The Drowning Kind - Thriller - Book Review

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon

Reviewed by Laura Jay at BookPraises.com:

"This poignant ethereal story is nothing less than an outstanding literary masterpiece!  As I slowly approached the close of the epilogue, I felt shivers all over my body.” -Laura Jay, BookClubReporter.com and BookPraises.com

Publisher’s Book Description 

• From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invited and The Winter People comes a chilling new novel about a woman who returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim...

Transcript

The Drowning Kind Book Club Reporter Podcast Book Review

Season 3, Episode 3

BOOK REVIEW TRANSCRIPT – 

00:01

Music and Intro Dialogue

“ As I slowly approached the close of the epilogue, I felt shivers all over my body. This poignant, ethereal story, The Drowning Kind, is nothing less than an outstanding literary masterpiece!”

00:22

Hello gentle readers. Welcome to Book Club Reporter Book Reviews Podcast. I’m your host and Book Club Reporter, Laura Jay. 

00:31

This is Season 3 - Episode 3

00:36

Today I am sharing with you my book review of  the chilling novel, The Drowning Kind written by author, Jennifer McMahon.

00:46

And, before we get started be sure to read all my book reviews, book news, book club reading lists and more at bookclubreporter.com.

00:56

And you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Just take a look at the show notes for this podcast for all the info and links.

01:07

Okay, and so I actually have um some new current news and that is that I have created an additional book review website and it is bookpraises.com So that is: bookpraises, bookpraises dot com. I created that website because I wanted to have a special place to review books that I consider to be just as high as they can possibly be rated, so books that I just super am in love with. So, that is where you’ll be able to find this book review for The Drowning Kind, by Jennifer McMahon. That will be on bookpraises.com. 

02:00

So again, I hope you will continue to visit bookclubreporter.com, and then come and see me at bookpraises.com as well. I’m gonna put lots of good book reviews on bookclubreporter, they’ll just be books that I think just everybody will love. 

So, ah…as I said I just wanted to have a place where I’m gonna put the books that I’m just in love with. So…please visit me in both places ‘cause I have just got tons and tons of book reviews on bookclubreporter. So, you don’t want to miss out on that as well.

02:33

Oh, so there’s something else I’d like ya’ll to know. It is something that you may find beneficial. So, I thought that…this is really wonderful! I have begun creating transcripts of my podcast episodes.  And I’m hoping that this will be beneficial for folks who are hearing impaired. So if you or a book lover you know is hearing impaired, you can also now easily access the transcripts of my book review episodes. They’ll be right there kind of where the Show Notes are. There should be something you can click on that says Transcripts, and then you should be able to see the entire transcript of each book review that I post. Okay? Alright.  

03:11

Well, let’s get this show on the road. I am about to provide you the Publisher’s Book Description of The Drowning Kind and I will follow that with my book review. So come on in, and have a seat, as I talk about: The Drowning Kind.

03:26

Okay, so here I go with the Publisher’s Book Description of The Drowning Kind:

03:30

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invited and The Winter People comes a chilling new novel about a woman who returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.

03:48
Be careful what you wish for…

03:51
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.

04:32
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.

05:01
A haunting, twisty, and compulsively readable thrill ride.,” The Drowning Kind is a modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us.

05:15

Okay, well here we go now with my book review of The Drowning Kind

05:18

Honestly the writing style and the content of The Drowning Kind grabbed my interest right from the get-go. But when the story was done, it still had a hold on me. In fact, I waited a week before writing this review, just so I could feel like I was ready to express my feelings about this story…just in an honest and straight-forward way.

05:41

Ya’ll are probably thinking, what is Laura Jay going on about now? Well…I’m about to tell you just that.

05:47

I’m sure you all have read at least one book like this. You know…a book that moves you unlike any other. There exists only one other book I can claim moved me like The Drowning Kind. And that book is Wuthering Heights written by Emily Bronte.

06:03

I actually had to ask myself, what was is it about Jennifer McMahon’s The Drowning Kind that made me react similarly as I did to Wuthering Heights? They’re two different books, definitely…two different stories, definitely. But there are some similarities in the way that these super talented authors have written that just was so good that it evoked all these feelings in me. So, I’m not trying to say that anybody copied anything, ‘cause that is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a wonderful style of writing. So…The Drowning Kind and Wuthering Heights are, like I said, two distinct and different, wonderful books of literature.

06:45

So…Wuthering Heights dealt with suffering within a family. The kind of suffering that just doesn’t die. And there is a question of a ghost-like haunting in both Wuthering Heights and The Drowning Kind. 

06:58

Oh…I going to make a really quick side-trip here to say, if you are a romantic…you consider yourself a romantic, and you have not read Wuthering Heights, I absolutely recommend that you do so. No romantic person would ever want to miss the story of Cathy and Heathcliff out on the moors.

07:18

Okay, so as I thought about Wuthering Heights, I remembered that the name of the book is also the name of the house where the story unfolds. In The Drowning Kind, Sparrow Crest is the name of the home in Vermont where Jackie’s sister, Lexie, lives. And it is also the place where some of the characters of past generations lived and/or 

visited. So…um, I don’t know why, you know, it just seems like when you read something, whether it’s a book or whether you see a movie…and the name of the movie or the book is the same as the home where the characters lived, it has some sort of impact. You know, something that just jumps out you. And it has meaning in some way to the story itself. So, I just that was interesting that these two books had something similar like that happen between them. 

08:15

Wuthering Heights, at its core, tells the story of  the complicated and destructive love between Cathy and Heathcliff.  In Wuthering Heights, it is the over-whelming feelings of jealousy, distrust and revenge that drives Heathcliff’s destructive rage (which is very much an unhealthy symptom of his undying love/hate relationship with Cathy).  And to be brutally honest, Cathy has also acted destructively by denying her love for Heathcliff, thereby causing them both pain and anguish. And that pain and anguish gets spread out among some other characters in the story as well.

08:52

In The Drowning Kind we have several generations of a family who are affected by Sparrow Crest and its pool of “healing” - shall we say- healing springs. So, I know this is kind of a stretch maybe but, so much like finding that you are experiencing unrequited love…which is what happened to Heathcliff…um, in Wuthering Heights, when we switch over and talk about The Drowning Kind, There are folks in that story, that the springs may give something to them, something that they wished for very much…but then they found out what the springs gives, it may also take back in equal measure. So…ah…anyway, I saw that as kind of a…a similarity.

09:42

So for Heathcliff, you know that he had a terrible childhood and he was brought, by a very nice man, who turned out to be Cathy’s father…brought him home with him, gave him a home, gave him a life…and Heathcliff, you know, later fell in love with Cathy. And, thought he was gonna get what he wished for. 

---------------------------

10:05

Okay, so back to The Drowning Kind. In The Drowning Kind there is definitely love between sisters Jackie “Jax” and Lexie “Lex” who while growing up had referred to themselves as the “X” sisters. And yet, like Heathcliff and Cathy, Jax and Lexie came to have a complicated (and possibly) destructive relationship as well. When Jax grew up and became a social worker/counselor. Lexie didn’t fare so well. In fact, Jax came to believe Lexie was displaying symptoms of mental illness. 

10:40

Here is where Wuthering Heights and The Drowning Kind part ways (but not completely). While Heathcliff becomes more and more hateful and unreachable without Cathy…Jax, on the other hand, seeks to understand what is happening to her sister and why. 

10:54

Yet there is the question of a ghost-like haunting in both Wuthering Heights and The Drowning Kind. So now let us leave Wuthering Heights behind us.

11:00

Okay, so back to The Drowning Kind. Jax feels guilty for not taking Lexie’s phone calls. Jax not only searches her soul, but also searches Sparrow Crest 

11:13

Jax’s search through will tell her stories from the past. Jax will learn how Sparrow Crest and its “healing” springs affected the lives of previous generations of her family. 

11:24

But will the past truly reveal itself to Jax? And if it does, what does Jax learn? Well of course, I’m not gonna tell you that because I don’t want to give away the ending of the book. But what I will say is:

“ As I slowly approached the close of the epilogue, I felt shivers all over my body. This poignant, ethereal story, The Drowning Kind, is nothing less than an outstanding literary masterpiece!”

11:53

Outro Background Music

11:55

I hope you enjoyed this podcast book review and if you did, you can buy me a cup of coffee by clicking the link in the Show Notes.

12:03

Thank you all for joining me today. If you would like more info about today’s book review, or a copy of the book, check the Show Notes of this podcast episode. And, don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast because there are many more book reviews to come.

12:17

See ya’ll next time.