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📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚
The Whispering House ⭐⭐

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced release copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed the audio book from the perspective of the narrator. Her voice had a very pleasing tone and she was very dynamic in her reading of the novel. She actually gives more life to the story then what is there on the pages.

The book did have a very addictive Gothic feel. The author does an amazing job of describing this and truly making you feel like you were in the location. Unfortunately, that is about where the positives end. There are very little details to develop the actual story outside of the descriptions of Byrne Hall and its surroundings. The characters are not well developed and there is little to no back story for either of the sisters. It really makes it difficult to decide whether you like the main character (or at least want to route for her), or if she is truly is as annoying and clueless as she seems. The story was also very lacking in action. There was very little tension or build-up and twists were nonexistent. The murderer was very obvious early on.

If you are looking for a binge read with a gothic feel, you will find this moderately entertaining. Otherwise I think I will leave this In the "not really worth your time" category.

#booknerd #bookstagram #thewhisperinghouse #netgalley #onemorechapter #readingpastmybedtime #audiobook #advancedreleasecopy

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A wild ride through the past and the future. I spent the whole book trying to figure out the puzzle and mystery of the lake. Who was who and what was happening. What was real and what wasn’t. A trippy murder mystery that left me guessing. I loved the ending. Book provided by NetGalley.

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I received a free review copy of The Drowning Kind from NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review - my sincerest thanks to both the author and the publisher. :)

I was super excited to be approved for this ARC. This is my first introduction to Jennifer McMahon and I kept seeing friends get copies and 99% absolutely loving it. I read the synopsis, the reviews, eagerly hoping I would get the green light. I was ecstatic when I did!

I was not disappointed in the slightest. Mrs. McMahon weaves a horrifying tale told from two perspectives exactly 100 years apart but on the same subject, the pool and its capabilities. One would think that a pool would not be very scary but the talent with which Mrs. McMahon slowly tightens the screws every chapter is superb. It's an amazing slow burn that never feels boring. Every chapter the ante gets upped just ever so slightly than the previous chapter leaving you guessing and questioning "Is this the chapter where the shaky edifice she's built comes crashing down?" You're left desperately hoping that when this inevitable crash does happen that you are given solid answers.

The world she builds in this book is incredibly atmospheric, again and I've been saying this lately with my 5 stars but with good reason, you can feel it, smell it, see it. Vividly. After reading what I considered to be the finest Southern Gothic novel (By another author) I've ever read last month; I can say that this is the absolute finest piece of Modern Gothic writing I've ever read. I cannot wait to purchase a copy of each and put them together on the shelf.

I am immediately going to be seeking out her other works.

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I saw someone else call this creepy and yeah, that's fitting. I'm spooked and this was better than expected. Lexie and Jax were sisters, one of them drowned and the other had to come back for the funeral and such. And strange things happen. Part of what helps make the story even better is Jackie's skeptical nature, or maybe she's in denial.

There's also a second story told from years before, dealing with the same place. The same waters. A few stories surrounding this place and how it's affected people. This book is part mystery, part paranormal, part ominous wtf feelings and moments. And the end was perfect.

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This story follows social worker Jax as she returns to her grandmother's estate after her sister, Lexie, is found dead - drowned in the pool in the backyard. When she arrives at the house, she discovers Lexie had been researching their family history and the history of the property. We also follow a second timeline starting in 1929 where Ethel and her husband visit a newly built hotel and on the hotel grounds is a natural spring rumored to grant wishes. The two timelines intertwine as Jax and Ethel come to find that the truth behind the mysterious properties of the spring may be darker than they could ever imagine.

(TW/CW: self harm, mental illness)

My absolute favorite thing about this story was the tone. This had an overall creepy vibe, but I never found it to be horror or even very thriller-y. The main plot revolved around Jax dealing with the grief of losing her sister as well as the guilt of how distant she'd been from her family over the past few years. The house is full of memories - good and bad - with further prod Jax's feelings on these issues. It really felt similar to Stephen King's Pet Sematary with the overall exploration of grief that was very grounded in reality but with a strange supernatural element on the fringe. As the story progresses, the tone gets darker and more sinister as we find out more truths behind what, exactly, is going on with this spring. In the past POV of Ethel, we get this same tone which enhances the idea of how this house and spring is connected through these different generations. I also liked how the tone of the story contrasts with the theme of wish fulfillment which most people would think of as a really happy thing but we consistently see these characters technically get their wishes but at a great cost that they weren't expecting.

I thought the characterization and character relationships were really well done. We are introduced to a number of characters pretty quickly as Jax comes back into this small town for the first time in a while. However, we quickly establish relationships as well as individual tension points between the characters which helps immediately immerse the reader into this world. Then, the longer we stay in this small town, the more layered the connections get. I would characterize this book as being character driven and I wasn't necessarily expecting that based on the description. I was expecting a bit more of a supernatural thriller with a more direct threat to our protagonist. While there was a good part of the book that revolved around figuring out the mystery that Lexie supposedly found answers to, I feel like the story kept coming back to the tension between characters. I did enjoy the way all the characters were connected - it felt very realistic for small town nosiness. I also liked how Jax viewed her relationships through two different lenses - her emotions and her social worker side. It was an interesting way for the reader to see how these relationships were unsettling her and how she would talk to herself to remind herself to keep calm or to drop a subject that was obviously upsetting someone. Lexie was formally diagnosed with "schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type" which would cause her to have extreme bouts of mania sometimes accompanied with hallucinations. Part of Jax coming back into this house and going through Lexie's research was figuring out if what she was seeing was real or if it was just her disorder as well as Jax pushing through her own personal judgements of her sister and her illness.

My main negative point for the book was that there was one loose thread that I felt never got tied up in the end (or maybe it did and I just didn't quite understand what was going on). This thread is was one of Jax's patients - a young boy - who started having dreams about fish who turned into monsters right before Lexie died. He then starts having what Jax's co-worker described as a full psychotic break while Jax is away at the house. While Jax is dealing with her sister's funeral and all the other weird stuff happening, she keeps forgetting about him (and so did I, to be honest). She would suddenly remember and then try to call his house only for it to go to voicemail. He comes back up toward the end where Jax is talking to him on the phone but then her aunt listens on the line and says no one was on the phone with her. And that was the last we see of the boy. I was never quite clear on if he was connected to the spring in someway or if he was having these nightmares because he was close to Jax or what, exactly, was going on. There were other mysterious phone calls that occur throughout the story so maybe it wasn't really the boy calling and then it was just a coincidence that he had nightmares about fish monsters before Jax left? Everything else gets tied up so nicely that I was a bit confused about the boy's thread feeling so unfinished.

Split timelines are usually a wing for me, but this one didn't hit 100% home for me. Overall, I think it was necessary and I really enjoyed getting to read the 'real time' events that Jax finds out about in the future. I also think the past timeline does a good job setting the tone specifically when it comes to the spring and how the sort of lore around it began. However, I did find myself not really caring about Ethel and her problems. She always came across as detached from the rest of the story which tracks considering she does self harm to ground herself when her emotions get out of control. She then would remind herself who she is, where she is, and what she's doing at that moment. So in that way, I can appreciate her characterization but some of her chapters weren't as exciting as I think they could have been if she was a more active character. I did like how much longer the past timeline was (decades) compared to the current day timeline (a weekish) because we got to see so much of the set up behind the house where Jax was staying in the current day. I think being able to see the progression does make the reveals later in the book hit a little harder and makes the accusations Jax makes more believable because the reader has all this emotional backstory to back Jax up. However, having that many years scrunched into half of the book again made things feel a little more surface level than I would have liked.

The ending was bittersweet, but I overall thought it was the most appropriate ending there could have been. I appreciated how we got a definite answer to if the supernatural element was read or imagined which I wasn't exactly expecting. I would have expected a book like this where the supernatural elements were almost pushed to the side to have a more ambiguous ending in that regard. I had to re-read the first few pages of the last chapter because I wasn't sure exactly what happened but once I caught on, I was pleasantly surprised. It had a similar structure of an ending to a book I read last year which was the first time I'd come across that particular style of ending and I think I really enjoy that technique in these 2 books. I found that the plot threads were tied up by the end (the above example as an exception) so the reader did get closure on a number of side plots as well as answers to the main mystery.

Overall, a very atmospheric and creepy toned book that explores themes of grief, guilt, and how wishes sometimes aren't better if they come true. I'd also like to note for any fellow Vermonters (or New Englanders in general) that this book has some fantastic little gems that I think readers from other areas of the country might just skim right over.

336 pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC.

Expected Publication Date: April 6, 2021.

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This was a creepy, spooky supernatural read! I loved that it was a dual time-line, telling the story through the 1929 view of Ethel and the 2019 view of Jackie. The writing created a very atmospheric feel to the story, truly drawing the reader in. This story is full of twists that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend it!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

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The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is a very highly recommended supernatural thriller.

For the last year Jackie (Jax) Metcalf has distanced herself from her sister Lexie. Lexie, who always overshadowed Jax when they were growing up, began to exhibit symptoms of schizoaffective disorder bipolar type as a teen. Now, as an adult, when Jackie received nine missed calls from Lexie, she assumes Lexie is off her medication again. Jackie purposefully left for the opposite coast to attend college and lives there working as a social worker/counselor. Lexie stayed at the family's house, Sparrow Crest, in Brandenburg, Vermont, which she inherited it from her grandmother.

The next day Jackie learns that Lexie is dead. She drowned in the pool at Sparrow Crest. The pool, which collects water from a mineral spring, is purported to have healing powers and grants wishes, but it is also said to extract a price and takes as well as gives. Jackie knows that there are rumors about the deep, dark pool and there is a history of people drowning in it. When Jackie/Jax arrives at Sparrow Crest, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family, the property, and especially the pool. It seems the pool is darker in more than one way.

An alternate story line is set decades earlier and follows Ethel Monroe, 37. She and her husband, Will, first visited the springs in 1929 when a resort hotel was built on the site and Ethel made a wish at the pool. She wished for a baby and made good friends with the wife of the owner. When Ethel learns she is pregnant, she and Will are overjoyed, but she later suspects the dark side of the springs, which gives her nightmares. Soon she and her family are more tied to the springs than she would like.

This is a deliciously atmospheric, creepy novel. McMahon does an excellent job creating the ominous atmosphere and sense of foreboding, much of it is with suggestions and rumors, with strange occurrences and things glimpsed out of the corner of your eye or late at night. Certainly everyone has thought they saw something, a brief flash, out of the corner of their eye and then doubted if they really saw something or not. McMahon takes these eerie sensations and suggestions and adds the rumors and legends surrounding the mineral springs and the pool to create an increasingly oppressive and menacing atmosphere in The Drowning Kind.

Ethel Monroe tells part of the earlier story of the springs, while the present day narrative is told through Jackie's point-of-view. The narrative in both timelines is equally interesting and compelling. The horror isn't overt, but builds gradually, as more and more information is slowly shared by both Jackie and Ethel. Both of these characters are well developed. They are also sensitive and vulnerable. The sense of danger increases as the frightening warnings and mysterious events add up in both timelines. The slow build and incredible descriptions of unexplained occurrences add up to an intense portentous mood and atmosphere. This gradual escalation of tension makes the ending even more shocking and dark. Don't read this one by any pool of water

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Unfortunately I had to DNF. I've been trying to read this book for almost a month and I just can't get into it. Will try again close to the pub date.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

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4.5 stars! This was a really great and unique thriller! It was well-paced, suspenseful, multiple connected timelines, and supernatural elements. The ending was a little confusing for me (and kind of vague), so I'm not giving it a full 5 stars, but 4.5 stars!

Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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When Jax receives a slew of phone calls from her estranged sister Lexie, she dismisses it as another manic episode of hers. However, the next day, Lexie is found dead in the pool of their family’s old estate.

Grief-stricken and consumed with guilt, Jax returns home to try and unravel the mystery behind her sister’s death. In the process, she also begins to uncover the pool’s dark history. Because this is no ordinary pool. It’s fed by a spring said to have healing properties and some say it can even grant wishes … at a cost.

Wow. The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is a beautifully atmospheric book that oozes with eeriness and haunting imagery with every page. However, it’s the realness of the characters that anchors the story for me and makes it so compelling.

The story alternates between two POVs. We see glimpses of the past through Ethel Monroe , a woman who is desperate and would do anything to have a child. Then we have Jax, a social worker who is desperate to find answers and closure regarding her sister’s death. Both feel imperfect, human, and above all, are driven by love.

Overall, The Drowning Kind is a delightfully creepy, well-crafted supernatural mystery filled with satisfying twists and turns and miracles that come at a horrify price—perfect for fans of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary.

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✨ The Title/Cover Draw:
I have been wanting to read Jennifer McMahon for awhile, so when this opportunity came up, I had to read it! Thank you to #Netgalley for this advance copy.
💜 What I liked:
The story is told between Jax in the present and Ethel in the past pertaining to one specific body of water in various states. How these women are connected is complex and extraordinary. You don’t always know what is real or imagined.
😱 What I didn’t like:
At points this story (particularly the present) seemed like not a lot was happening. Most of the action and reveals took place in the past. However that didn’t make the twist any less enjoyable.
💁‍♀️ The Characters:
Jax and Lexi have a strong sisterly connection in the present. Ethel, Will, and their new baby Maggie make decisions that influence the present.
🚦 The Ending:
WHOA - didn’t really see it coming too much. But no matter what, I will read anything by this author going forward.
💭 Consider if you like:
Spooky ghost stories.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Received from Netgalley.

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It’s 1929, and 37-year-old Ethel Monroe, watches her husband play with the local children and is desperate to give him a child of his own. She’s tried everything, including superstitious legends about keeping a robin’s egg in your bra. Nothing is working. Until her husband takes her to a fancy hotel in Vermont where there is a spring that seems to be able to cure the sick.

The fancy new resort caters to people coming to take the waters. Well, not the town people. They know all about the springs. When the owner befriends Ethel she also tells her a secret. The spring can grant wishes. But we all know nothing is free, there is always a cost. And the cost Ethel will pay will ensure that her family and their family will always be at the springs.

Cut to now and we meet Jax. Jax is a social worker. She works with trauma victims and children. Maybe she chose that path because her sister was haunted by mental illness. Lexie hasn’t been in touch with reality for a long time so when Jax finds nine missed calls from her sister and a voice mail that is scary and manic, she ignores them. The next day Lexie is found dead. Drowned in the pool full of spring water. Black as the devil’s soul and already quite crowded.

As she cleans up the house and all the paperwork and journals that Lexie had, she realizes that Lexie was researching not only the history of their family but the history of the property and the springs. Measuring them at different times and areas and recording the depth and what she saw. Now she wants Jax to join her.

McMahon is brilliant at ghost stories. Tales we tell around the campfire and scare ourselves silly. I am not ashamed to say I lost a fingernail to this book. Spooky, ghastly, ghostly, this one is twisted and horrific. Just the way I like them.

NetGalley/ April 06, 2021 Gallery Scout Books

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This was a read in one day, can’t put it down kind of thriller. I truly finished this and was just like 🤯. I DO NOT recommend reading this one at night, while home alone, and right before needing to take a shower. I might’ve been in this situation and a *little* freaked out after finishing it. 😅

The Drowning Kind is a twisty, ghostly, thriller involving drowning, of course. There is a mysterious spring fed pool that the main character, Jax, has grown up swimming in at her grandmothers house. Many people have drowned in it, and Jax’s sister Lexie is the most recent victim. The story alternates between Jax’s search for answers for her sister and the early 1930’s where the pool’s unsettling story begins.

Liked:
-Eerie pool setting
-Scary ghost vibes (I never want to look in dark water again)
-Historical flashbacks
-Fast paced

Disliked:
-Slightly confusing ending
-Possibly some plot holes but I was too into it to care 😂

Any thriller fans should definitely read this, but if you’re scared of water you might want to stay away. This was my first book from this author but I will definitely be reading more.

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A haunting, mesmerizing book. I hadn't heard of this author before getting the Netgalley invitation, but I'll be going through her backlist and reading everything she's written. Read it in one sitting. A masterpiece!

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Absolutely loved this book and will definitely be reading more by this author. I had heard amazing things about this book and I'm jumping on the book train and agree. This book was so well written and gave so much detail to follow. It had the perfect amount of suspense and supernatural to keep me hooked from beginning to end.

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It really enjoyed this book! It was the perfect mix of suspense, drama, and paranormal.

Jax and Lexie are sisters with a rocky relationship. After ignoring several calls from Lexie, Jax learns that Lexie has drowned in the pool that once belonged to their grandmother, but there is more to the story of this pool and the property it sits on. Through research left behind by Lexie and through her own research, Jax discovers the dark history of the natural springs that one healed so many people. As Jax’s grandmother always said, “The water gives and the water takes” but how much more can it take from her family?

Overall, this was a fantastic story, and I was surprised at every turn of the page. If you’re looking for a suspenseful read that will keep you on your toes and begging for more, this is definitely it!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3860441839

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The Drowning Kind will forever be the book I use to demonstrate why an author always deserves a second chance.

I was so hesitant to read this one after hating a previous book but lord I am so glad I did. The spook factor on this one is pretty good.

The story switches back and forth between 1929 and 2019 and it’s absolutely wonderfully done.

If you love a good spooky tale, I highly recommend this one

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The Drowning Kind is a story about family, what you would sacrifice for the ones your love and a really creepy pool. I love how McMahon writes from two time lines and they always end up tying together perfectly. I was so anxious reading this book and waiting to find out how it was going to end. Literally on the edge of my seat the last 50 pages! And the epilogue DID NOT disappoint me!

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I always get a little wary of books labeled horror because unlike 12 year old me, the scary books don’t scare me anymore. So it better have a good story and some suspense. This had both. It is told from two different time periods and it is creepy and builds to a suspenseful ending.

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This author’s novel The Winter People is one of my favorites, but for me this didn’t hit the mark. The concept was good and there were some eerie moments, but on the whole it didn’t quite hang together.

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