Everyone!! Stop what you're doing, unless you're already reading, then carry on. Ok. You need to stop what you are doing. Go to your nearest book retailer and procure yourself a copy of The Drowning Kind by @jennifermcmahonwrites Clear your calendar. Get comfortable and don't plan on stopping until you get to the very last page. Because this book will suck you in and keep you guessing until the end. This story has everything, dual time line story line, sister drama, mama drama, and enough of an ill at ease feeling that will have you keeping the lights on well after bedtime. Thank you again to. @gallerybooks @netgalley and the incomparable @jennifermcmahonwrites for the opportunity to read and review

Jennifer McMahon is my go to author if I want things a little bit creepy with a touch of the bizarre that will leave me questioning if I or the characters are going a little bit (or a lot) crazy. And her latest book. The Drowning Kind, did not disappoint.

McMahon masterfully weaves two story lines, with one taking place during the 1920-30s and the other closer to present day. Some books have a choppy feel when the author decides to use this format, but in The Drowning Kind it was smooth. For me, the most enjoyable aspect of this story was trying to decide if it’s a ghost story, sabotage, or various characters are going slowly crazy. Just when I thought it was going in one direction, McMahon would take a hard left into something else.

I do wish some of the characters were a bit more developed. Since the book is 285 pages, I can’t decide if McMahon could have delved more into the characters, or if that would have taken away from the suspense of the book. With 75 or so extra pages added to the story there is a lot of room for good things to happen… or it may have dragged on too long. With what McMahon does write in regards to the characters, we get a peek into a family with mental illness, regret, and lots of secrets.

If you’re a fan of McMahon I think you’ll enjoy The Drowning Kind, and if you’ve never read her before but enjoy suspense or ghost stories, I would recommend it.

This one caught my eye with it also be the first time in reading anything by this author. The fact that Jax ignored the calls of course will play on her guilt when Lexie is found dead in a pool. Things will get so curious when Jax finds out what she was up to and then she continues. In started in 1929 with the story going.....What one story too with it making us not going anywhere until we see what some of the answers are. You had better like creepy because this is one in a good way. I flipped the pages with this not the only one I would read from this author if more come from her in this style.

I always say that I don’t like ghost stories, but then I have recently read several books with ghostly storylines and enjoyed them quite a bit. So maybe I really do enjoy ghost stories!?

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is about a mysterious house with a dark, murky pool that appears to have healing powers and perhaps a few ghosts lurking below the surface? The pool is sourced from a natural spring that has been a source of healing for a long time. But be warned- when the water gives, it also takes. The story is set in two different timelines- with Jax in the present who is investigating the unusual circumstances around her sisters’s drowning and Ethel in the past who is discovering for herself the power and danger of the spring waters.

I thought this story was compelling, and I found myself engaged in both timelines. There is definitely a creepy vibe throughout the story, and I thought it was thoroughly entertaining. At first I thought the ending was too abrupt, but after I finished the last page, I changed my mind. I really like the way this one ended!

This is my first book by Jennifer McMahon, so I guess I need to go check out some of her previous books now.

Thanks to Netgalley and Gallery Books for sending me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you’ve never read a book by Jennifer McMahon, you’re really missing out. Honestly, each of her books are an experience more that simply a nice quiet read. She has a way of blurring the lines between fact and fiction, real and surreal that makes her stories at once eerie and breath-taking.

It’s hard to really put my finger on what this novel is about because it covers so many difficult thematic ideas such as family, guilt, grief, loss, and superstition. By the end of the novel, you won’t be sure who or what to believe, and that twist is an absolute gut-punch.

More than anything, this story is about the relationship between two sisters–the mentally-ill Lexie who dies drowning in the swimming pull at the beginning of the novel and the guilt-ridden Jax who has to deal with the aftermath of her sister’s death.

My only complaint about this one is that I simply enjoyed McMahon’s other novel’s better. However, I think that is a personal preferance more than any issue on the part of the writer.

If you love stories of family, you will love this one.

I thought this book was interesting with the water being magical and either healing people or keeping them alive but I was looking for more of a fast paced thriller. Maybe I knew this book wasn’t going to be that but I still held out hope. The book is well written and while I did enjoy it, I didn’t love it. I’ll read more from this author still.

This is my first Jennifer McMahon book and I hope not my last. This book is full of twists and turns like a mountain road and you are unsure of where you might end up. I wish the characters were a little more developed than they were. But, all in all, it was a decent book.

Many years ago, a spring was discovered in what is now Brandenburg, Vermont. In 1929, Dr. Will Monroe and his wife Ethel are staying for a weekend at the new Brandenburg Hotel. It is a luxurious place that includes the mineral springs that are said to heal ailments. Ethel is trying to conceive and is hoping that bathing in the springs will help her to do so. It is said that if you whisper a wish to the water, it will be granted.

Some years later, the Hotel burned and then a large home was built on the grounds along with a large concrete pool that was filled by water from the springs.

Jackie and Lexie are sisters whose grandmother owns the home. Their parents allow the girls to spend the summers with Gran where they enjoy the pool. Lexie has perfected her swimming techniques in the pool. When their grandmother dies, she leaves the house and most o her money to Lexie which hurts Jackie. Jackie moves far away and works as a social worker with a graduate degree. She got into this work as we always wanted to save Lexie. As Lexie has a manic depressive disorder, Jackie has tried to help her over the years, but it has gotten bad and she tends to ignore her phone calls. But then Lexie is found dead in the pool and Jackie must go back and sort things out.

Jackie finds that Lexie that been looking through records and pictures of the family’s past as if she was looking for something specific. What was she looking for and why? Now, Jackie is trying to discover the answer. Lexie had always told Jackie that there was someone in the pool and she wanted to find out who and why. Jackie chalked it up to her manic disorder - but was Lexie right?

The book goes back and forth from 1929 to present day revealing more and more bits of information. It is totally compelling and I could not put the book down. Spooky? You bet! I read the author’s book, “The Winter People” and it grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. This is one talented author. Amazing!

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Drowning Kind is a twisted, creepy book—and I mean that in the best possible way.

The story evolves over two timelines—1929 and contemporary—and involves the Brandenburg Springs. Four underground springs carry healing minerals into a pool. In 1929, Dr. and Mrs. Montrose visit the pool. Mrs. Montrose is desperate to have a baby and the pool may offer the remedy she needs to make that dream a reality. But the springs give as much as they take.

In 2019 Jax misses nine calls from her estranged sister. Lexie, a skilled swimmer, has drowned in the same pool on the family estate that’s claimed other people and has earned a nefarious reputation.
But has the spring-fed pool earned its reputation or is it contrived?

The Drowning Kind is a richly detailed, eerie story. Jennifer McMahon will draw you in and keep you tantalized to the very end.

The Drowning Kind is available now.

*I received an advanced audiobook copy of The Drowning Kind from Gallery Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

When one of my bookish BFFs (👋🏻 Tamara @rockstar1023 said she needed "someone" to read a book so she could discuss the ending...I set off to investigate. I read the book's description and I was intrigued. Dual timelines and a gothic setting? Yes please! This book broke a major reading funk for me as I tore through the pages. I was fascinated with the atmosphere and breadcrumbs of secrets that the author provided. As for that ending? Now I'm ready to discuss it with fellow readers!

4 stars...
This was my first book by this author, and I was so excited to dive in based on the gorgeous cover alone!

Told between alternating timelines:
1929 Ethel & 2019 Jax
I always enjoy stories with multiple POV and dual timelines. It kept the book flowing effortlessly.

This book was creepy, chilling, and something I struggled to read late at night, however, because it was more “horror” than thriller/suspense, I found myself having to suspend a lot of belief. I’m a logical, practical kind of gal, so obviously in the back of my mind the entire time, I kept thinking how unrealistic it was….

I really enjoyed the story about the Springs, and even the mention of Saratoga Springs, as I live a short drive away, and just visited recently!

Looking forward to discussing this with my buddy read group. One thing that didn’t add up was that in 1929 Ethel was 36 (I believe?) but at the end in 1972, it said she was 95 and I couldn’t do the math to make that work out, so I frantically started thinking I read something wrong?!?

Also – a great ending for discussion! Thanks to the publisher & netgalley (read this digitally & hard copy together) for my gifted copy – OUT TODAY!!

Thanks to Gallery for the free book.
McMahon writes creepy, atmospheric stories, and I get pulled in right away. She can capture a scary atmosphere that keeps my heart pumping and me wanting to turn the pages to find out what happens next. Between the past and present day, I was so captivated to figure out how this story pulls together, and I was not disappointed. However, I found parts of the book to be repetitive. I didn't need to know what made the streams special over and over again. I wish there had been more focus on creating more creepy scenes. I also was not a fan of the ending. It seemed way too easy. Also, Jax was not for me. Being a mental health professional, I hoped she would've been more understanding towards her sister's mental illness. But I did enjoy the extra drama towards the end of the story. It was a great way to create paranoia. This wasn't my favorite McMahon, but I will keep coming back because she does ghost stories so well.

Jax and her older sister Lexie spent their childhood summers swimming in their grandmother's backyard pool. Now that they're adults, they've gone their separate ways, but when Jax receives devastating news about Lexie, she rushes to her grandmother's estate. There, she discovers that her sister had been researching their family history... and the mystery and power of the natural spring that feeds the pool. Was Lexie a victim of her bipolar disorder, or do the waters really hold dark, magical powers?

“I believe the water holds more power and mystery than most people understand... And it doesn’t just hear you. It can grant wishes... The water gives good things, miracles, but I think it takes things too.”

Since I'm not typically a horror fan, I was a bit nervous to try this one. Overall, I'd say it was light on the horror but high on the suspense meter, reading like a mystery/thriller. Since I’ve visited natural springs in the Rocky Mountains, I could smell the sulfur water as it was being described which definitely added to the creep factor. Lastly, Lexie's bipolar condition was captured perfectly, and I felt her mania emanating from the pages. “Those springs are a dark place... You’d do best to keep away from them.” Or... if you love creepy stories, then be sure to visit them in this story!

Location: Brandenburg, Vermont

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The villain in Jennifer McMahon's "The Drowning Kind," is a dark and malodorous spring-fed pool located in the hamlet of Brandenburg, Vermont. "It stank of rot and sulfur, tasted like burnt matches and rust, and was colder than [an] ice bath." People drink and bathe in these apparently medicinal waters in order to make wishes come true and alleviate the symptoms of serious illness. However, legend has it that whatever mysterious being inhabits this pool can be as harmful as it is benevolent.

Jacqueline (Jax) Metcaff lives in Tahoma, Washington, and is estranged from her alcoholic father, Ted, and her older sister, Alexia (Lexie), who is manic-depressive, needy, and self-destructive. Adding to Jax's resentment is her long-standing jealousy of Lexie; their relatives, including their dad and grandmother always favored Lexie. In fact, Maggie, their late grandmother, bequeathed most of her savings and her home, Sparrow Crest, to Lexie, leaving Jax next to nothing. Instead of dwelling on her personal disappointments, Jax, who has degrees in psychology and social work, tries to focus on her successful practice treating children with mental health issues.

McMahon has a well-deserved reputation for writing eerie, haunting, and atmospheric novels in which her central characters struggle with dysfunctional relationships, personal and work-related challenges, and supernatural forces. The author intriguingly connects events that took place in the twenties and thirties with those occurring in 2019. Can a series of drownings and other catastrophes tied to the pool be mere coincidences? What is clear is that desperate individuals may be willing to take great risks in order to achieve happiness and safeguard their loved ones. "The Drowning Kind" is an unsettling and engrossing work of fiction with a bleak message. Those who try to exploit otherworldly phenomena to fulfill their dreams may come to regret their impetuous decision.

Jennifer McMahon is known for her suspense novels with a supernatural bent. I greatly enjoyed The Winter People and have had several others of her novels on my to-read list. Her newest book, The Drowning Kind, available now, is a past-and-present story of family, mental illness, and of course, ghosts.

Present day: When Jackie’s sister, Lexie, calls and leaves increasingly manic voicemails, Jackie doesn’t pick up the phone. Lex is clearly off her meds, and Jax just can’t handle it anymore. But when Lexie is found dead in the swimming pool on the family estate, Jackie is wracked with guilt.

90 years ago: Ethel is blissfully in love with her husband, Will, and the only that would make her happier is to have a baby. So when they have difficulty getting pregnant, Will takes her to a new hotel in Maine that claims to have a spring with magical healing water. Only the locals warn that while the water gives, it also takes. If Ethel gets her heart’s desire, what will she lose in return?

The Drowning Kind takes some time to pick up, and the pace is uneven at times. But I enjoyed the super eerie pool and house, which Jackie’s father calls Dracula’s Castle, and trying to figure out how Jackie’s and Ethel’s stories are connected. I figured out some of the connections but not all of them. The ending is left open to interpretation, which is good for discussion of the book.

If you like books that are super creepy, intense, and heart-stopping, check out The Drowning Kind.

2020 was the year I started really appreciating (understanding?) the horror elements of gothic stories. There’s something about living in lockdown that offers a different way of looking at haunted places, especially in fiction. Places can, and do, take on a life of their own. Like a pit of sinking sand, the longer you stay in a place, the harder it is to leave. To get out. Some places don’t want to give up their guests, no matter how hard they try to leave. When Jax sees she has nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, it’s hard for her to ignore the pull back east — back to her grandmother’s estate in Vermont where she and Lexie spent their summers growing up. But when Lexie is found dead in the pool the next day, Jax has no choice but to travel back to Sparrow Crest.

When Jax gets to Sparrow Crest, she’s shocked to find the estate reflecting the manic mindset she feared her sister had been in leading up to her death. Papers, notes, numbers that don’t make sense. She even finds the research on the family and the estate Lexie had done, following the history of the place back to when it was a hotel — The Brandenburg Springs Hotel and Resort — in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Ethel Monroe, thirty-seven and a newlywed, is desperate to visit the hotel when she learns about spring’s supposed powers for granting wishes. As Ethel’s story moves forward, Jax continues to sift back through her sister’s final days, hoping to find some reason for Lexie’s death.

Combining the best elements of haunted house stories with a complex journey through grief makes Jennifer McMahon’s The Drowning Kind dark, twisty, and compelling. I’m a huge fan of setting as character and there’s no denying the springs are their own character. Not only do they have their own legend, their own mythology, but it has a dark legacy that serves as a reminder that magic, miracles — whatever you want to call them — always have a price. And the spring always gets payment for the wishes it grants.

Beyond the horror and supernatural elements I loved in The Drowning Kind, I felt there was something deeper being said about gender, legacy, and punishment. In one way or another, the women of The Drowning Kind are the ones who ultimately pay the price. Similar to Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, women are lured, pulled, pushed into the pool by the hands of someone else or by the weight of their own guilt and grief. The flashbacks between the early 1930’s and present-day don’t just build up the mythology of the spring, but demonstrate how much — and how very little — gender relations and power dynamics have changed. Eve bit the apple and got her and Adam banished from the Garden of Eden. Ethel, Jax, Lexie, and the others who come into contact with the spring, struggle with whether or not the spring is their apple or their garden.

Thought-provoking and chilling, The Drowning Kind is the perfect blend of ghost story, psychological thriller, and historical fiction with a truly shocking ending.

The Drowning Kind, by Jennifer McMahon, is one supernatural, creepy, spooky, twisty, story. I enjoyed the different timelines and working to figure out how the various characters connected to the old family home, with the dank, dark, stinky spring fed pool, all tied together. Deep murky water, with plant growth that can touch your legs, is a big fear of mine. It's hard to believe that I swam a mile in a brown, Texas lake, years ago. That's what I kept thinking about with this creepy, smelly, pool of "healing" spring water...shudder.

Social worker, Jax, flies across the country to take care of affairs after her older sister Lex, drowns in the old spring fed pool at the house that Lex inherited from their grandmother. Jax has avoided her sister for over a year, when Lex inherited everything from their mom's and their grandmother's estate, including this old, creepy house with the pool that is rumored to be haunted. Jax has a lot of guilt to work through, having been very close to her sister but also having been very jealous of her sister, who seemed to charm everyone, seemed so perfectly talented at so many things, despite her inherited mental disorder.

We don't know the origins of the supernatural things going on with the pool but the story does show us how the family is drawn into the spell of the pool, years ago. The pool is like a living thing (or things) and once it gets a person in it's grip, it's never letting go. Or, is this all a complicated ruse, someone wanting the pool to have such a bad reputation that Jax and her family will be willing to give up the house, pool, and property?

This is a very enjoyable story but it did have people diving in (sorry for the pun) and doing things most sane people would not do. There is always a tradeoff for doing unwise things and I think this pool thrives on people who are willing to run headlong into bad decisions. Still, the author made me feel the pool, feel the house, feel the eeriness of the entire situation and even feel the townspeople backing away from the wacky family that kept living at that old, haunted place.

Thank you to Gallery/Scout Press/Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC.

I have been a fan of this authors work for years, and this is no exception. This book has so many different genres melded together, and the author has such a way of spinning a tale to immerse you deeply into the book, a rare talent. It was a page turner that didn't leave me wanting more at the end. Very well done!

My endless thanks to Gallery and Scout Press as well as Jennifer MaMahon and Netgalley for sending me a copy of The Drowning Kind to review. This incredible book is out TODAY! Go grab yourself a copy!

THIS IS SUCH A SPOOKY BOOK! I loved this story so much. The characters are well developed and the story moves by so quickly! I don’t think you should read the synopsis of this book, just let it pull you in on its own.

If you like spooky ghost stories and back and forth timelines then this is for sure your next book. I honestly don’t have any complaints about this book other than I’m mad at myself for not reading it earlier. Jennifer McMahon I can’t wait to read your other books, they all look so good! Have you read any of her books before? I’d love a recommendation on which to grab next.

This one was a nail biter and I read it in one sitting. I had to know what happened and the mystery of the pool.
Jax, a social worker who has dealt with mental illness, receives frantic calls from her sister Lexie on the night that she is found dead in the pool behind her home. Reeling, Jax goes back to Sparrow Crest to try to unravel the mystery around the pool and the waters behind the home. When they were children, they played in the murky waters and knew of the stories that were told. There were people living in the pool. They say that if you died there, you stayed there and became one with the water.
In 1929, Ethel would do anything for a child. Her husband and her had been trying and she had almost given up hope when they went to a resort that was said to have "healing waters". If you have an ailment and make wishes while in the water, they say that you will be cured. The only issue is, the waters will give, but they will take away as well.
Told in past and present story lines, we learn more about the waters and the foklore behind them. I raced through this book because I had to know the explaination of what was going on. Were the women really there waiting? Was it all in someone's head? In the end, I still am not exactly sure what happened, but that is what makes it all the more creepy. I would say this one had some paranormal in it as well and I enjoy that so it worked for me.
Thank you to Gallery Books, Netgalley and Jennifer McMahon for an early copy of this book.