The Drowning Kind ⭑⭑⭑⭑

Genre: Thriller

US Publication: April 6, 2021

Print: 336 pages

Audio: 11 hours 49 minutes

Confetti Rating: 4 stars

REVIEW:

Something’s in the water… and it’s not a crap ending this time!

With The Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon has turned me from a hater to a believer. I’ve only read one other book by her, and she ended it THE LAMEST WAY POSSIBLE (per my Goodreads bio: conclusions that rely on a character pulling out a gun in a kitchen or some such place while he/she neatly and conveniently answers all your questions about who/what/when/where/how/why). I was so turned off I skipped her next few novels, but early buzz for her latest convinced me to give her another shot.

I’m so glad I did.

The Drowning Kind is an atmospheric dual timeline thriller. Readers follow Jax in 2019 as she deals with the aftermath of her older sister Lexie’s drowning in the pool of their family estate. Those chapters are intermixed with others set in the 1930s, which reveal the history of the mysterious pool. It's fed by a natural spring and is said to have magical, healing powers, but those powers come at a price. For every gift it gives, it takes something in return.

Sound spooky? It is. McMahon does a fantastic job weaving the two timelines together until they merge in an ending that’s so creeptastic I had to read it twice.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Joy Osmanski and Imani Jade Powers. The reading is slow enough that I had to play it on 1.75 speed to make it sound normal. The performances are good, though I do think The Drowning Kind is the type of book that wants to be read in a dimly lit room, by a fireplace, if you’re able. Or you could read it while lounging by a pool, but beware… there might be something in the water.

My thanks to the author and Simon & Schuster Audio for the gifted advance listeners copy to review. The Drowning Kind is slated for US publication in April 2021.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

Be careful what you wish for.

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.