They Drown Our Daughters is a masterful take on family curses and mermaid legends. Told from the points of view of five generations of women bound to the ocean, this book reeks of salt air and dust.
What I really loved about this book was the atmosphere. The author made it feel like I could feel the ocean breeze and feel the sand between my toes. And I loved it despite hating the beach in real life. My only complaint is that it felt like there were gaps in the story in some places and some things could have been fleshed out better. Other than that I loved it, though. Definitely be on the lookout for this one.

This was a quietly creepy take on mermaid/sirens folklore. Who would think the beach could seem so scary-makes you think twice about holding a shell to your ear. And the “human” villains were a nice twist as well.

Sadly, while the pitch was interesting, I did not jive with the writing style and the plot did not catch enough of my interest for me to continue reading. I decided to set it down at 10%. Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was... haunting, atmospheric, eerie, and ended up being a borderline obsession for me. I couldn't put it down! It is, by no means, perfect. There were moments that felt swampy and sticky where I'd get tripped up and have to force myself through a paragraph or a page, but on the other side, it was well-worth it. Monroe is wonderful at crafting a feeling in the reader. I felt on the edge of my seat for a good portion of the time trying to figure out what's coming next.

On to the plot-- it was awesome! It felt the same way as watching a pretty good horror film that also goes mostly for the atmospheric. Kind of like "It Follows" where the tension builds and not much 'action' happens but still it's so engaging. The way the novel buries and unburies the mother-daughter relationships, the way society views any type of failure within those relationships, was expertly done. What would you give for your child? What would you give for YOURSELF? I keep repeating the tension and the atmosphere, but the novel hinges on crafting a certain vibe successfully. This one does.

It's a great dark nautical novel! Monroe has really done something special here, and I will be recommending it and gifting it for the holiday season.

4/5

This book is written so well, and I did like the main character(s), but I found the plotting to be so repetitive with its central device and flashback/point-of-view chapters that it was hard to keep reading by 120 pages in or so. I skimmed a bit from there, and I will say that a twist DOES certainly happen, but...it was not my favorite twist, to put it mildly. It was kinda hilarious as a twist, but it really didn't work for me in terms of either the gothic vibes of the book or the overall world/magic. It was ok, and the end was certainly something, but the book didn't live up to my expectations. (The gorgeous cover didn't help with them being sky-high...)

Pitched as part modern gothic, part ghost story, They Drown Our Daughters follows Meredith as she returns to her family home at the supposedly haunted Cape Disappointment with her young daughter. This was beautifully written with a chilling (no pun intended) atmosphere both in and out of the ocean. I don't think I've read a book before that explores the relationship between generations of mother's and daughter's with such outstanding depth.

"Like her father and her husband, he knew what was best by virtue of his gender. Grace aspired to be so confident in her ignorance."

Although I absolutely loved the first two thirds, the last third threw me out of the story a bit with its change in tone/pace. The ending did cause some mixed feelings and at the time I wished it had ended on a different message but I do understand the choice behind it.

"Could a person see with their soul? Hear with their heart? She believed so."

This was a queer, feminist story of grief, heartbreak and the love that binds families together set around the chilling power and beauty of the ocean. Although there was some parts that didn't work for me I will probably be checking out Katrina Monroe's future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced reader's copy.

DNF at 48% ~
I feel as though I cannot rate this accurately as I chose not to finish this book, but I will give you an honest review.

The premise of this book spoke to me so loudly, hence why I requested this from NetGalley. Women for generations within a singular family have been drawn to the water of Cape Disappointment, but they keep dying or going missing. They have a calling from the water, a girl who can speak to them through a pink shell. Sounded so fun and interesting, but.... This book travels between timelines in every chapter to the different women throughout the generations and honestly it just confused the heck out of me. Even at nearly halfway, I am confused about who is whose mum/daughter/sister, and how they died or disappeared. This has made for a very strained read for me, hence the decision to DNF.

Don't get me wrong the writing was great, the story was leading up to something good it seems, but I couldn't continue knowing I was just going to keep being confused and not enjoy it to its fullest. If you are able to articulate the constant time jumps, then certainly give this a read!

They Drown Our Daughters follows Meredith Stand and her daughter, Alice, who return to Meredith’s childhood home on Cape Disappointment. Legend says that Cape disappointment is haunted by a malevolent force, but Meredith believes that it is more haunted by regret than anything else. But her mother Judith is convinced that the ghost stories are real, and she will do anything to keep the dark figure in the water and the voices in the wind from coming for her granddaughter.

We Drown Our Daughters is a queer gothic horror novel that examines family ties and what it means to be a good mother. While the book had a lot of potential, it ultimately fell short for me. The story, which includes multiple timelines and a number of different character POVs, is all over the place. There is a lot of repetition, and the different timelines and points of view were often indistinguishable. This book also blends a number of different genres, and I felt like it was trying to be too many things at once. However, I really liked the creepy atmosphere.

This was disappointing. I liked the beginning, but most of the time it was boring and I didn't really care about anything that was happening.

3,5/5 Stars

They Drown Our Daughters is a book that tells the story of a family and the curse that seems to follow them through multiple generations. The story takes place across multiple timelines, with the mothers and daughters of the family being the focus.

Following multiple women in different times trying to figure out how to get rid of a curse that makes their lives miserable was really thrilling. Throughout the chapters, more and more information about the curse and the family is revealed to the reader and the characters but the book still keeps you guessing for quite some time.

My biggest problem with this book was the pacing. The prologue was super thrilling, but then the pace got really slow, which on its own doesn’t bother me. What bothered me was that the ending in turn felt really rushed. Things were building up quite slowly and then ended very abruptly. And maybe that’s the reason why the book felt about 200 pages longer than it actually was.

Apart from that the book was really enjoyable, and I had a good time with it. It definitely kept my attention for the most part, it just wasn’t quite as thrilling as I’d hoped. I would recommend this book specifically to people who don’t mind a slow-burn mystery with a supernatural twist and a focus on mother-daughter relationships.

With all of these glowing reviews, I hate to be the voice of dissent. I ended up DNF this a few chapters in. There was clunky exposition, jumping from one thing to another, which took me completely out of the story. Unfortunately, after a few starts to try again, I finally gave up. The concept of the book was fascinating, so I do hope for those that don’t have my same problems, truly do love this -- and find it spellbinding and engrossing as other reviewers found it!

When I saw this was pitched for fans of Jennifer McMahon and Silvia Moreno-Garcia with gothic themes and Sapphic rep I was sold.

This multi-generational story unfurls slowly, and hauntingly. Women are front and centre as they tackle a long-standing curse before it takes them all.

The different time periods work well and complements the complexities of each woman’s story. The writing and atmosphere was incredible and created such an eerie tone overall.

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

Thank you to Netgalley for this advance copy. They Drown Our Daughters is a beautifully written gothic story that really pulls you into an incredibly spooky/creepy world. We move seamlessly between past and present and watch generations of mothers and daughters and we really delve into the thematic questions of what it means to be a “good mom”. A slow build that really enhances the unsettling atmosphere, I truly enjoyed this one!

an extremely atmospheric book with characters that seem to lack a distinct voice
the alternating timelines were fine but they got indistinguishable after like the third one because they all sounded the exact same
the lizzie/liza thing was a little confusing as well
when i got to the third act the book dipped for me - not a lot of explanation for what was happening/why those people were on the island/how they got to be so evil
for a character driven novel i just didn’t get enough depth?? but it’s a good quick read

They Drown Our Daughters was an absolute joy to read. With its multiple timelines, lyrical prose, and supernatural twist, this horror novel is well deserving of its comparison to Jennifer McMahon.

The foundation of this story is strong mother daughter relationships and how these mothers will do anything to protect their children. We follow Meredith in the present timeline as she works to solve the mystery behind the multigenerational curse that still haunts her family. Recently divorced from her ex-wife, she returns to the town of Cape Disappointment with her young daughter; an eerie town with an old lighthouse and a dark past. In the past timelines, we follow the perspectives of women from previous generations and learn how the curse affected them as well.

I loved the water horror in this book. There were some scenes, specifically the ones related to sleeping and voices in the wind, that I absolutely loved. The ocean setting made this one of the most eerie and atmospheric horror books I’ve read. Similar to McMahon’s work, the horror in this book is subtle and builds slowly as readers turn the pages.

They Drown Our Daughters is a new favorite ghost story of mine. I can’t wait to recommend this book to fellow horror readers and continue to read this author’s future publications. I’m so impressed that a novel with such complexity, uniquely written horror, and gorgeous writing was as debut. Excited to see what Katrina Monroe does next!

“If you can hear the call of the water, it’s already far too late.”

It was a curse that went awry in the 19th century, a curse that now plagues multiple generations of women as they are called time and time again to Cape Disappointment.

They say the Cape is haunted, they told the girls to get out stay away; but something keeps drawing them in to the coastal town, where one family is never safe.

They Drown our Daughters centres around Judith, her daughter Meredith and granddaughter Alice in a multi-generational saga of atmospheric, gothic/suspense horror. Meredith feels that she must head back to the cape following marital problems; almost immediately odd things start to call to both her and her daughter from the depths of the sea.

Judith is terrified, overbearing and seemingly a little unhinged as she strives to keep the girls out of the water, away from the “mermaid”, and the curse that has plagued her family for over 100 years.

They Drown our Daughters has been my favourite Netgalley arc to date. The atmospheric build-up of this book coupled with a dark oceanic setting worked well to build tension.

Although the plot was fairly simple, the author has done an excellent job of layering the stories across multiple generations of this one family to build knowledge, characters and heartrates as we work up to the climax.

The pacing is deliberately slow, allowing the reader time to sit in the setting, to feel the fear of the ocean build across generations yet not be able to stop the desire, the need to feel the water. To heed the call of the woman waiting below its depths; ready to feed the curse yet again.

3.5 Rounded up to 4

This is a gothic ghost story, not really a horror. A multi-generational curse has affected the mothers and daughters of woman named Regina. These women are drawn to watery deaths off Cape Disappointment (great name!) In the present day, a woman named Meredith returns to the Cape with her daughter, much to the alarm of her own mother. The story is told from the POV of multiple women in the familial line, and bounces around different time frames. It is eerie and unsettling.

"A little hope was a scary thing."

Part modern gothic, part ghost story, They Drown Our Daughters explores the depths of motherhood, identity, and the lengths a woman will go to hold on to both.

First of all, that cover! It's gorgeous. They Drown Our Daughters captivated me from the very beginning. As someone who grew up loving the ocean, the setting of Cape Disappointment with its lighthouse, Thalias, and mermaid-ghost lore truly moved me. I saw myself back in the sea, diving under the waves so I wouldn't be swept off my feet.

At first, I questioned the multiple timelines and POVs. Still, by the story's end, I appreciated the choice to show the intergenerational trauma of this line of women by giving them all a voice on the page. After all, this is a story about motherhood's (sometimes) crippling pressure. Bonus points for the book's queer representation.

There is much to love about this horror story: its curses, ghosts, haunting imagery, dreams, and the touches of magic! I dig it! I can't wait to see what Monroe does next…

Comparisons: Jennifer McMahon's The Drowning Kind x Andrés Muschietti's Mama (with a dash of Silvia Moreno-Garcia sprinkled on top).

Katrina Monroe’s debut, “They Drown our Daughters” is a powerful gothic horror about a multigenerational curse haunting a line of women from Cape Disappointment. Character driven and steeped in symbolism, the book is a study of what it means to be a “good” mother.

Bouncing between past and present, Monroe tells the character driven story using multiple points of view from all the mothers from Regina’s lineage. I liked this because we get to see all the different women’s viewpoints but also see them in their role as both daughter and mother. The overlap in characters and number of characters in the lineage did get a little confusing and I had to write it out to properly follow and know where each woman was in the line and how each was related. As a mother of daughters myself, this was heart-wrenching to read. Each mother set out to do her best in her own way to protect and love her daughter even at the cost of the relationship between the two—or her life. Monroe was definitely making a point about the pressures of motherhood and the crippling expectations mothers put on themselves.

This was a true gothic horror and loaded with some of the best gothic elements—ghosts, a haunted cape and lighthouse, dreams and a touch of magic. I loved the use of nature through the symbolism of the Thalias, ocean and the seashell. This was a haunting, atmospheric read and not only terrifying in the unbreakable cycle that kept happening to the women but also in the creepy wraith haunting the ocean and vile characters out to destroy Meredith. This is a slow build horror true to gothic writing. It’s worth the time invested as we get a shocking climax that leads to a heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive ending.

this was an incredible haunting book. it combined history with magic and myths. It had time jumps which are one of my favourite things to read about. Would highly recommend this if you’re into anything creepy, magical and witchy.