book! I’ll still give the book a try since I was on a wait list for so long for it, but I’ll keep these issues in mind. 🙂 Thanks for the review!
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Hehehe. So sorry to disappoint. Hopefully you’d enjoy more than I did. I know lots who did.
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I had issues with the the unstability of each character in ‘The Girl on the Train’. I really thought that it could have been better if at least one character exhibited signs of normalcy. But no, all characters were undergoing some psyhotic problem. Hence, it made it really hard to connect with any character at all.
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That’s true. It was a it too dramatic and overdoing it with the psychological stuff. Then again, no one is really completely sane. There’s a bit of crazy in all of us.
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Yep, that’s right. But I felt that the character especially Rachel could have been given a more solid standing. Remember the line where she calls herself worthless?
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I don’t completely remember the book. I’d been a while since I do read it. But I was loving Rachel and her drama.
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