This started out really strong and it has really good parts in it. The ending was pretty strong as well. However, there were some parts in the middle that lagged.

I liked the dual timelines and each story.  It just seemed like it was going to be a ghost story throughout but there wasn't that much of a ghost story.

I do think a lot of people will enjoy this book. And I will say while reading this a bird flew into my front door and scared the life out of me! So it definitely has a creep factor.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for this eARC.

I remember seeing McMahon at a local library event in 2019 where she revealed that her next book was centered on a haunted pool. I was immediately intrigued, and it was fun to finally read the story that emerged from this unique idea. The story is not as creepy as I had hoped, but I do like the emphasis on familial bonds and the lengths that an individual is willing to go for a loved one.

Definitely creepy and delightfully exciting!

Jax is a social worker, trying hard to be analytical and rational. Her sister, Lexie, is the opposite: creative, dreamy, and artistic. The world is in enraptured with Lexie, and the beauty that follows in her path. However, Jax receives some unsettling news about Lex. What will Jax discover? Where will all of the clues lead?

Mrs. Ethel Monroe is longing for a baby, but month after month Lady Luck hasn't smiled upon her. She is desperate for solutions even old wives tales. Will Ethel finally get her wish? And at what cost?

This book involved two different POV's and timelines: one following Jax in 2020 and one following Ethel in the 1920's. The storytelling in this book was superb and engaging - I devoured this in 2 or 3 days! The author knows how to draw you in so that you want to discover each secret and uncover the truth. The characters were well developed; the characters were imperfect, flawed, but trying to do their best. It gave the book a realistic feel.

Additionally, this book hit on a topic that is not discussed very often: mental illness. The medical community is often extremely quick to dole out a pill to anyone especially if someone comes in with a complicated illness. It is very easy to say "That person is depressed. Here's your pill, Sweetie." instead of trying to find out the real problem. These medications can be extremely beneficial to many, but it can also dim the recipient's inner light, the overflow of energy, the zest for life, and can leave the person a compliant but empty shell of a person. Are the pills for the recipient or to make society feel better? Sounds like a good book club discussion!

So not only is this the best Jennifer McMahon book I've ever read, it is likely to be the best book I'm going to read all year. I'm not even sure I can describe how wonderful and creepy this book is. I loved seeing the history of the springs merge with the present day story and how all of the pieces fit together. I had to read the last chapter twice because I was just blown away. Part of me says please let this be optioned for a miniseries and another part of me says please don't let that happen because they will ruin it. I recommend this to everyone who likes eerie tales filled with history and family drama. Jennifer McMahon is a literary rock star.

This was a decently creepy story - a bit supernatural, mystery and thriller story thrown together. I enjoyed the historical timeline - the story is told part current setting and part 1920s-1930s within the same town and actually the same house.

A solid thriller.

I don’t even know where Jennifer gets her ideas but, she’s absolutely brilliant with her stories. This is the second novel I’ve read of hers and it just makes me want to read more of her work.

Special thanks to the author, Gallery/Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the review copy. I enjoyed it so much. So much so, that I had to finish it tonight, in spite of my raging migraine. It’s creepy, mysterious, has great character development and the story is good. It invites you in and refuses to let go.

When Jax’s sister, Lexie is found dead in the pool, Jax is forced to go back to her grandma’s home that Lexie inherited. Forced to deal with the grief and guilt of not answering Lexie’s last phone calls because she didn’t want to deal with her. Things begin happening surrounding the pool and the history it keeps, will Jax find out the truth before something more horrendous happens?

Truly a page turner, highly recommend!

Reading Between the Wines book review #44/115 for 2021:
Rating: 3.5 🍷 🍷 🍷 (rounding up to 4)
Book 🎧: The Drowning Kind
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
RELEASED on April 6, 2021!!!
Recommended to readers who like a sinisterly chilling mystery/thrill

Sipping thoughts: Wow I don’t do scary, but I was able to make it through this one. Although it was a little chilling, the sinister mystery behind the lake kept my interest. I loved the back-and-forth timeline and how it all tied together in the end. This slow burn will have you thinking about what you would do or risk to have your heart’s desires.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @GalleryBooks for an advanced copy of @TheDrowningKind

#TheDrowningKind #GalleryBooks #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThriller

This was a slow, creepy story, with a vivid atmosphere and complex characters. The writing builds up in layers of juxtapositions and vivid scenes involving water. There are moments that I found enthralling like the description of a baby floating in the womb, a baby that exists because of a wish on a spring that takes as much as it gives. You are constantly questioning what's going on in this book and even though it's a slow burn, that uncertainty keeps you reading. There is also mental illness in this book, which was personally hard for me to get through, but I understand how it adds to all the uncertainty in the story, putting into doubt certain perceptions and points of view. I found myself wondering why so many people kept ignoring the apparent danger posed by the spring in exchange for fulfilling their wishes for they personal lost causes. It poses an interesting question about what we are willing to ignore or risk to get what we want most deeply. This would make a great book club selection.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jennifer McMahon is such a good writer. She is a master at providing that sense of eeriness while the propulsive writing keeps you turning the page even as you feel a bit unsettled by everything

While this one is not my favorite by her, I did really enjoy it. I was a bit confused by the ending but I also felt satisfied that it ended the way it did if that makes sense.

This is NOT a book to read if you are scared of water, drowning, or of what could be hiding in the deep dark depths. This book will play on those fears and possibly make it hard to sleep at night.

BOOK REVIEW: The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon

Cold dark water. Feeling "something" swipe your legs from below. Catching a glimpse of movement at the corner of your eye.... Sounds like a great place to swim, right?!

Who doesn't have a memory of swimming in a lake, ocean, pond or somewhere where you felt something brush against you… But you couldn't see it? Making you jump out of your skin both in that moment… and even now in remembering it!

Weaving in an element of "jump scare" personal sense memory is a great basis for any ghost fiction… And that is where we start with The Drowning Kind.

A super-spooky black water pool fed by mineral springs that are both healing & cursed.

And when you are desiring a cure, the lure of the healing power of the water can overshadow the price it may cost you…

You may get your wish… But your wish may get you too…

In this story, we also have fictional characters with mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder. The continual murkiness of what is real and what is not adds in deepening this story beyond entertaining ghost thriller novels.

It made me so empathetic for the characters (and anyone) managing these issues... I really could feel both the frustration of not being believed and the frustration of not knowing what to believe.

Why do I like the story?
Features and elements of the story that I loved… Or story elements that I found unique and celebrate in exploring expansive reading experiences…

• Features strong physical elements and descriptions that activate our sense memory, which lifts the story off the page and really makes us feel like we are the experiencing the story for ourselves

• Features dimensional lead characters with bipolar disorder

What is my biggest takeaway from this book?
Be careful what you ask for... ✨😎✨

--------------------

All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Books & DIY Home Ideas | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com ... Including my video tutorials for DIY home ideas inspired by recommended books to support you in bringing your favorite books to life in your life and home.

You can see my complete book feature on The Drowning Kind at https://www.thisismyeverybody.com/books/short-book-reviews-the-drowning-kind-jennifer-mcmahon

* A big thank you to Jennifer McMahon, Gallery Books / Scout Press, Simon & Schuster Audio and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in my reviews and content are my own… ✨😎✨

Jax hasn’t spoken to her older sister, Lexie, for over a year. Then, after ignoring nine calls from her manic and unpredictable sibling, Jax learns that she has drown in the swimming pool at her home that once belonged to the sisters’ grandmother. As Jax goes thru her sister’s belongings, she realizes that Lexie had been researching their family’s history, which turns out to be much more unsettling and dark than Jax could ever imagined.

The Drowning Kind is spooky and definitely creepy. With the story moving back and forth from 2019 to 1929, the history of the house, the pool, and its inhabitants is slowly revealed. The setting is well-drawn, the characters are interesting and mysterious, and the story is atmospheric and ghostly. It is definitely a book that is hard to set aside. Jennifer McMahon is a talented writer and The Drowning Kind is a fine example of her ability to draw the reader into her books, where they are immersed in a story that is compelling and intriguing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

This audiobook is incredibly creepy and atmospheric! This book is definitely a paranormal thriller and those who love Riley Sager's writing will really love it as well. Jax, a child social worker has never gotten over the fact that she couldn’t save her sister Lexie from her mental illness. She and the rest of the family believe that she is her own worst enemy; the true problem lies within herself. Lexie frequently takes actions that make her sicker, but it’s been so long that she’s not about to change now. Every once in a while Lex will call her, drunk as all get out and fail to remember that her sister no longer speaks to her. She leaves message after message for Jax; mostly on the verge of verbal harassment. But still—she clings to the hope that one day Lex won’t try bring her down with her.


But then, the very day after she receives a series of phone calls from Lexie— Jax’s worst nightmare must be faced. For Lex is gone, drowned; and she’s never coming back. Or is she?

The more Jax digs into Lexie’s recent discoveries and behavior, she starts experiencing some of the same things that her sister spoke of. Could it be the grief causing her to go crazy or is there something truly happening with the water?

Told in dual timelines...2019 by Jax and 1929 by Ethel Monroe, this story is a creepy one. Ethel is a 37 year old woman who is so anguished at the thought of never having a baby —after a year of trying—that she makes a deal with the devil.

A Lady in the lake type of mystery. Sisters who have played a drowning game as youngsters find it takes on a tragic meaning later in life. Lexie and Jax are as close as sisters can be until one is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. Even with her challenges Lexie charms and disarms and destroys. Jax witnesses her manic episodes, Ted their father sees the creative side of this disease and sides with Lexie. The girls spend every summer with their grandmother , whose pool is fed from a spring that promises to grant wishes for a human price. It is this human price that costs Jax the ultimate gift her sister Lexie. Over the years reports of a creature on the bottom of the pool began as a nightmare of childhood has become a terror for the adults living in the house. Lexie’s death in the pool prompts Jax to uncover the real story that lurks at the bottom of the water.

This is an understated, anxiety-filled supernatural story of the bond between sisters and between two families that goes back generations. Perhaps I was not in the right reading mood but this novel lacked the intensity to keep me hooked or in suspense. Setting was outstanding.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC to read and review.

This is told in duel time lines to really understand the history of the Springs. To figure out what's real and what's not. When Jax gets all the phone calls form her manic sister she thinks she's just off her meds. Then she's found dead.

The question you have to solve is what happen. Did she go off her meds or did something happen? what is the history with the family and what is the history with the springs. The more you learn in the present and you think you know what the answer is going to be. The 2nd timeline comes into play and gives you more details. This was a well crafted book and the idea of what would you give for a wish? is the price to high?

My one problem with the story is it has slow moments in the present day story. Then the End comes and its bam over with. I wanted more from those last few chapters. I wanted more interactions with Jax and Lexie. I wanted more moments at the pool.

But I love the charters especially Ethal. The one question you have to ask yourself what would you do for your dream? and how far will you go. If you know the price is high would you wish it and cause problems/ pain to someone else to get what you want. WHAT WOULD YOU DO? And is it to good to be true. and what happens when you get to close to the truth?

This is my first story from this author and I cant wait to read more by her.

thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books / Simon&Schuster for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions

Social worker Jackie (“Jax”) has spent years putting boundaries between herself and her sister Lexie (“Lex”) as a result of Lex’s mental illness, even going so far as to move to Tacoma, Washington when her sister has stayed in Brandenburg, Vermont. Dealing with Lex can be exhausting, especially when she is in the grips of a manic episode - so when Lex calls Jax more than 10 times in one day, Jax ignores the calls and asks their Aunt Diane to check on Lex. Hours later, Jax gets the call that Lex is dead, drowned in the dark, deep black waters of the pool on the grounds of the family house, Sparrow Crest.

Jax travels back to Brandenburg to take care of arrangements for her sister, where she discovers that in the last few months and weeks of Lex’s life, she had become fixated on the springs that feed the pool on the grounds of Sparrow Crest, and the history of their family. As Jax works to get to the bottom of what Lex was so close to discovering, Jax herself begins to suspect that the springs may be a miracle - or a curse…One that is tied into the very origins of her family, and one that Jax herself may not be able to escape from.

The Drowning Kind was truly a fantastic book - I devoured it in a day, after going through reading slumps for most of the pandemic. I could barely put it down. It did have a surprisingly dark subject matter at times, which I wasn’t really expecting when I started the book, but I didn’t find it jarring and if anything it made the read more atmospheric. I admit that it made me think, too, about my own personal life and boundaries, as Jax struggled with her own.

And what atmosphere! McMahon’s prose is absolutely engrossing; you can truly lose yourself in the setting - smell the sulphur of the springs, see and feel the water on the tile floor, hear Lex and Jax tapping on the walls between bedrooms. The Drowning Kind is so unsettling and it asks the reader what they would be willing to sacrifice for what they desire most - something not entirely comfortable, taking you to more dark places, but inside of yourself instead of the novel.

I can’t say enough good things about this book, honestly, it was truly a gripping, fun read and exactly what I needed (and it’s not just because the main character and I share a name!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. Also thank you to Ms. McMahon for this, and all your other books. You are a credit to literature.
#NetGalley #TheDrowningKind #Gallery/ScoutPress #JenniferMcMahon
Jennifer McMahon always writes an enjoyable read. Jax and Lexie are sisters with a very dysfunctional relationship. Lexie has manic depressive episodes so, when she repeatedly calls Jax on day, Jax is mostly unconcerned. That is, until Lexie turns up dead in their grandmother’s pool. We are also taken back to 1929 and introduced to Ethel whose greatest wish is to have a baby. She and her husband visit a natural spring in Vermont that is rumored to grant wishes.
The thing that shone about this book was the atmospheric imagery. I could almost taste the murky water and I definitely could see it. This book was so twisty and intense. One of my favorite types of books. I love Ms. McMahon for her ability to scare relentlessly but also evoke empathy. I also love how she never debunks her supernatural elements. They’re always real and always dark.
There were a few small flaws. The characters were a little more flat than they usually are. I had some trouble connecting, which always makes it just a little more difficult to get into.
This is a dark and wonderful book and it was a pleasure to review it.

@jennifermcmahonwrites is always my go to Author when I want to be creeped out, and I was so excited to get a digital copy of this newest book The Drowning Kind for review. I'm not very easily scared by books anymore. I mean, I'm a mom of three, nothing scares me. I also get really mad when I think I'm reading a good ghost story and then it turns out to be a scooby doo story and it was just a real person all along. When it comes to McMahon though it's always the real deal, and after reading the drowning kind I'm glad it's not swimming season yet.

3.5 rounded up

“In the water, dark and deep where she waits, fast asleep. All alone, pale and cold, don’t wake her up, or she’ll catch hold Her soothing voice, so soft and low is the last thing you’ll ever know four simple words whispered in your ear, a gentle wind only you can hear: Come swimming with me”

Jennifer McMahon has been compared to Shirley Jackson and I 100% agree - there's this element about her writing where you have an unreliable narrator and can't tell if something is real or something you can blame on the character's mental state.

"The Drowning Kind" has switches between two time periods: 1920/30s with Ethel and 2019 with Jax. The story mostly centering around Jax's relationship with her estranged sister who ended up living in their Gram's house where they spent all summer splashing around in the pool: spring fed, cold, black, sulphur smelling water where their aunt Rita drowned... you can't reach the bottom and you cannot swim at night. Lexie always teased that Rita was at the bottom, waiting for them. After days of ignoring Lexie's manic calls, Jax has her aunt Diane check on her, but Lexie is not ok - she's found dead floating in the pool, just like Aunt Rita.

Ethel wants nothing more than to have a baby. When her husband brings her to a weekend getaway she discovers a Vermont secret: a spring that has healing properties, if you ask it for a wish, it will be granted, but be prepared to pay a price - the spring gives and the spring takes.

This is definitely a story of suspense and I was captivated throughout the entire thing. I really enjoyed McMahon's writing style - she has quite a way with words. There's a lot of family secrets, "mystical" elements and fun history that get tied together. Overall, I really enjoyed the eerie prose.

There were a couple of things I didn't quite love: numerous plot holes and/or plot points & connections glossed over, it was easy to connect the dots with where the story was going and the connections throughout so I was hoping it /wasn't/ that obvious and there would've been more of a twist or surprise, and I wasn't a huge fan of the end, it felt a little rushed and it was kind of expected - I wanted something a little more exciting from it.

All in all, a great, fun, creepy read that I really enjoyed.

* I received an an arc in exchange for an honest review* Gallery Books: Gallery/Scout Press
pub date: April 6, 2021.

Jennifer McMahon has been dubbed "the literary descendent of Shirley Jackson" by author Chris Bohjalian. Her latest book, The Drowning Kind, is an absorbing ghost story about sisters who are compulsively drawn to a unique pool . . . in which several before them have died.

The water in the pool is a character in its own right and the centerpiece of the tale. Measuring twenty by forty-five feet, the pool is surrounded by granite. It is spring fed with no pump, and an outlet at one end that drains into a stone-lined canal snaking across the yard to a brook below, and then on to a nearby river. The icy cold water is black and emits an odor akin to a combination of rot and sulphur, tasting like burnt matches and rust. The pool is situated on the grounds of Sparrow Crest, the estate in the tiny village of Brandenburg, Vermont, that once belonged to the grandparents of Jax and her older sister, Lexie. The girls spent summers with Gram when they were growing up, swimming in the pool but unable to find its bottom. Lexie insisted that Rita, Gram's younger sister who drowned in the pool when she was just seven years old, was waiting for them down in the water. Indeed, Gran said she felt close to her deceased sister when swimming in the pool. The girls loved playing The Dead Game, floating facedown together to see who could hold her breath the longest, but never in front of Gram, who, according to Lexie suffered from agoraphobia. She grew up at Sparrow Crest, was married there, and raised three daughters on the property that she never left. She did not drive, and had groceries and household goods delivered, but she swam in the pool regularly, even chopping through ice in the winter to do so.

But as the story opens, the house belongs to Lexie. She inherited it from their grandmother, a point of contention between the sisters. Jax is a social worker living in Seattle. She has avoided the increasingly manic messages she has received from Lexie, confident that she is off her medication again. The two had barely spoken in the year since Gram's death. Angry and bitter because Gram bequeathed Sparrow Crest and most of her savings to Lexie, as well as money to Gram's sister, Diane, Jax related in a first-person narrative that she received an old coin collection and some first-edition books, even though she was the one struggling to pay off her student loans and living in a tiny apartment across the country. Jax came to rely upon Diane to keep her apprised of Lexie's condition.

It is Diane who notifies Jax that when she went to Sparrow Crest to check on Lexie, at Jax's urging, she found Lexie's body in the swimming pool. And it is clear that, unlike just two weeks earlier when Diane observed that Lexie seemed to be doing well, judging by the state of the house, something was very wrong. Jax rushes home, leaving a colleague, Barbara, in charge of her clients, including nine-year-old Declan, a troubled boy who has just gotten situated in a school that seems to be a good fit.

Another first-person narrative is from Ethel O'Shay Monroe, the wife of Will, the local doctor. It is 1929 and Ethel desperately wants a child. She was thirty-six -- "an old maid" -- and Will was thirty-nine when they married the previous year. She watches Will interacting with the local children and sees what a wonderful father he would be, but every month brings disappointment. She has taken to employing various mystical ploys to get pregnant, including carrying a sparrow egg tucked against her breast. Ethel keeps a lot of secrets, including the fact that she self-harms when anxious or stressed.

The spring water that flows into the pool is believed by many to hold magical healing properties. So some people drink it, despite its horrible taste, and others believe that swimming in the pool will help them. Will takes Ethel away on a holiday to the newly-opened Brandenburg Springs Hotel and Resort for a romantic weekend. On the way, they stop at a small store where the proprietor is selling bottles of the spring water for five cents each, claiming it "has a funny taste, but it brings good luck and good health." But his wife warns, "Those springs are a dark place. You'd do best to keep away from them." At the hotel, Ethel and Will swim in the springs, and Ethel is befriended by the owner's wife, Eliza. She too talks about the water's healing power, adding that there's "more to it than that." She tells Ethel that the water "can grant wishes" and Ethel hopes that's true -- that the water will grant her wish for a child. Many of the locals believe, however, that the springs are cursed: "If you came to the water looking for a miracle, you had to be prepared to pay a price."

Jax searches for clues as to how Lexie -- a strong swimmer -- could possibly have drowned. And examines the notebooks filled with Lexie's research into Sparrow Crest's history. Her entries descend from coherent curiosity into disjointed ramblings and then trail off. What secret did she discover? And could her death have been a suicide?

McMahon's alternating narratives eventually provide the answers Jax seeks, coming together to form an atmospheric, dark tale of longing, disappointment, regret, and despair spanning generations. McMahon injects creepy, unexplainable developments involving the magical, mysterious water that flows through and complicates her characters' lives.

Her portrayal of the relationship between Jax and Lexie is moving and poignant, with Jax relating the ways in which the two girls interacted as they were growing up and the point at which it became clear that Lexie needed help. Her anger at Lexie for always being, from Jax's perspective, more popular and favored by family and friends, is raw, palpable, and believable, as is her grief over losing her sister. McMahon compassionately details Jax's journey from being disconnected from her family emotionally and geographically to understanding Lexie's struggles and discoveries. Ironically, Jax shut Lexie out, building strong boundaries around herself, because she could not deal with the mental illness that led Lexie into wild, manic states. Jax's own therapist pointed out, "You've never gotten over the fact that you couldn't fix your sister when she got sick. You couldn't save her, so you're trying to save all these other kids." But the bonds of sisterhood are far-reaching and unbreakable, as McMahon illustrates, with Jax's guilt propelling her to uncover the secrets that Lexie learned as the story races to a shocking and disturbing conclusion that will undoubtedly infuriate some readers.

McMahon weaves legend and myth, truth and reality into a chilling and intriguing confection that moves at an even pace, complete with glimpses of ghosts in the pool, phone calls with either no one on the other end or a quiet voice that sounds like it's coming from far away, and wet footprints -- of the dead? -- leading from the open front door up the stairs. Despite the supernatural elements, at it's core, The Drowning Kind deals with family ties, how we deal with the things our ancestors have passed down to us, and if we are constrained and limited by our family history. And, as Jax puts it, whether a person can be too heartbroken to walk away from it all.