Don't read this if you live on a lake or like to swim in one! I was glad I read this after I went on my vacation because if I read it before or during I would not have gone swimming! jk (but not really)
Author Jennifer McMahon has written a pretty creepy story that had me reminding myself each paragraph that it's a work of fiction!
1929- Ethel is newly married and ready to start her family. Conceiving hasn't come easy for her and she's becoming desperate. Her husband takes her on a trip to cheer her up to a new hotel in Vermont. Ethel is thrilled to learn that the lake at the hotel is rumored to grant wishes. This is her chance to have the baby she's always wanted. If only she could get something without any strings attached....
Current-Jax has found memories of growing up spending summers swimming in the lake. Her and her older sister Lexie would swim and Lexie would try to see how long should could hold her breath under water. There was an old legion that a lady had drown in the lake and her body is still there trying to hold onto swimmers and pull them under. Lexie always thought it was fun to scare her sister and even though she tried to act like it didn't bother her it did. Jax lost touch with her sister over the years but when she see's she has nine missed calls and they are from Lexi, Jax knows something isn't right. The news that her sister has drowned in their grandmothers pool does not make sense, Lexie was an excellent swimmer. As Jax starts looking into her sisters death she finds out Lexie was doing her own research before her death and the land the house was built on has a lot of secrets.

Jennifer McMahon is a drop-everything-and-read author for me - I'm the biggest scaredy-cat I know and yet I can't help but keep reading her books well into the night. The Drowning King, sadly, wasn't as spooky as her previous novels, but utterly gripping nonetheless! Bouncing between the 20s and the present day, the story follows a woman, her descendants, and the family estate. A natural spring is believed to have the power to grant wishes - at a cost. Though this wasn't my favorite McMahon novel, I'm already itching for whatever she does next!

This was my first book by this author so didn't know what to expect. I like that it was told in different timelines and the mystery aspect, but I am not a big fan of the paranormal genre.

That epilogue…. I did NOT see coming! Omg.
I really enjoyed how this book went from past to present. I loved how Jax and Ethel’s stories flowed. I also enjoyed the supernatural aspects of this story. It was creepy at times which was a nice change of pace.
You always hear about ‘healing water’ or Springs. I love how this story not only incorporated that but also expanded on it.

Really enjoyed this creepy story about two sisters with a loving but complicated and rocky relationship. Jax and Lexie have grown up swimming in their grandmother's naturally fed swimming pool in Vermont their whole lives. The people in the town find it a bit weird that their grandmother never filled in the pool, since her daughter Rita drowned there as a child. But she says it makes her feel close to her daughter, and allows her granddaughters to swim there with strict rules enforced. Lexie always loved the pool, and swimming, more than Jax, so when Jax gets the phone call that Lexie has drowned in the pool, she can't believe what she's hearing. The narrative switches from Jax attempting to wrap up Lexie's estate to the backstory of how the pool came to be. Sometimes in stories like this I get frustrated with one of the stories being weaker than the other, but not here. I loved meeting Ethel in 1929, who is dying for a baby with her new husband. Her connection to the pool is a fascinating and heartbreaking story. Both storylines are fully developed with rich characters. They are expertly woven together, and the connections reveal themselves in a way that is perfectly paced. The more I think about this book, the more I like it.

This was a really compelling mystery/ghost story.
Jax and her sister Lexie have a complicated relationship--Lexie is manic and on medication, on and off, and Lex thinks that the multiple missed calls she receives from her sister is just another episode of mania. But Lexie is found dead in the pool at their grandmother's house. Grieving, Jax finds out that her sister was looking into their family's history and the history of the land and the mysterious pool. Jax takes this on herself and finds that there are deep secrets, linked to a tragic story in the past.
I really enjoy Jennifer McMahon's books--there is this beautiful gothic tone blended in with the always compelling family narrative and the bond between sisters. Highly recommend.

What started as a rather slow burn for me, primarily because of the alternating timelines and points of view (not a fan of either), ended up having a twisty, fast moving conclusion, changing my opinion of it greatly.

As the story progressed, it told of the history of a popular hotel with a natural spring where people believed in the healing powers of the spring water. Some evidence existed that the folklores were true. The healing and wish-granting powers came from the drinking or touching of the cold, murky waters. I note that this is unlike the warm healing springs one hears about where hydrotherapy might work its wonders, such as what FDR frequented in his time. Also different in the book is that if a wish was granted, something else is taken away of which you have no control. The springs over time took the lives of a few women and ruined some men, so when the hotel burned down there was no hurry to rebuild on the site, which now seemed jinxed.

A family estate is later built there with the spring feeding into a swimming pool, but it lost its attraction over the years since it was cold, murky, and possibly haunted with dead people trying to lure you into the waters and holding you under. Gosh, is that all?

So you do need to let your imagination go with the flow here and try not to let your eye rolling prevent you from reaching the last word. A lukewarm recommendation if you enjoy a little supernatural element in your reading.

This thriller shifts from the present with Jax and the past with Ethel. Jax is a social worker who seems to have a gift for helping the more difficult children. Possibly that skill was developed in her childhood dealing with her sister Lexie, who is bipolar. When Jax gets the call she's been dreading for years, she returns to her childhood escape, her grandmother's home in Vermont. As Jax tries to figure out what finally drove Lexie into her final spiral, she also has to deal with difficult memories from her past. We get Ethel's story through diary entries. Ethel wants to have a baby, but she and her husband aren't having any luck. They end up taking a trip to Vermont to stay at a hotel with curing mineral waters. Ethel doesn't really believe in the miracle waters until she become friendly with the hotel owner's wife. She tells Ethel that the waters will grant wishes, but the waters always take a payment in return. An intriguing thriller that ends up connecting Jax and Lexie to Ethel. The story slowly builds to the surprising conclusion.

When the chance to review The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon, I was hesitantly excited; hopeful it would be like The Winter People, which I loved, but worried it would disappoint like The Invited. And well, friends, it was worse. This left me bored with only small flickers of tension.

Through the first half of the novel, I could already tell this was not for me. The framing of Lexie’s mental illness was not comfortable. I’m not sure how McMahon intended to show Lexie’s mental illness as a whole, but by having the majority of our experience coming through Jax’s recollections (and later, Diane’s as well), it paints such a negative light. Yes, we hear about how loved she was in the town and how she was great at x, y, and z, but the fact that we only hear about that in snippets and always contradicted with Jax or Diane talking about her illness, it feels very… not necessarily ableist, but close enough. Everything she says is discredited because she’s “Crazy Lexie” and it’s just such a tired narrative that just contributes to The Drowning Kind feeling stale and worn out.

For the horror or mystery aspect, there was so much lacking here as well. The mystery never materialized. There were so many different parts that were thrown together that in the end didn’t matter. Not a single piece of the many that are thrown in have anything at all to do with the end, which was an incredible disappointment and left me feeling like this was a waste of time. The horror? Non-existent. There was slight tension, but again, nothing ever materialized. The tension was never built upon and ultimately just dissipated.

The main reason I gave The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon 2.5 stars instead of lower is simple. If someone hadn’t read her work before, they would not have something to be disappointed by or to compare to. If someone goes into this expecting a story on grief, and not horror, they would not be disappointed. However, if you are going into this expecting another The Winter People, or a horror, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

First off, Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the E-ARC.

Jennifer McMahon is such a great writer and every book that I pick up from her has been such a great read. Every novel that I read continues to get better and better with each book. If you love supernatural, twisty stories then I recommend this novel to you. Her writing style allows you to experience everything that the characters are going through and leaves you on the edge of your seat when you disagree with the characters motions through the novel.

One aspect that gave me goosebumps was the pool throughout the story and that could be because I have a fear of water and things in water, but she knew how to leave the reader on edge when it came to the whole environment. This novel also reminded me of a town in the US that is considered haunted at the hotel and hot springs because of the history in the town. I am not sure if this novel took some inspiration but I loved that I was able to link some other supernatural knowledge with this novel as well.

It has been a long while that I have read a supernatural horroresque novel that actually gave me goosebumps and made me scared to read at night. I fully recommend this novel if you enjoy sitting on the edge and horroresque things.

Date Published: May 17, 2021.
Blog: The Life & Times of a Book Addict.

REVIEW:

“Miracles are not without their price, my darling…”

After checking out the synopsis I was excited to read this book. I really enjoyed the dual timelines and was curious to see how everything would tie into the present day lives of Jax and her family.

Jax feels guilty for not having been there for Lexie when she needed her. So naturally after arriving back at Sparrow Crest, she wants to retrace her sisters footsteps and see what she was working on and discovered before her death. There were some things that Jax found out and that happened during her stay there that I wish had been explored more. I still have some unanswered questions about a couple of things even after finishing the book.

The Drowning Kind is a creepy and atmospheric tale that is also a little bittersweet…This story perfectly demonstrates that you can never leave the past very far behind. This is a slower paced suspenseful story, that’s well written and entertaining. I enjoyed very much and look forward to reading more books by Jennifer McMahon.



RATING: 4 OUT OF 5.

Jennifer McMahon always brings a story that seems so fantastical and yet so believable. Her books are masterful and a great escape.

The Drowning Kind was a fantastic read with a plot that keeps you hooked until the very end ! Jennifer Mcmahon produces a spooky read throughout duel timelines, Ethel’s and Jax. Ethel deals with fertility issues, while Lex ( jax’s estranged sister) suffers from bipolar disorder. Both woman drawn to the “ miracle waters “ for healing. This book will keep you on your toes until the very end. Thanks netgalley and Jennifer Mcmahon for the advance copy. Jennifer Mcmahon is now a must read author for me !

I did not read The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon through an educator lens.

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon was creepy and interesting. I was not always engaged with the book and found it difficult to really understand/believe. I always love different perspectives and time frames to read about it one book, so that was a plus for McMahon. Normally, I love McMahon's books, but this one was not a favorite at all. I would recommend it to others though!

The Drowning Kind is a novel of apparent other-than-natural events happening in a small town setting in Vermont over two time frames, late 1929 into the early 1930s, and one week in June of 2019. In the first, a young couple visits a new hotel in Brandenburg, Vermont and swims in its sulphurous spring fed pool said to have medicinal and possibly magical qualities. All guests take home some water. They also witness some apparent healings.

In the contemporary story, the same site now holds a stone house. Jackie is returning to that childhood home from her current home on the west coast due to a family emergency involving her older sister, Lexie. This will reopen old wounds that are both personal and family deep and center on the black water deep pool always so close by the house, where many have sought cures and several unfortunates have drowned. Others may have been cursed. But no one knows the truth.

The story really flows along here, to continue the water image, and the alternating chapters and time periods worked well for me, filling in pieces of information that helped the other timeline. Rating 3.5* rounded to 4*. This is not a story filled with gore but it does have its suspenseful, creepy moments.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is a fabulously spooky story. McMahon absolutely knows how to draw the reader in and make the story so addictive that the reader just has to keep going, reading late into the night.

The Drowning Kind is a thrilling and terrifying novel that kept me on the edge of my seat. Jennifer McMahon skillfully wove together a tale of generations of women and the lengths they went to protect the people they loved.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

This was a little underwhelming compared to other books by author. The character wasn’t really developed. This had great premise to expand on the supernatural. I preferred the past tense of the story and learning about the history of the area. That portion of the book was excellent!

The Drowning Kind is a fascinating yet creepy exploration of family bonds. The chapters rotate between the present, when Jackie finds out her sister, Lex, died in their grandmother’s pool, and the past, where a wife dreams of having a daughter, so much so that she is willing to do anything for that dream to come to true. Jackie heads back to the house where her sister died and realizes that the fear that everyone has always felt toward the pool that sits in the backyard, the one with the theoretical healing powers, may be for the best. Because something isn’t right, and Jackie is certain her sister is in that pool.

This was the first Jennifer McMahon book I have ever read, and WOW! I absolutely loved it. The ending left me feeling confused, but for the most part, I was hooked on this story. I don’t always like shifting timelines, but it really worked here and added to the dark atmosphere of the story. Although I would consider this a bit of a slow-burn thriller, from the very beginning, I wanted to figure out what was going on. The characters and the plot were super interesting, and I really had no idea how the book was going to end; it left me guessing! I will definitely be reading more from this author after truly enjoying this book. The Drowning Kind is a book that will be stuck in my head for a while!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC of The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon!

What a spooky read! This story definitely haunted me for weeks after finishing it. I love the historical plot behind it. I also loved the idea of a haunted pool...genius! I plowed through this book in two days, it was such a great read. Also, THE ENDING!!!! I don't want to give it away, but I loved the ending the most. Highly recommend!