Into the Water, Paula Hawkins
Rating: 3/10
Publishing: Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1120-9
Copyright: (C) 2017 by Paula Hawkins
I’m aware that Paula Hawkins is the author of the infamous novel “The Girl on the Train.” To be honest, I didn’t like her first novel that much; the suspense didn’t get to me and I find the premise not interesting. When I read her second novel, “Into the Water,” I felt the same way. I didn’t feel the trigger by the suspense, I don’t like the characters, and there are way too many character perspectives from both the past and the present, which made the plotline too convoluted for me to follow.
The story begins with a woman, Danielle “Nel” Abbott, who drowned in the so-called infamous lake that was notable for the previous murders and suicides by troubled women. Nel is the mother of fifteen-year-old, Lena, and after she died, Nel’s sister, Julia “Jules,” became the legal guardian of Lena. When first appeared in the book, I hated her. Lena had a history of getting into a lot of trouble in school, disrespecting Jules and other adults, and she’s a teenaged chain smoker. Characters like Lena made me want to stop reading.
Before Nel’s alleged suicide, Lena’s best friend, Katie, died in the same lake as Lena’s mother. Lena believed that Katie committed suicide because Katie had a sexual affair with one of their teachers, Mark Henderson. I’m not even going to go into detail about the relationship between Mark and Katie. It’s disgusting and a disgrace to society. It even brought up the wrong idea of teachers having affairs with their students. It’s legit pedophilia. A topic like this is something that shouldn’t even be presented in contemporary novels. It’s just plain degrading.
I don’t know what to make of Lena. She is just a terrible character for a delinquent minor. Why shouldn’t Lena be the one who gets arrested? She not only disrespected the adults, but she also disrespected the police officers. Lena went as far as cursing right at the police officers’ faces! This is disgusting, even for a fiction novel. And why the fuck isn’t she arrested for throwing rocks at Mark’s house, breaking all of his windows?! Also, can you get arrested for lying to the police? Because that’s what Lena did and she is let out Scott-free! Why the hell did Hawkins write this? Is she influencing others to get away with the law? This is what I hate about this society. Reading Hawkins’s book makes me want to leave this world of lies.
What I do not like about this novel is the number of character perspectives. I lost track of how many character points of view are there, though there are many. Each chapter had a different character’s aspect of the incident and several of them are at a different timeline. This is highly perplexing, even for me. I suggest Hawkins tone down the character perspectives and minimize to the only most imperative characters. This would be easier to follow. It would also be less convoluted if the timeline is in chronological order instead of random. Maybe save Nel’s manuscript best for last, start at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle.
As I was reading this, I felt the same reaction to Hawkins’s debut novel, “The Girl on the Train.” The suspense didn’t trigger me, the flashbacks are in the wrong order, I do not like the characters, and the plotlines are too similar. I feel as if Hawkins needs to come up with something different instead of coming up with the same plot.
I have not much review on how disgraceful this book is. Paula Hawkins has failed to impress me with her style of writing. If I can grade this, I’d give it a D.