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.

I received this book from net galley in return for an honest review.

After watching Parent Trap when I was 11 years old, I was convinced that I had a long lost twin somewhere and that I needed my mother and father to send me to summer camp to find her.  After reading this story, I'm kind of happy that they never did.

"The Drowning," occurs in both the past and present.  We see the story begin with camp counselors telling children the urban legend of a psychopath who kidnaps a child every seven years from the camp.  The story then creates a terrifying reality, for any parent, when we find out a little boy has disappeared without a trace from camp and then we are brought to the present where we follow the camp counselor who, in a roundabout way, is responsible for the disappearance.  

Alex Mason is a successful real estate tycoon who appears to have the perfect life.  Great job, loving wife, beautiful children.  But unsettling things start to happen to him and his family and someone doesn't want him to forget about the horrible decision he made as a camp counselor 21 years ago.

This book was a complete page turner and had me guessing until the very end.  Although sometimes it threw me off with the time jump, going back and forth between past and present with no indication of the time changing other then the start of a new chapter, this was a great story.  Alex is not a very likable guy and you're constantly wanting to find out what happened to little Joey Proctor on that ill-fated day.  This is a book to pick up if you're looking for an easy quick read that you don't want to put down.  I gave it 4 stars.

-Brit
@callemarie- Litsy
@bookreader_craftbeerlover- Instagram

This book has a great pretense but ends up being a bit of a mess.

We start with Joey being left at a camp for the summer and hear a GREAT horror story about kids being taken every 7 years...but then it goes really random. At one point we flash ahead 7 years on a hunting trip, to a retired sheriff who is obsessed with the case and interspersed are things being done to Alex, the person who was responsible leaving Joey on a ramp.

It was too convoluted.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC!

This is a real page turner! Alex, the swimming counselor at a summer camp, put 8 year old Joey on a raft and told him to swim back to the shore. Joey didn't. He completely disappeared- not a trace. Now, Alex, a NYC real estate mogul is being harassed and haunted by someone or something who represents Joey. Alex is not a nice man but his wife and his daughters are. Told from several perspectives, but primarily via Alex, and with a bit of time shifting, this is a plot you might have read before but Smith has thrown in some very interesting changes. It's very well written and kept me totally engaged. Why did I take a star off? Well, I'm really rating this 4.5 but the system won't let me do that. It would be a spoiler to explain why I was unsatisfied with the ending. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a very good read.

THE DROWNING left me conflicted. The writing was good and the plot line was certainly suspenseful but the main character was not developed enough for me to really relate to him. Alex was a snotty frat boy with an attitude at the beginning of the book and and, when we meet him again twenty-one years later and obviously tried to become a better man. But Smith did not give me enough information about who Alex really was at heart to be able to sympathize with him or truly understand his actions. None the less, the desire to know who was behind the mystery had me turning pages well into the night..

8-year-old Joey Proctor is at camp when his swimming counselor, Alex Mason, forcibly places him on a dock in the middle of the lake even though Joey can’t swim. Hours later, Joey is missing, never to be found. Fast forward 20 years to Alex’s life as a successful businessman with a nice house, beautiful wife and 2 children. Suddenly ominous events start happening to Alex which eerily remind him of that fateful day in his past.

I enjoyed the first 2/3 of this but not so much the ending. I loved the overall story and the initial premise. Then the plot took a strange turn and the focus was jarringly different. I also found that certain chapters of the book seemed completely irrelevant to the plot and caused me some confusion. The twist at the very end was interesting but an important part was left completely unresolved, leaving me dissatisfied with the outcome. I think with a few changes this could’ve been a 4 or 5 star book, but with all the loose ends, it just wasn’t quite there.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and J. P. Smith for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just love it when a thriller totally takes me by surprise, and The Drowning drew me in straight away with its dual timeline that introduced what was to be a multi-layered, irresistible mystery. 21 years ago, eight-year-old Joey Proctor disappeared without a trace from summer camp. Some of the other boys are convinced he has fallen victim to urban legend John Otis, the evil man who is rumoured to have been behind the disappearance of several boys in these very woods. The police, on the other hand, believe that Joey may have wandered off into the forest, perhaps distressed about his parents’ marital problems. Only one person knows the truth – cocky swimming instructor Alex Mason, who left the boy behind on a swimming raft in the middle of the lake that afternoon to teach him a lesson and promptly forgot about him. But Alex is not about to tell the truth and destroy his own future for the sake of a simple “mistake”. So life goes on without Joey, even though for some it will never be the same again. The other boys grow up, Alex grows older and richer, and soon the news story is replaced by other headlines. Twenty years on, Alex has all but forgotten about that long ago summer as he is basking in his success as a property developer, living in a mansion with his pretty wife and two young daughters. Life has treated him well. Until the day things start to go wrong for him – and he receives a sinister message from Joey. But Joey is dead – or isn’t he?

J.P. Smith has taken a risk by starring a very unlikeable character as the main protagonist in his novel, but he managed to totally pull this off for me. Whilst I disliked Alex intensely – not only for what he has done, but for his arrogance and lack of remorse – he always maintained a small degree of humanity that made a tiny part of my heart sympathetic to his plight. Ok, perhaps not overly sympathetic, but curious in how this would play out. Those interested in seeing karma come back to haunt the guilty will get some satisfaction out of the events that follow. And of course there is the mystery of the cold case, the missing boy, that totally hooked me.

Smith writes well, and both timelines played out seamlessly in my mind’s eye. I loved the constant thread of danger and suspense that overshadowed the events in both past and present, and the inclusion of the urban legend was a great touch. There is nothing quite like a John Otis to awaken our primal fears of the monster coming in the night to take us away. Do we ever really grow out of that? Everyone who has ever been on a school camp will be able to recall the goosebumps as someone told a ghost story in the night. Then there was the butterfly effect Joey’s death had on the lives he touched, ultimately spinning out of control as the timelines collide. And if that was not enough, there is that extra contemporary touch of including a filmmaker interested in Joey’s story for a true-crime documentary, and a tireless detective investigating the cold case. It now had all the elements I love in a thriller – thank you very much!

The Drowning was one of those books that immediately drew me in and made me read late into the night to find out the answers. It’s not easy these days to find a thriller that stands out from the rest, but this one is so cleverly plotted that it definitely fell into that category for me. A well constructed, compelling read!

This is a superb read. It’s the kind of book that will become an overnight success. The plot is interesting and gripping from the first word. How events unfold and can have a ripple effect over the years is shown beautifully in this book. Hands down best seller.

Joey's parents aren't getting along. They try to hide it from him, but he knows they're packing him off to camp to get rid of him while the marriage crashes.

Every good novel has a character like Joey. You care about him and keep reading because you want to find out what happens to him. J.P. Smith makes us care about Joey and uses him all through The Drowning to keep us turning pages as we read about other characters we don't care about at all. Most of the book is focused on Alex, a careless self-centered swimming coach, who tortures Joey by throwing him in deep water to force him to swim. Alex is angry when he has to rescue Joey from drowning. He yells at him and leaves him alone on a raft in the middle of the lake, telling him he will have to learn to swim to get back to the shore.

Alex forgets about Joey, stranded on the raft. Joey disappears. Alex lies, swearing Joey left the the swimming lesson and went back to camp.

The author skips twentyone years. Alex is now a wealthy property developer with a beautiful home and a perfect family. He's learned to (mostly) control him temper and hide his selfishness. When bad things begin to happen to Alex and his business, it looks like Joey has returned to take his revenge. I kept turning the pages, waiting for the big confrontation between Joey and Alex. I wanted to find out what happened to Joey.

I blame the spectacular (undeserved, IMO) success of Gone Girl for novels like this. It's full of dangling clues leading nowhere and has no ending at all. I gave it fours stars because it did keep me reading and I often abandon novels after the first chapter.

When I started reading The Drowning, I had little idea what to expect and soon thought it would be yet another story about the disappearance of a 8-year-old boy from a summer camp. But after a few chapters, I realized this one was different. It’s mainly told from the point of view of a totally unlikable character, Alex. That in itself was new to me, and even though I didn’t pity him—let alone relate—the book kept me wondering, and shred my first assumptions into pieces. The author brilliantly fed readers just enough additional information about Alex at the right time as the story went on, unraveling Alex’s life little by little, and I never guessed the ending. I must say though that I read the author’s note at the end and I didn’t feel the “legend” as he put it, and I wished he had explained what had happened to the kid. And also, I cannot comprehend how there was a witness, working on the site, and he was never interrogated; I did not understand either the connection with the two hunters, or how Alex could be fooled by Pete’s extorted confession, why people from that summer died, and maybe a few other frustrating loose ends…

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks, and J.P. Smith for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! I could not put this book down! While the main character is so unlikeable that I wondered if I could read through to the end. But no worries - the author does a great job with making you know all the people involved and then there's the mystery surrounding the disappearance of an 8-year old boy from summer camp. The ending was a total surprise. A very good adventure!