Rachel, a true-crime podcast host, has gotten herself immersed in a small town's brutal past. The story follows Rachel along as she navigates through a current rape trial that she is documenting on her podcast and a past suspicious death of a local girl who no one in town wants to discuss. The story kept me wanting more and had many surprising ah-ha moments. This is not a book for anyone with sensitivity to rape and brutality. I would give this one a solid 4 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for a copy of The Night Swim in exchange for my honest opinion.  Trigger warnings for sexual assault.
Rachel Krall is in a small coastal town to cover a sexual assault case for her podcast. While in the Neapolis, Rachel begins receiving notes from a woman whose sister has been dead for decades. Her sister is said to have died swimming in Neapolis but she believes her sister was killed and is asking Rachel to look into her case. 
Megan Goldin did a great job of handling the topic of sexual assault in this case. The sexual assault trial dealt with the alleged sexual assault of a woman by the town's golden boy who has Olympic aspirations. Within the story, Goldin highlights the polarization of sexual assault cases and how hard they can be to prosecute.  It isn't always as cut and dry as Law & Order: SVU makes it appear.  With the podcast element, Goldin allowed Rachel to see both sides of the story on top of the testimony within the trial itself readers witnessed in "real" time.
No surprisingly, the old case has shared elements with the current case on trial.  The older case is told primarily through flashbacks within the notes.  I thought the flashback elements were well written and allowed the two stories to intertwine well.

Hoo buddy, this book is trigger warning-tastic.

Seriously, if you're even slightly triggered by sexual assault, go into this pre-warned.

I read Megan Goldin's book The Escape Room in 2019, and was obsessed. Brilliantly written, unique, fantastic. So, when I saw she had a new novel out last year, I jumped on it (then took my sweet time getting to it, yes, I know).

Rachel runs a very successful true crime podcast. It started with cold cases, and she ended up having a case overturned, and an unjustly convicted man was set free. So, she has to up the ante with every season. This time, instead of a cold case, she's covering an active jury trial, an extremely controversial case involving a future olympic swimmer accused of sexual assault.

Sound familiar? I say through gritted teeth of rage at said headline this was ripped from?

But while she's investigating this small town crime and subsequent trial, she receives handwritten letters from someone named Hannah. Hannah is a fan of the podcast, and hopes Rachel can help solve her sister's murder. A murder that was committed in the early 90s, and swiftly swept under the rug. Hannah knows Rachel can help her. But the letters and notes appearing out of nowhere are extremely off-putting and concerning.

These two storylines mesh together brilliantly well. And the threads start weaving together the further we get along, and the tension ramps up the closer we get to both the verdict, and the reveal of what happened to Hannah's sister Jenny.

I will say, though, it was rough to go from one story of sexual assault to another. I absolutely needed a break in the end.

Amazing. Megan Goldin is shaping up to be one of the top names in thrillers.

True crime podcaster Rachel Krall is going to the town of Neapolitan to cover a rape trial of a prominent families son. He is accused of raping a high school student, the granddaughter of the police chief. Rachel starts getting letters on her car windshield and other places wanting her to look into a 25 year old drowning that someone thinks is really murder.
I love a book that is told through podcast. This was a fast paced and engaging thriller. Both cases past and present were interesting. I gave this a 3.5

Fast paced crime drama with a very modern twist. Well crafted crime drama following two time periods, present day, and 25 years ago when a similar crime was committed. We follow the actions of a podcast host in the present day, and through her podcasts we get a chance to stop the narrative and reflect on the case. Loved it.

Author deals with the heavy topics of rape culture, misogyny, and classism well. Suspense is kept as a simmer throughout the book. Both timelines are well developed, and delineated, even though characters cross storylines.

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.

4.5 stars. This is kind of 2 stories in one! Rachel, a former reporter turned famous crime podcast host is attending a trial for the 3rd season of her show. This time it’s a rape trial of a teenage girl who is accusing a 19 year old hometown golden boy who is also on his path to the Olympics for swimming. The details of the crime are horrible and the town is split over who they believe and support.
In this same small town, 25 year earlier- another teenage girl drowns in a suspicious manner and her sister Hannah reaches out to Rachel in hopes of getting her help. What Rachel uncovers will not only shock you but ultimately tie the 2 cases together. Very engrossing book but definitely hard to read at times!

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!

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