3 stars for The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon.
It is the time of the year to read horror stories again!
This book is actually not my top choice to kick start the horror genre with this year. I didn't like the title - The Drowning Kind. "Kind" is a strange choice of word to grace the cover of a book. It gives the feeling that someone has ran out of ideas for the third choice word and simply decides to take the easy way out by using the word "kind" in hope that it will encompass all. But given that copies of this book are readily available in the library, my book club decides to take up my suggestion of this book over some others I have recommended, for our next discussion. So, that is how I ended up reading this kind of book.
The book starts out promising with a good dose of mystery surrounding two sisters Lex and Jax, and a pool of dark water. Then the story takes a turn and shuttles between the past and the present. The past takes place in 1929 and is seen through the eyes of a Mrs Monroe from Lanesborough, New Hampshire, wife to a country doctor. Fast forward ninety years into the present 2019, and Jackie aka Jax brings us on a truth-seeking mission in a place called Sparrow Crest.
Even though the book alternates between two timelines, the story is easy to read and not confusing at all where the two first person narratives are concerned. I think bulk of the reason is that one deals with life while the other death. Besides attempting to shroud the characters in dark misty energies, the author also explores the theme of family dynamics, that of mother and daughter, father and daughter, sister and sister, niece and aunt, grandmother and grandchildren, husband and wife. We see different sides to various characters, most of which mirror what we have in real lives so much that I think those are the real deal that creep me out. I will say the thing I like most about this story is not how well it scares me but rather the subtle message it is trying to send across - be careful what we wish for, and don't be too quick to pass judgement.
I want to like this story through and through. Unfortunately, at three quarters past, I find myself struggling together with the characters who are drowning in secrets. Yes, I get that the waters have special healing power, both a gift and a curse that cannot be explained with reason, logic or science. It gives as well as it takes. I gather all that. But the flood of secrets that are not really secrets but simply a way of skirting the story to make the book thicker with pages do not sit well with me. It gets annoying after a while reading a story that develops with moving two steps backwards for every three steps taken.
I finish reading the book in four days' time - a record for me these days - and am happy to say that I did not flounder as much towards the end. All things considered, the story is not too bad, not the fantastic kind but not the not-fantastic kind either. It is just that I didn't like it as much as I thought I will, and it didn't frighten me as much as I will have preferred.
This year, I start out late reading horror novel, but still, I hope I will be able to read a few more horror books to build up the spooky vibe before Halloween is here.
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
Publication date: 6 Apr 2021
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When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.
In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
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