This is a Gothic mystery/thriller and a haunting read. It grabs you and sucks you right in and doesn't let go. Even now, a while after I've finished this book and read quite a few others, this story haunts me. This is everything I wanted in a gothic mystery/thriller and more.
The curse in Meredith's family is dark and depressing like most good curses are, I suppose. It's all so heart-wrenching and sad though. I wanted things to end differently than they did. I hoped things would end differently, but I suspected things would have to turn out the way they did in the end.
The setting was perfect. It was all so atmospheric, dark, haunting, and spooky. I had a hard time putting it down when I read it and read all of it in almost one sitting. I loved how well this was written and I would agree that if you like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, you'll love this one - it's a very accurate comparison.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me read and review this hauntingly beautiful gothic tale. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

*******************************************

I appreciated the atmosphere of this—always here for gothic vibes and people throwing themselves into the sea—but, for me personally, the ending didn’t quite come together.

The plot is mostly centred on Meredith Strand. In the midst of separating from her wife, she returns to her hometown of, I shit you not, Cape Disappointment (I looked this up, it’s a real actual place, God bless America) with her daughter, Alice. Her family own a disused lighthouse and a shonky “museum” about mermaids—oh, and apparently the Strand women are under a curse that makes them hear voices calling them and compels them to run into the sea, though given this has its origins in the late 19th century, Meredith is half-convinced it’s simply undiagnosed mental illness. The book weaves together about five generations of drowning women, with fragments of their lives and histories slowly being revealed as Meredith deals with the recent death of her mother and attempts to protect her daughter from whatever darkness hangs over the family.

I mean, this is pretty ambitious storytelling, though for me it was most successful at the beginning of the book, when everything is mystery, burgeoning dread, and it’s unclear what is supernatural and what, well isn’t. I liked that Meredith is explicitly queer but that her queerness, while relevant to her, is not necessarily relevant to the story. Which is to say, this is a book about motherhood, family history, and gendered generational trauma, and the fact that Meredith is gay, that Alice is the child of two women, does not exclude them from this type of narrative. I also appreciated Meredith’s complicated relationship with her mother, and the sections from Judith’s POV (especially her contemporary POV) are especially striking, as she grapples with grief, regret, old age, and … err … supernatural threat. While the writing sometimes sways a little far towards exposition for my personal tastes (there’s more than one occasion of a character just disgorging several paragraphs of speech to another character while the narrative declares, “why did she just say that to them?”—which is one of my least favourite devices, since, unless it’s used sparingly and specifically, it tends to come across to me like the writer has given up) I did enjoy the atmosphere and the sense of place.

Where the book fell down for me—and, again, your mileage here—was that I wished some of the women in the generations between Regina, Judith and Meredith were a bit more distinct. I slightly lost track of who was who, and who was whose daughter, towards the middle, and their stories started blurring together for me. This could well have been intentional, of course, but I just feel I would have liked to know more about what defined them and drove them as individuals in particular social and cultural contexts. I mean, beyond a compulsion to walk into the sea in front of their daughters.

The other thing that kind of didn’t work for me was the mish mash of supernatural versus non-supernatural elements at the end of the book. This is, again, very much a personal taste thing but when supernatural elements are both real and working thematically and allegorically within the text I tend to find them most effective when there’s just one of them. And I know that a world that contain ghosts can obviously also contain witchcraft or whatever else you want but I felt that some of magical elements were almost working against the central mystery/threat. Especially because they were often super hand-waved. I mean, maybe my priorities are just screwed but, even if my family was under a sea curse, if we also had a secret to extreme longevity I might be … uh. Kind of interested?

All of which said, this is a satisfying and ambitious piece of modern gothic that I broadly recommend if it’s the kind of thing that you’re into.

I do have one further element of the book that I want to talk about a bit, but it will involve spoiling literally everything so … you’ve been warned. Continue at your own risk etc. etc.

So, err, as you can probably tell from the summary motherhood is a big theme of the book. Now, obviously, I’m well out of my lane here, so please do take what I’m about to say with a massive heaping of salt, but something I had a bit of trouble with was the valorisation of self-sacrificial motherhood towards the end of the book. The “curse” on the family is actually the ghost of Regina Strand’s daughter who accidentally drowned while Regina was attempting to use legit witchcraft to protect herself and her family. I mean, it’s a whole complicated thing where Regina is doing the witchcraft and her niece sees her doing the witchcraft and the niece threatens to tell everyone so Regina sort of lets the niece fall down the stairs and is about to hoik her body into the sea except her daughter sees and *hand waves*. It later turns out Regina, despite being from the late 19th century, is still alive (due to witchcraft again—seriously, why does nobody in this book care about this) and has been kidnapping other women’s daughters (because reasons? Trying to find her own dead daughter again?) but it also trying to appease the spirit she believes is the vengeful niece instead of her lost daughter. Anyway, Meredith finds her, there’s fights and stuff, and Regina is eventually sacrificed to the waves so that her daughter can be reunited with her mother. EXCEPT it turns out that Regina is too rubbish at being a mother for this to count, so Meredith voluntarily sacrifices herself in order to bring an end of the drowned daughter’s grief and end the “curse” on the family.

And, obviously, women can be bad mothers, just like anyone can be a bad parent, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with writing stories that explore this theme. But bad mother is SUCH a difficult trope, especially because it’s so entangled with misogynistic ideas about, y’know, women in general. I’m not saying that this book is itself using the trope misogynistically (firstly, I don’t think it is, secondly it’s not my place to offer that kind of commentary) and, in fact, the relationship between Merdeith and Judith, and Meredith and Alice, are nuanced and three-dimensional. But Regina is … Regina is complicated, I think?

I mean she kicks off the book by committing legit murder (and then has as long, later career in kidnapping and more murder) and people who commit murder tend not to be good people but everything gets kind of very mushed together with her? She’s trying to witchcraft her husband precisely TO keep her family because he’s cheating on her, and she lives in a society where she has no social or legal power whatsoever. So, while I don’t mean to take up a staunch pro witchcraft stance, I kind of can’t really blame her for that? And she definitely resents the niece she murders because her husband treats her better than he does his own daughters but, again, that suggests that her husband is a shitheel not that she is a bad mother (or even that bad a person) and the murder IS an accident. Just like the loss of her daughter is an accident. And, the problem is, I don’t quite know how we get from here to kidnapping, emotionally abusive dynamics with other women’s daughters, further murder and—ultimately—being so definitively a bad mother that drowning in the sea with the ghost of her daughter just isn’t enough anymore. On top of which, Regina doesn’t recognise that the “evil” spirit in the sea isn’t her daughter: she thinks it’s her vengeful niece. I can see why you might go hide out on island, losing your mind, for a hundred plus years if you thought someone was trying to drag you to doom because they fell down some stairs in your vicinity. But you might feel differently if you knew it was, in fact, the ghost of your daughter you’ve been (admittedly toxically) grieving for a century?

Also I do get that self-sacrifice is a … a … I’m just going to go with complicated again … complicated theme. I kind of assume that most of us can see why we might theoretically sacrifice ourselves for a child just on principle alone, let alone everything that gets folded into that f it happens to be our child (and I mean “our child” broadly, not just biologically). But I think the idea that motherhood and self-sacrifice are integral to each other is … is … maybe feeding into problematic ideas about the value of women in general? Particularly the way we feel we have a cultural right to pass judgement on women, and exert ownership over them, particularly in the context of children and childbirth. (I’m saying ‘women’ specifically here because while, obviously, one does not have to be a woman to have children, this is highly gendered context). Essentially I think I felt that Meredith having to “redeem” Regina’s “failure” of motherhood through voluntary self-sacrifice kind of stripped agency from both women: from my perspective, Regina was very much the victim of her context (like you don’t witchcraft your husband and let people fall downstairs if you have ANY other options) and I’m kind of uncomfortable with the idea that the only circumstances in which we seem willing to accept that a mother has done enough for her children is if she literally dies for them.

Thank you to Poison Pen Press and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read ARC for exchange for an honest review.

I received this on a wish I believe. So thank you for that. I really enjoyed the book. It was very it was dark it was broody and had mystery and it was a little Gothic. It is a little slow but I feel really enjoyed it.

Mothers of a family have been trying to break the curse for decades, but still, they must keep their daughters away from the ocean or they will be taken away. And she’s still out there, waiting. Meredith learns about her own mother’s journey while trying to save her daughter. She’ll do anything to stop the cycle.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one, but a mystery and people being lured into the sea was really all I needed to know, and I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed the complicated mother/daughter relationships, the twists and turns with some of the characters, learning about the back story of the curse, and Meredith’s transformation as a mother. Definitely recommend. It’s out now wherever you get your books.

A bit of a slow burn, But good over all. I love Multiple timeline layouts so this worked for me on that front. A gothic, dark; and creepy tale of 3 generations of women with some witchcraft mixed in. Would read this author again.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

This summer I have been reading a lot of thriller/mystery books around the beaches. So creepy and fitting for summer reading.

I loved what this author did with this book, it was gothic thriller, witchy and of course a ghost. But the real story is what a mother would do for the love of her child. I felt the pull of the complex relationship between Meredith and Judith. What Meredith didn't understand was everything she did was for the love and safety of Judith and her granddaughter.

Meredith returns to her childhood home with her daughter Alice, in hopes it will help her move pass the painful divorce from her wife. But the Cape is still the same and her mother is suffering early onset of Alzheimer's is still trying to convince her the ghost stories are real. It isn't till tragedy strikes that she starts to believe maybe her mom is right about the cape. Is what her mom has been warning her about is real, and what will stop the water from taking another life?

I was engaged the whole time; character development was perfect, and the mother/daughter relationship was so relatable. The ending was not what I expected; however, I would not end any other way. It was perfectly beautifully ending to a great story. The perfect book to read this fall with a pumpkin spice latte.

The cover for this book was so pretty and very fitting for the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a copy of this book for my honest review.

This book created an entire mood of its own - a gothic feel combined with a thriller/mystery platform, full of old family secrets no one talks about. A tragic tale, in its own light and well worth your time.

What a great premise with disappointing follow-through. First off, I'm really tired of stories about the horror of motherhood that end with either "well, THOSE mothers just weren't sacrificing their entire identities to motherhood HARD enough" or "even if you're very adamantly against being a mother, once it happens to you, you'll /get it/" -- which in this case, both happen. I do appreciate that the protag being queer wasn't a point of contention, but was just kind of a thing that was true. However, the entire last fourth of the book really shifted the entire tone and not in a good way. It's like the author read Haunting of Hill House and took away the absolute wrong message.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book. This is solidly in women’s fiction. A long line of women live in Cape Disappointment on the West Coast of the US>. Each woman feels drawn to the sea, and eventually commits suicide, although that is not how it is presented. Each woman thinks that she is saving her daughter from drowning. Meredith and her daughter Alice come to visit Meredith’s mom Judith after Meredith’s wife wants a divorce. Things aren’t easy. And, like women before her, Judith tries to save her daughter by walking into the ocean. This is a bit trippy. There seems to be a lot of characters, so you will want to stay on your toes for the fairest pages. It would be food for a book group to discuss what problems, real or imagined, parents are willing to deal with to save their children.

This book was mysterious, authentic, and a little creepy. It was well written but I personally was having a hard time with it for some reason. Potentially it was worth continuing with but I inadvertently took long breaks and then would forget characters, etc. I just ran out of steam with it, particularly as the unedited version was coming in at over 700 pages. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

My rule is that I give a book 20%. And if I'm not into it, I quit it. This one, I made it to about 30% because I was actually enjoying the beginning of it. And then it just took a nosedive for me. The writing was fine. For me, the story was just something I couldn't hold onto. It lost my interest.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

the town of Cape Disappointment has been haunted since 1881, after tragedy strikes for a woman and her family. ever since then, the future women from this family seem to be cursed, being called out to the water by an unknown force.

Meredith returns to the Cape with her young daughter to stay with her mom after an abrupt separation from her wife. she and her mother have struggled to build a relationship throughout the years, and the time apart hasn’t helped. when Meredith returns, her mother is more paranoid than ever, convinced that the water is calling out to Meredith’s daughter. while Meredith is apprehensive of her mother’s outrageous claims, she begins to realize that there are indeed secrets and danger among the Cape, especially when her daughter starts acting strange around the water.

this book unfortunately didn’t do much for me. i attribute some of it to being busy while trying to read this one, but it honestly took me forever to get through this book, and I found myself ready for it to be over. i liked the story’s premise, but was hoping to be more spooked overall. the curse in the story goes back for generations, so I enjoyed how the author went back in time during certain chapters to show how the curse impacted each generation of women; however, I found myself having trouble keeping all the names straight and remembering who was who throughout.

thank you to @netgalley & @poisonedpenpress for my advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. this book is out now!

This is a slow burning, gothic story that is spooky and haunting more than anything else. The book moves from past to present as we learn about a curse that has affected generations of a family. I enjoyed the premise of the story, but it seemed to lag at times. I will forever be watching out for pink seashells!

Dark, haunting, atmospheric. A deeply written story about unfinished business, death, motherhood, secrets coming back to the surface, curses, and quite literally ghosts of the past. They Drown Our Daughters was a tough read at times especially the ending. I've been reading a lot of haunting stories lately that center around water and I don't think any has been written as well as this one with the foggy seaside town with decrepit lighthouses and things lurking in the depths. You go on a journey with these characters and the ending with Meredith was enough to make me mad and sad at the same time. Everything we go through with her and thats how her story ended?! They Drown Our Daughters is a gothic horror ghost story perfect for those foggy fall nights, even better if you light a sea salt spray candle for extra vibes.

I was completely surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book as I had seen it described as within the horror genre. While I agree that it has horror elements, I also thought that there were a lot of literary fiction parallels in the novel.

I really enjoyed reading this novel as it was engrossing in terms of generational stories as well as the ongoing curse and trauma that the family experienced surrounding the water. The imagery used to describe the water as well as the girl in the water was really detailed and created a perfect setting for such a haunting story.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoyed The Book of Cold Cases and anyone who is interested in the darker side of mermaid lore. Overall, a fun and creepy read just in time for spooky season!

Stories centered on women and their navigation of challenging relationships find an appropriate place in horror. The genre lends itself well to exploring the dark side of human connection and the complex trauma that often hatches from volatile dynamics. Katrina Monroe’s new novel, They Drown Our Daughters, offers a gothic tale set by the sea that contemplates this particular darkness, with mother-daughter relationships, mental illness, and generational trauma at the forefront.

They Drown Our Daughters tells the story of women across generations who are cursed to walk deep into the ocean and never return. The first chapter describes the origin of this curse, dating back to 1889, but the main plot occurs in present day focusing on Meredith who, after separating from her wife, travels back to her hometown with her young daughter, Alice. There, Meredith stays with her mother Judith, a nervous woman with a consuming fear of the water. Through alternating chapters, we learn the reason for Judith’s anxiety. We see flashbacks of the women in their family compulsively drawn into the ocean, ultimately to their deaths. Although resistant at first, Meredith begins to investigate the root of this curse, knowing that what she finds might be the only answer to saving her family.

Outside of the narrative, what stood out to me in They Drawn Our Daughters was how Monroe links elements of mermaid lore, the eeriness of traditional ghost stories, and a magnetic draw to the ocean often seen in Lovecraft’s mythos. We do not learn the true cause of the curse, or the figure calling these women into the water, until the end. This mystery, and the many unexpected turns, kept me pushing through even in moments where atmosphere overpowered action (maybe too much at times).

Overall, They Drown Our Daughters brings many alluring ideas and images to the table, from mermaids and creepy girls straight out of THE RING to the delicate discussions of mental illness and familial trauma. Readers who enjoy these as well as an atmospheric, slow burn will enjoy this modern gothic tale with a nautical twist.

They Drown Our Daughters does have a slow, gothic horror build up to it that I really loved up until about the 70% mark. I understand this might have been slow for many readers, but the lurking spirit in the ocean, the weird ways women in Meredith's family met dismal ends, all felt positively horrific and haunting. I enjoyed the theme of women becoming mothers and feeling ambivalent about it, or unsure that they're any good at it, bucking that "women are natural nurturers" assumption found so often. Meredith is not a natural mother, and her mother, Judith, never seems to be able to take on that mantle either. None of the women in Meredith's family are any good at mothering, and all of them are at the mercy of the ghost in the water to lures them to their drowning.

So, things went rather swimmingly (a pun!) until the plot goes a little sideways near the end. The revelations are weird, and the big mystery unravels in a way that basically trashes your working assumptions and what the book itself has presented up to that point. I really can't reconcile what readers are presented on one hand and the twist that negates it all. I guess you could say it starts to fall apart.

I still enjoyed the majority of this, and that cover is stunning.

This was quite a slow paced Horror Gothic Novel and it explores the complicated relationship about a mother and her daughter.

Told over multiple perspectives and characters, the narrative jumped around quite a bit which was for me personally a bit confusing at times and makes the story feel a bit disjointed.

Meredith has always felt like an unwanted child. Until she managed to get away from Cape Disappointment, her mother kept her at arm's length, yet at the same time, within arm's reach, telling her stories of monsters lurking in the water. Things are not much different when Meredith returns to her hometown with her daughter Alice, a motherhood Meredith was never eager to claim but is now willing to do anything to protect. She knows they come from a line of "troubled" women, women who disappeared, women who took their own lives. Mothers, leaving traumatized daughters behind. She knows folk legends of killer mermaids are not behind it, but mental illness. And then the water starts to call.

My favourite aspect of this novel was easily the lore surrounding the island. I enjoyed the quiet gothic atmosphere.

This was a beautifully written, character-driven, chilling ghost story that, at its core, is really about trying to break the cycle of generational trauma, and a fantastic metaphor for mental illness

I loved the atmosphere of this novel but in the end it was just too slow for me. I know this genre allows for a slower pace, so this is personal preference. I enjoyed the dysfunctional family drama/curse element and the coastal/island setting. The ending was a bit weird and it felt too rushed for the slow pace of the rest of the book. I'd try this author again though, it wasn't too bad for a debut!