Great premise but not the story I expected. It had a lot going on, multiple plot lines, and mainly despicable characters. It wraps up with some things unresolved. There is a decent story here and the writing is actually very good it maybe just tackled too much. I would try more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for a copy in exchange for a review.

I really couldn't put this book down! I love the way things aren't necessarily tied neatly together at the end, and leaves it up to the reader's imagination. Sometimes when authors do that it irks me, but I felt that it worked in this book.

A couple things I wasn't too sure on: without spoiling anything, I find it hard to believe that some of the events that happened wouldn't have been captured by the supposed best security system money can buy. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the way the author wrote the character of Ashley. No woman I know sleeps naked (eye roll), but I suppose in general I don't really care for the way male authors write female characters.

All in all, this was a great read and I highly recommend.

The author wrote a thriller that started with a bang and just kept going! The twists kept coming, so I couldn't put it down. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

The Drowning can be summarized in one sentence: A summer camp ghost story turns into real-life terror for a former camp counselor. And, I enjoyed every page of J.P. Smith’s novel.

The Drowning is a well-written story of ego, revenge, regret and terror and the author does a fine job maintaining suspense throughout. While some of the characters are unlikable, there’s no denying that their personalities add a great deal to the development of the story and it’s unexpected ending. Well plotted and well written, this a book for anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller with a satisfying conclusion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

When the Author of this book was eight years old, he was left on a raft and told by a camp counselor that he had to either swim back (even though he did not know how to swim and was afraid of deep water) or stay on the raft and die. That memory stayed with him and became the inspiration for this novel.

Eight-year-old Joey Proctor has been taken to summer campy by his parents. It is his first time away from home and he is naturally nervous. Listening to the camp fire stories about an urban legend, John Otis, a man who abducts children from the camp every seven years, doesn't help to make the young campers feel safe.

One day at during swimming group, a swimming instructor named Alex, becomes frustrated with Joey's fear of the water and takes him out to a raft in the middle of the lake and leaves Joey there. Joey must either get over his fear of water and swim back to shore or stay on the raft. When Joey cannot be found later, a search goes underway but young Joey is never seen again.

Years later, Alex is living a very prosperous and successful life in Manhattan. He is married with a wife and two daughters. He wants what happened that summer to remain in the past but soon things begin happening in his life, things that bring up the past, things that make him question if Joey is still alive, if he is out there waiting and plotting revenge. Because if it's not Joey tormenting him and his family, then who? Why? A business rival? A spurned lover?

I found this book to be a fast read with some twists and turns. There are also some unanswered questions which some might find to be frustrating. There are some unanswered questions and I have mixed feelings about this. Overall, a very enjoyable psychological thriller which had me guessing and scratching my head all at the same time. There were some parts that had me wondering if I missed something and wondering was there going to be a part two to this book to answer some questions that remained. In the section of the book titled "A conversations with the Author", the author does state "I think it's best that each reader comes up with the answer that's most satisfactory to him or her."

For me this was great escapism reading on a rainy day.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Every summer camp has a ghost story. While Alex is working as a swimming instructor at a rural boys' camp, he hears the tale of John Otis, who is rumored to snatch one boy from the camp every seventh summer. It's a ridiculous story, clearly meant to rile up the campers.

The next day, an eight-year-old boy named Joey Proctor is in Alex's swimming group. Frustrated by Joey's fear of the water, Alex leaves him on a raft in the lake, tells him to swim back on his own, and storms off. Alex returns after nightfall to find the raft empty. Joey is never seen again.

Now, twenty-one years later, Alex is a wealthy Manhattan-based real estate developer with a trophy wife and two young daughters. But someone is after Alex—it seems Joey Proctor is back, and he wants revenge…**from Goodreads.com***

The Drowning is a who-dun-it following Alex, a rich and famous business man whose past comes back to haunt him. In the vein of Gone Girl, Smith weaves a tale that makes you both root for and against Alex. The book is well written, but with so many twists and turns I found myself having to go back to catch up. Definantly worth picking up.
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I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Decent psychological suspense book, but the characters are overall SO unlikable that it just soured the entire book reading experience for me. I wanted to have someone to root for. I disliked Alex from the beginning and although I should have reveled in his downfall, I couldn't because I didn't have anyone that I cared to champion.
I did like the mystery of it all, and it is a fairly fast-paced read. So if you're ok with ambiguous endings and not having everything solved, then this is a decent choice.

Spoilers below:

I didn't like that things weren't all solved in the end. There was a decent twist which I had kind of figured out, but some of the mystery threads were just left hanging and I hate it when that happens. I don't like loose ends. What was the deal with the hunters and the body they found? What exactly did the caretaker see? What is a plausible explanation for what happened to the kid?

I enjoyed this book so much! I couldn't put it down! The characters are well drawn and the story is mesmerizing. Alex is a swim instructor at a summer camp when he is 18 years old. He leaves an 8 year old boy on a raft who cannot swim and forgets about him. The boy is never seen again. Twenty-one years later Alex is a very successful real estate mogul in NYC when he believes that Joey is somehow still alive and is terrorizing him and his family.
I was surprised by the ending of the story and wished it had been a bit more definitive but because it wasn't it really makes the reader think about what happened.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes physiological thrillers.

Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read this in exchange for my review.

TWO STARS

The opening of the book drew me in, with a classic summer camp feel complete with a ghost story of a child being snatched from the camp every seven years by a man in the woods. I was disappointed to find that the remainder of the book would not take place the nostalgic setting that captured my attention. Although the story does jump between a few storylines, the majority of the story follows Alex as an adult as he is tormented by what he believes to be Joey Proctor returning for his revenge. These events develop at a rapid pace, and leave little room for suspense or mystery. The events seemed a little far-fetched, and the narrative did not provide an opportunity for speculation that thrillers typically invite.

Although I enjoyed elements of this book, lacklustre twists and an unsatisfying ending prevent me from giving it a higher rating.

I received an ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the storyline in this book and the characters were well developed. It kept a reasonable amount of suspense through the book. It was an OK read, however I really hated the ending it was very anticlimactic and it left a huge part of the plot unanswered. The way it ended did make that omission intentional but I disliked it, I was hoping for more. I also found the writing a little rough, I’m hoping the sentences with grammatical errors are just because this is a rough draft. If this is not due to it being a draft just FYI there are many sentences that don’t flow and make no sense. Also I have to add, Alex “prided” himself way to many times. It was somewhat overdone

First off, this was a fun, suspenseful book with a consistent plot. However, I had issues with two main things. The first was a suspension of disbelief and that was directly related to the writing style. I felt disconnected from the characters and I will follow the most unrealistic plot If I feel like it is true to the character, but I felt a disconnect from Alex and Alex from his actions. I guess the plot twist before it happened but that was past halfway, so I was ok with that. I would recommend it for a suspenseful weekend read but not if you want to be blown away by the writing or character development. Trigger warning for discussion of pedophiles, domestic abuse, suicide and sexual harassment.

My first book of 2019 was the terrifying The Drowning from J.P. Smith. Like most summer camps, there is a story of a scary man in the woods, who is going to take one of the campers. And usually, they are just that, stories. Except for Joey Proctor. He went to camp and never came back.

Alex was a teenage swim instructor who left Joey on a raft, and forgot about it. Joey was never seen again. 21 years later - Alex is a successful real estate developer with everything, a beautiful wife, kids and a flashy career. Except now...Joey is back.

I HATE using "twists and turns" when writing about books, but this book is full of them. Everyone is a suspect. Everyone has something to gain. Who is haunting Alex? Where is Joey?

Thanks to NetGalley, J.P. Smith, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Drowning, J. P. Smiths' seventh novel to date, is a dark and murky psychological thriller. It explores the propensity for a deep, dark secret buried long ago, and stored like all our repressed memories in the most inaccessible depths of our brain so as not to hurt us, to reappear. Sometimes they stay buried the way you want them to, but most of the time they resurface unannounced in a spectacular fashion causing a myriad of unwanted consequences. Although Smith uses well-recognised tropes here, he does so in a unique and refreshing way. However, there is one certainty, when the full extent of Alex's heartless, cruel to be kind, action or more correctly, omission (inaction) comes to light nothing will be the same again for all of those involved.

This is a solid read that has all of the component parts making it a compelling and suspenseful story, so much so that I forgot and burned my dinner as I feverishly turned the pages. Being a law graduate the many questions surrounding the issues of culpability and negligence, as well as a the moral standpoints e.g. legal concerns v moral concerns of the plot gave me plenty of food for thought. Like most readers I expected most of my answers to be addressed towards the back end of the novel, so I indeed enjoyed the fact that Smith didn't spell everything out or tie it all up conveniently in a bow. It'll stay with me for quite some time I suspect. So if you like questions to ponder or ruminate on this is a highly entertaining and immersive mystery thriller which poses some thought-provoking and intriguing questions.

Many thanks to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark for an ARC.

Wow! Fantastic book. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours. Every parents worst nightmare gets worse when a young boy of 8 disappears at summer camp. As troubled relationship of the parents unfold and you find out how unhappy the young boys life was. Did the negligence of one of the camp counselors cause this disappearance or was there someone watching the camp that caused this terrifying twist of fate. Fast forward 21 years later and the former arrogant counselor is super successful and facing a chain of events that will cause him to face what he may have caused years ago. Unique, strongly written mystery. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

A dark mystery with such great character development! The mystery is nothing like I've read about before, which had me hooked from the beginning!

Wow. I don't even know what to say. I didn't see that ending coming at all. It left me kind of speechless I was immediately pulled into this story and it never let me go. It leaves you with a lot of questions that you were sure you would have the answers to in the end, but you don't. I feel like like this is the kind of book that I'm going to find myself pondering over for years, coming to one conclusion, only to find myself remembering it and thinking of another answer entirely. This is definitely a book that will make you think and the kind that will probably haunt you ever, making you wonder what if...

Very good read- enjoyable and very thrilling. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for fair review.

3.5 stars.

I actually wanted to DNF this book a couple of times, but something about it kept me going. I like the writing style, that may have been it.
The story is good, maybe a bit convoluted, but interesting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Wow! I could not put this book down! The Drowning is a great spooky mystery thriller. A little boy, Joey, disappears from summer camp after being left on a raft in the middle of a lake by Alex, the camp counselor. Alex left Joey there to teach him a lesson. More than 20 years later it looks like Joey is back to get revenge on Alexa who is now very successful and living a lavish lifestyle. Someone, or something remembers Joey’s terror and wants Alex to share in that terror. The ending is a total surprise. I like this book. I highly recommend it. I received this book from net galley in return for an honest review.