Reviewed by annieb123 on
The Drowning Kind is a psychological mystery paranormal thriller with a creepy gothic vibe by Jennifer McMahon. Released 6th April 2021 by Simon & Schuster on their Gallery imprint, it's 336 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a well written, extremely creepy and atmospheric, character driven mystery with a very strong paranormal ghost story subplot central to the story. It's told in a parallel timeline narrative which resolves at the denouement. I found the plotting quite uneven throughout and there were a lot of plot threads which were never resolved which niggled at me annoyingly.
There is some potentially triggering content including self harm (a *lot* of it), suicide ideation, death of a child, mental health issues, death by drowning, and a shed load of paranormal death in addition. There is a nebulous plot, but nothing linear at all. The scenes are strung together sequentially, but don't resolve to any meaningful degree. The end (for me) was something of an anti-climax. Despite the drawbacks, the scenes are beautifully rendered with clear and evocative prose and the characters are finely drawn with believable motivations and dialogue. The author is clearly good at her craft.
Three and a half stars, rounded up for the writing. This would be a good fit for "women's paranormal"/ghost story readers. For me, the ending was the weakest part of the story.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 16 October, 2021: Finished reading
- 16 October, 2021: Reviewed