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The Drowning Kind


Genre: Paranormal / Mystery / Suspense


Book Type: Physical


Author: Jennifer McMahon


Narrator: Joy Osmanski / Imani Jade Powers


Pages / Length: 336 pages / 11 hours and 48 minutes


Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press (April 6, 2021) / Simon & Schuster Audio


Book Description:

In this “blisteringly suspenseful tale that will keep you up at night” (Wendy Webb, author of Daughters of the Lake), a woman returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming ​pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.


Be careful what you wish for.


When 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.


A modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us, The Drowning Kind “is satisfying on every level: Marvelously chilling, elegantly written, a true page-turner” (Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author).


Thoughts:

This was a beautiful and haunting tale of what a person will go through to get what he/she wants, while also heartbreaking on what lengths someone will go to for the same wishes. This was an eerie read that was both haunting and mysterious, while also captivating. I LOVE a good ghost story, and this one didn’t disappoint.


This is a story about hope, love, family, sadness, grief, and the unknown. I enjoyed the different past and present perspectives as the story unfolds. It would have been great to have a family tree at the end as this book contained a LOT of names, but overall, this was a great read.


Favorite Quotes:

🏊‍♀️ Her body moved like a wave, undulating. And I thought, watching her, that my sister wasn't moving through the water, but that she was a part of it. And I was terrified-that she could slip away so easily, choosing the water instead of me, never looking back. (Page 19)


🏊‍♀️ She was suspicious of all religions, though she'd tried her fair share of them. She was a Buddhist for a few weeks, spent a summer at an ash ram in upstate New York, went to silent meetings with the Quakers. She'd been searching for something, for the missing piece that might make her feel whole. (Page 44)


🏊‍♀️ "Is that what you believe?" I asked.


She stubbed out her cigarette.


"I believe the water holds more power and mystery than most people understand."


"I heard some believe the springs are cursed," I said. "Haunted, even."


She seemed to bristle, her whole body tensing. "People are frightened by the things they don't understand. Things that can't be explained with reason and logic and science. The water is not a puzzle to be solved." She spoke of the springs like a living creature, a dear friend she was defending. (Page 64)


🏊‍♀️ Some people said the magic was good, but some stories we heard in town, passed down over generations, warned that the springs were cursed: If you came to the water looking for a miracle, you had to be prepared to pay a price. (Page 75)


🏊‍♀️ "They're managing her symptoms, Ted." My mom salvaged what pills she could.


"Symptoms? You mean emotions? Since when is feeling things deeply an illness, Linda? It's what makes us human!" (Page 93)


🏊‍♀️ “Thank you for always being there for Lexie."


He gave me a puzzled look, shook his head, said, "I wasn't. But I did my best. That's all any of us do, isn't it?”


His words hit me like a cannonball in the chest.


🏊‍♀️ The trouble with you, Jax, is you don't know how to live in the moment. You don't appreciate the here and now.


My sister was right. She lived inside each moment, sucking all she could from it, while I was only half-present, preoccupied with how annoyed I was to be listening to her share some crazy theory when I had other things, important things, I needed to be doing. And it was too late to promise to do better. (Page 192)


🏊‍♀️ She was trapped, yes, but she must have been so grateful for all she had. And heartbroken by all that had been taken. Heartbroken enough to walk away knowing it would kill her.


Me, I was too heartbroken to walk away at all. (Page 318)


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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