Five star thriller for me! I loved The Night Swim, and it kept me on the edge of my seat. Big fan of Megan Goldin, and I highly recommend

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I was slow to get into this one but once I did...holy cow. I started a month ago and really started 2 days ago and couldn’t put it down. This was enthralling. The characters were excellent. I really liked how the podcast transcripts were in it - it brought an interesting level to it. The drama and thriller qualities leapt from the page. Rachel and Hannah were interesting and thoughtful. K was a perfect depiction. Vince, I think he was my favorite. I’ve read so many romances lately that I was expecting some romance and I enjoyed how much I love non-romance books. This was a gem of a book. I loved the ending. I loved the plot. It was a true story and I was in for the ride. I just loved it.

Not a book to step into lightly.

Following two cases, past and present. We get the story and the podcast. Both are brutal, both are a mystery and though the topics were hard this was a fast quick read that left me on the edge of my seat needing to know more. Definetly had the vibes of a SVU Law and Order episode and I loved it.

I really enjoyed Megan Goldwin's first book so I was excited to read The Night Swim. It lived up to my every expectation and I flew through it in one day.

Oh my, was this an enjoyable read! I was never tempted to skip ahead, as I sometimes do. I didn’t want to miss a thing!

The Night Swim hooked me from page one. and didn't let go. As a big fan of true crime podcasts, I was really intrigued by the format of this book and the podcast within the novel was really well executed.

It's a fantastic piece of character-driven crime fiction, combined with court drama and an exploration of the toxicity of rape culture and privilege between generations.

The book covers a rape case that brings up thoughts of the Brock Turner case. Goldin handles this respectfully, but it is important to know that it's a central part of the story. Reading this should make you furious. How survivors can be treated should make you furious. The courtroom scenes are emotionally heavy. They aren't easy to read, but are so important.

I continue to be impressed by Megan Goldin's writing and can't wait to see what her next book brings.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's press for the ARC.

This was both brutal in its story line but also in my reaction to it. Rachel, a podcaster, arrives in the small town to cover the trial of a young man accused of raping a 16 year old girl. While on route she receives a note from Hannah, a young woman whose sister drowned 25 years ago in the same town asking her to look into her death. As both stories unravel, the knot in my stomach grew and my heart ached for the pain both girls suffered.

For the third season of her true crime podcast, Rachel Grall chose a story that she knew would generate conversation and conflict. It's a rape case and the trial is still ongoing. She's living out of a hotel room, gathering information and condensing it into episodes she hopes will entertain her listeners. One of those listeners has written to her twice and started leaving notes on her car, desperate to get Rachel's attention.

Enjoyed isn't the word for how I felt about this book. I was fascinated, and anxious to find out what had actually happened. Parts of the book are absolutely heartbreaking and I found myself wishing I had the power to make things better for the fictional characters. Rape plays a huge role in the plot and it's absolutely brutal...not the description of the act itself as much as the effect it has on the victim. If that's something you prefer to avoid reading about, you might want to skip this one.

This story gave me all sorts of feelings. First of all I think the author grab the concept of rape and portrayed it very respectfully. It’s always hard to hear and talk about something like that. I guess my issue with this novel was the main character Jenny. To me, it felt a bit unrealistic that she would go through everything she did again and again without nothing really changing. (Ex not carrying anything to defend herself etc) I’ll give it a 3.5. I still liked her last novel much more.

I really liked this. It’s not a nail-biting or action-packed thriller, but it is a heavy mystery that explores the topic of rape culture honestly, succinctly and I’m not sure that’s being done enough in this genre, or its relatives.

The style of the novel is split between regular narrative chapters and podcast script-like chapters. You know those podcast chapters are all the rage right now, and this novel does them really well.

Goldin really put a lot of emphasis on how a trial plays out, how a jury views things, how public opinion can run rampant and be so ignorant and callous. There is great care taken to portray a rape victim’s trauma and mental state; how a trial, public opinion and being known as “the victim,” can affect a person’s mental health and recovery. A trigger warning is fair for this novel if you have experiences with sexual assault and rape.

The duelling mysteries between Hannah’s sister’s cold case murder and the rape trial are captivating and keep the novel going at a constant, addictive pace. The themes of the novel are important, socially current and explored deftly, lending the fast-pace an emotionally heavy vibe that may move you emotionally.

The Night Swim was not what I was expecting. Although it is indeed a good novel that will surely be enjoyed by many people, I believe that the marketing will mislead readers. I saw the novel marketed as a thriller, which, in my opinion, is a mistake. It is a slow burn mystery novel, mixed with drama, and there is nothing wrong with that. Unless you were expecting something different, which was my case.

The novel has three different narratives. The podcast bits were interesting and added a different touch, but the parts where Hanna tells her story through letters didn’t work well for me. The way they were written was too literary, too elaborate if you take into account that they were written as a call for help, not as an autobiography. I think this part of the story would have worked better if that character had simply shared her story in a normal conversation. I understand the author wanted to create the game of the double mystery, but I think this way of telling the one from the past seemed unnatural and illogical.

The best part, and the most interesting, was actually the one that focused on the trial. The moral debate, the interviews with the parents, the impact on the town…those were the strong points of this book, and that is why it is a shame that the marketing is only focusing on the other, and less relevant, part of the book. Yes, everything is intertwined, but the topic of rape culture is being considered as a secondary theme, which is ironic.

In sum, I don't think this was a bad novel at all, but it wasn't the gripping thriller I was promised and it won't be a story that I will remember in a few months.

This story was fast-paced and exciting. I had a hard time putting it down. Sometimes thrillers tend to feel run of the mill and predictable but this was not the case with this book.

Wow! I went into this book not knowing what to expect and I was so extremely pleasantly surprised. I am loving this new trope of true crime podcast books that I am seeing.
I enjoyed that there were real anc serious issues explored in this story such as rape and consent. At times the story. can make explore a wide range of emotions; anger, uncomfortable, rage, sadness, anxiousness and so much more!! I think the characters were wonderfully fleshed out just enough for you to become fully invested in their stories.
I would out this in your must read list now!

I received a copy of The Night Swim in return for an honest review! Yes, I am months behind here but I did read this one, and loved it!

Anything to do with true crime podcasts and I’m in! I loved Rachel and her quest for the truth.

The dual storylines made it interesting although confusing at first. I found myself way more ire invested in one than the other. I’ll let you guess which one.

I’m all about this author and will be back for me. Thank you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

I received the ARC eBook and audio book of The Night Swim. The writing in this was good and the flow was amazing. It kept me intrigued, flowing Rachel while she tried to solve 2 caes. My main hangup with this, though, is the lack of trigger warnings. Now I usually don't say that. I am not one to put trigger warnings in my works, but I felt like this needed one. The violent rape in this book made me so upset, I had to pull over, because i was listening on my way to work. That is the reason I gave it 3 stars.

Oh I loved this book so much! I liked (but didn't love) Megan Goldin's freshman effort, The Escape Room. It had all the right pieces, but something was missing that kept it from being fantastic. With The Night Swim, Megan Goldin knocked it out of the park. A podcast, a rape accusation, a 20-year old mysterious death, all wrapped up in one pretty large package.

I loved the plot and the pacing. The plot kept twisting and turning and it was hard to keep up with everything and how/if they were related. What a fun and wild ride! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Night Swim is the first book that I have read by Megan Goldin. It centers around Rachel Krall who is the host of a podcast called Guilty or Not Guilty where she has earned a reputation by covering murders and murder trials. In her first 2 seasons, she was instrumental in changing the course of two murder investigations. For her 3rd season, she is following a rape trial in a small coastal town while simultaneously investigating a murder that happened decades before in that same town.

Although it did start off kind of slow, the book eventually got me interested and really started to pick up the pace. The author did a really great job of exploring how class and gender play a role in criminal investigations. Rachel Krall proved to be a very likable and capable investigator in her own right. She truly missed her calling. The book featured an interesting cast of characters that were very hard to figure out until I got closer to the end. I can’t get into any true details because this is truly a double mystery with some compelling plot twists that really made the storyline rather unique. Overall, I did find it all to be hauntingly realistic and relevant to our current climate. I would definitely read another book by this author.

This novel had me absolutely riveted throughout. Both story lines were compelling, but my favorite of the two was the story of Jenny and Hannah Stills.

The book covered many social problems. It spoke to how ‘justice’ can sometimes be bought. That if you want a decent defense you have to pay through the nose. It shows the disparity between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. It also touched on the subject of ‘victim blaming’, a common occurrence in rape trials. It chronicled how very important reputation is to the psyche, and how social media has ascertained that everyone wants to voice their opinion, whether they are based on facts…. or not.

The setting, coastal North Carolina was fabulous and I could almost smell the briny air. The characters were well drawn and the plot tight and believable.

In my opinion, the ending was very satisfactory and it also left the narrative open enough that this could potentially be the beginning of an interesting series – though I have no idea if the author intends to bring Rachel Krall back in further books.

This was an easy 5-star read for me. No question. I’ve not read this author before, but she will now be one I look out for. Highly recommended!

I have been debating on how to rate this book for a while since I finished it. I did not like it at all. The only reason I finished it was because of pure determination to finish a book. The writing felt like the author was watching a PG thriller and copying it down. The characters were not really relatable or likable. The dialogue seemed straight out of the '50s at times. As a whole, it didn't make much sense that characters would do or say what they did.

I found this to be a well-written, fast paced story about two crimes in the same town set 25 years apart. The characters were interesting and the story intriguing. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.