This is a story about getting what you wish for.... whatever the price.

Question: does anyone else get the chills with they have a lot in common with the protagonist in a spooky book?

This was a delightful, lovely horror story with perfectly placed gothic elements. I love that the author made bold choices & followed through vs taking an easy, happy way out of the mounting dread.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫

This was a perfect spooky season read! Thank you Netgalley & Gallery/Scout Press for this advanced e-ARC!

I received Jennifer McMahon's "The Drowning Kind" from NetGalley, and the first thing I want to highlight is that as a galley, it definitely needs to go through a final round of editing. There were often duplicated words in sentences, or words missing altogether. There was one instance where the wrong name was used, completely confusing the context and meaning for the reader. But again, it is important to keep in mind that this was a galley, and therefore was still in editing phases.

This is the first book I've ever read by McMahon, and I can easily say that many of the reviews of her writing are accurate: she has a detailed and beautiful style for describing surroundings.

"The Drowning Kind" alternates between present time and the late 1920s - between narrators Jax and Ethel, respectively. The narrators are joined by the water - the springs - in Brandenburg, Vermont. In the 1920s they are located at the most exquisite hotel in the area that people travel from all over to visit, but in present time, the springs are privately owned by Jax's family, and the home has been named Sparrow Crest.

The novel uses both narrators to paint the history of the springs, weaving the intricate family tree and tragedies into vivid and painstaking detail. The springs feed into a pool at the back of Sparrow Crest, a pool so black that you cannot see through the water - but also dark enough that the reflections staring back at you are so vivid they look real.

Jax, grown up, is now a social worker, and works at helping children through their struggles. But when her schizophrenic and bipolar sister whom she has separated herself from over the past year ends up dead - drowned in the blackened pool behind Sparrow Crest - Jax can't help but feel guilty, return to Vermont, and do whatever she can to make sense of what her sister, Lexie, had been up to in her final days, which was apparently an attempt to discover the mystery and power that existed beneath - or within - the water.

These springs are magical. Reports of healing, survival, and granted wishes have been around for decades. But the water doesn't only give - it takes, too.

Between the incoherent messages left behind by Lexie, the stories she has heard over the years, and first-hand accounts from members of the community, Jax starts to unravel. How can the truth be true when it's beyond the realm of reality? How can people exist in the water? People claim that those who die become part of the springs - that the springs give, but they also take.

How much would you be willing to sacrifice for your ultimate wish?
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This book was intriguing, but definitely not a typical read for me. While I loved the mystery surrounding it, and the warped and interwoven narration to build the history and story, it was more of a ghost story than anything else.

For all that this is a ghost story there is nothing particularly surprising. That is, the events felt very natural and, in a strange way, even peaceful.

Lexi and Jax spent every summer with gram swimming in the pool. Their aunt Rita had drowned at seven years old. I like the name Jax. Jax is a social worker and has a young client Declan. Lexie has health problems. Declan has dreams and drew a picture of Jax drowning. Then it's 1929 and goes to Ethel. She was thirty six when she married. I loved reading about Ethel's life. Ethel dearly wants a child . Ethel and her husband visit a spring with haunting and magical powers . I loved how creepy everything was. I loved how everything with Declan tied in with Lexie.

This is my favorite Jennifer McMahon book I have read so far. This modern-day ghost story has the perfect eerie set-up between two sisters and then the flashback to the late 1920s parallels the present-day story. I particularly enjoyed the slow unveiling of how the two stories converge. While this book is indeed a mystery/thriller, it's so well written it's rivels literary fiction. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I read this book in two short days.

Exciting fast read! Two stories in one. It all centers around a magic swimming pool that grants wishes. But be careful. The story is set both in the present and the past about how the swimming pool effects the lives around it. #netgalley.

Wow! This is my first book by this author and it definitely won’t be my last. I was immediately drawn into this story and I couldn’t put it down.
This two stories that mesh into one are both fantastic.
Jax and Lex... the X girls forever!

Great story telling, characters, plot. A compulsive read. Young Jax, a social therapist in Seattle has put her sister and family members behind her. Maybe she’s being too sensitive, maybe selfish, maybe just childish but she hasn’t spoken to her sister now in over a year. She’s fine with her life as it is, or is she?
Lexie her older sister, the pretty one, the artistic one, the athletic one, the favorite; leaves nine messages on Jax’s phone that go unanswered.
Then Jax receives a phone call that Lexie is dead.
Jax flies back to Vermont to take care of family business and is instantly sucked into generations of family history that all surround the family estate, Sparrow Crest.

Prior to Jax and Lexies families owning Sparrow Crest is a succession of owners and tragedies. Lexie was bent on finding the truth to the chilling stories that surrounded the old estate and the mysterious natural pool that everyone is desperate to visit and have their wishes granted.

Easily 4.5 stars
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, all of my comments are my own and unsolicited.

Very, very good story, a good old-fashioned family mystery. Interesting characters and twisted, mixed up family histories. Very Gothic and creepy with ghost stories and the paranormal mixed in. Nicely interwoven between past and present. Beware the old mineral springs. Enjoyed this, and was hard to put down. Will be reading more by this author. Four stars.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Very suspenseful from beginNing to end. The story has a lot of twists and turns and keeps the reader spinning to the very end!

Totally loved this style book with the going back into the past and then in the present. Great story about a haunted swimming pool that lets you decide right early in the book that you wouldn't want to even put your toe into this pool. But very suspenseful as to who will drown next and can you hurry up and give that baby some water!! You have got to read to understand!! Enjoyed and very much appreciate that I was able to read this. Only took a day or so because it was truly a good book! Thank you! Can't wait for the next one.

I thought the story was interesting, but I was not happy with the ending. This creepy story could've been better. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Jennifer McMahon is one of my auto-buy authors, and I get excited whenever I see a new release from her. tragedy, and twisted genealogy. This book creeps along—a bit slow at the beginning—as characters are introduced

Image a haunted house over the years with a pool of water that hold mysteries. You won't be able to put this down once you start. A creepy ghost story with a surprising ending. Can't wait to go back and read author's other books.

This is a book that you want to read in one sitting - but push it off because you also don't want it to end to soon.
Lyrical writing. Characters that are three dimensional. McMahon keeps the pace flowing. There are flashback chapters on how the family house came to be. Just like Field of Dreams is totally unbelievable however, done so well, it's easy to believe the ghost elements, this story is the same way.
Easily one of the best books I've read since the Lockdown (and I've read a-lot). Highly Recommend!
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

Jennifer McMahon absolutely never disappoints! The Drowning Kind gripped me from the start! This addictive novel time hops between 1929 and 2019 to brilliantly tell a eerie and chilling tale that I promise you won’t soon forget! I have read many of Jennifer McMahon’s previous books and I really think The Drowning Kind is my favorite from her to date!!! If you’re looking for a 5 star read for your book club selection, I highly recommend this gem!

I’m always excited to read a new Jennifer McMahon book, she’s on my favorite list.
The Drowning Pool centers around an old Spring that is rumored to heal the sick and grant the wishes people ask of it. But there’s always a price to pay. The book starts with two sisters, Lexie and Jackie who love to swim in its waters while they stay in their grandmother‘s house every summer.
But the story itself starts back in the 20’s when a large hotel is built next to the spring promising people a restorative holiday. Ethel and her doctor husband, longing for a child, spend a weekend there and she makes a wish at the spring.
Part gothic tale, part horror story a fast paced book told in the 20’s and present day.

A twisty and compelling story of cold water springs and the magic inside. The storyline follows two different time periods and the intermingling of the two is fantastic. This was a wonder corker of a novel!!!

Forgive me if I make any errors, but I stayed up all night to finish....with extra lights on. Hauntingly beautiful, The Drowning Kind revolves around generations of a family and a spring water pool. Is the water cursed? Is it haunted? How far would you go to make your wishes come true?

This is my first book by Jennifer McMahon and oh my goodness, it will not be my last. This novel was unforgettable, haunting, chilling and profound. I can't believe my luck in receiving its ARC for review.

"The Drowning Kind" is mystery with historical and paranormal elements. Despite the latter, thanks to McMahon's writing it surprisingly still reads like a very realistic story. The narrative alternates between the present and the year 1929, which is significant because the historical perspective explains the dark past of the family and the Brandenburg Springs Hotel. Specifically, in the late 1920s, a newlywed Ethel Monroe makes a wish to become a mother, but in exchange for granting her wish, the Spring curses her family.

And so in the present day, Jax learns that her sister Lexie has drowned in the same pool in which other women from the family had drowned. Lexie was a toxic and unfortunately troubled, bipolar sister with her manic episodes - such as her persistent claim that a woman was calling her to the bottom of the pool. But perhaps she wasn't being manic after all.

This novel is an incredibly well-written tale of a dysfunctional family caught up in an old curse. The character development was a very strong suit of the novel, with the sisters coming alive on the pages. Just the same, the plot kept me hook throughout the novel and I couldn't put it down, even though I don't tend to reach for any kind of historical fiction.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.