I absolutely adored Lando’s debut, The Whispering, and was keen to read her follow up, The Drowning Girls. But perhaps a little Second Book Syndrome has crept in.

The Drowning Girls has a fabulous premise. A small coastal town offers up a sacrifice in the form of a ‘drowning girl’ statue each year to keep the fishing gods happy. One year, however, instead of the statue, a young girl is actually drowned and another goes missing, also presumed drowned. Despite putting on appearances for the tourists who flock to the town each year for the festival to celebrate the sacrifice, the locals are still affected by the girls’ deaths some 25 years later and, when Nate, our leading man, arrives in town he also starts to become affected and begins investigating.

I wanted to love the setting. The north Queensland fishing town somewhere in the vicinity of Karumba, I would assume, sounded like it should have been right up my alley. However, I just found it all too odd that kids were playing in amongst the mangroves, often knee deep in the water, and yet no one was ever mentioning crocodiles or stingers. I also had trouble with understanding the size of the town in general. So small only one teacher was employed and yet large enough for a ferris wheel?

I actually think that Lando was so intent on creating an atmospheric setting that she forgot to focus on presenting a plot. None of the characters made me really care about them and, not to be all PC and everything, they were all very white for a place where, surely, there would be a local Indigenous population.

Another thing I really struggled with was the whole teaching storyline of Nate’s. I work for the Department of Education and nothing about Nate’s teaching placement is realistic, from Lando’s incorrect terminology to the ridiculous idea Nate would not be provided with suitable housing in a remote location.

The one redeeming factor for me was the climax and how well Lando wrote the action scenes from then until the end. There was a bit of a twist and I lamented that, again, I wasn’t more invested in the characters and their outcome.

I will still be keen for more from Lando but this one was only a 3 out of 5 for me.

I absolutely loved Veronica Landos first book and the synopsis for this book sounding intriguing but unfortunately this one didn’t hit the same mark. I felt it was a bit over the place with the past and present confusing me.

Veronica Lando wrote such an atmospheric book with her first book The Whispering and once again she pulled it off with The Drowning Girls.

While this book didn’t work for me I look forward to reading more from this author.

The Drowning Girls by Veronica Lando was equally great quality as Veronica’s debut novel The Whispering.

In this book The Drowning Girls it features a town that sacrifices girls in order to keep the business afloat, plentiful fish in the ocean and I think it’s safe to say with “Lando's signature style” it makes you question yourself is there something out there or is it all just legend. 🤨

I’m on the fence about the characters in this book, I didn’t love them but I didn’t hate them either. I think because the book was more based on setting and storyline we weren’t given fleshed out characters which I didn’t mind I just would have loved a bit more depth as to who the characters were.

Much like the mangrove roots described in this story (twisting and turning), Lando gives little snippets of reveals and yet it keeps you second guessing as the story progresses. Which I did love because the story kept going and that ending had me thinking.

Overall a fantastic read, and if you loved The Whispering be sure to check out this book too.

Thank you Veronica Lando, Netgalley and HarperCollinsAus for the digital copy of The Drowning Girls for reviewing purposes.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this to review!

3.5 stars

The Drowning Girls follows the story of Nate Bass, a teacher who recently moved to the small fictional town of Port Flinders in Queensland, Australia. This town should have fallen off the map a long time ago but is saved by one thing, their annual Drowning Girl festival where they offer up a statue of a woman to the ocean each year in the hope of having a better fishing season for the following year.

However, this year is different. When the body of a young woman is pulled out of the water during the festival, the small community is shocked, especially when this woman is someone who allegedly drowned 25 years ago. Nate is determined to find out what really happened to this woman all these years ago and discovers that something more sinister might be afoot.

This slow-burn thriller kept me hooked right up until the very last chapter and kept me guessing the whole way. The multiple POVs flowed so well together to give a nice twist that links everything back to this mysterious festival. The characters had great depth and were well-developed, I felt such a connection to Irena. This one was so atmospheric and immersive, I really felt like I was right there in a little rundown Aussie town.

I did have a few errs with this one which is why I haven't rated it higher. There were points where I felt disconnected from the story where it was too slow and didn't really feel like it added anything to the plot. At other points, I felt like the story was repeating itself and just not going anywhere. I felt this was most apparent in Tack's story and how this related to everything else that was happening.

That all being said, the ending had me so shocked! I was on the edge of my seat and could not put it down! I highly enjoyed this one and would recommend it to Jane Harper fans or just fans of thrillers in general. Off to read The Whispering now.

A creepy and atmospheric thriller set in northern Australia. A compelling and hard to put down read.

Claustrophobic, atmospheric and utterly addictive. The characters are suspicious and the atmosphere is electric. I felt like I had spiders crawling on me and I was drowning in them.

The Drowning Girls by Veronica Lando is a gripping and atmospheric mystery that had me captivated from start to finish. Following her impressive debut novel, The Whispering, Veronica’s latest book has delivered another enthralling story.

Set in a remote fishing town in far North Queensland, the annual Drowning Girl Festival serves as the lifeblood of the community, attracting tourists and ensuring their livelihood. The festival's dark tradition involves sacrificing a girl, usually a statue, at sea to guarantee a bountiful fishing season. However, when Nate, a disgraced teacher, arrives in town and a real woman's body is discovered, he unravels a web of secrets surrounding mysterious deaths and drownings during the festival over the last 25 years.

One of the highlights of this novel is the vivid and evocative descriptions of the mangrove-lined backwater town. Veronica’s prose skillfully transports the reader to this atmospheric setting, making it come alive in their imagination. The characters are exceptionally well-developed and authentic, adding depth and realism to the story. I found myself emotionally invested in their journeys and eagerly turning the pages to uncover their secrets.

The plot itself is intricately layered, with surprising twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. The authors ability to seamlessly weave together various elements of the narrative is commendable, resulting in a cohesive and satisfying reading experience.

Overall, I highly recommend The Drowning Girls to fans of atmospheric mysteries and gothic tales. Veronica Lando's talent for crafting compelling stories shines through in this book. With its beautifully intertwined elements, engaging characters, and surprising plot twists, this novel is a must-read for anyone seeking a thrilling and immersive reading experience.

The setting, a small coastal town in Far North Queensland, was superbly depicted! You could feel searing the heat and the humidity along with the pain of midges bites. The range of characters was so Queensland Aussie and the atmosphere reeked of alcohol and sleaziness.

However, The Drowning Girls as a story didn’t really grab me. The moving from past to present at times was confusing and it took me quite a while to work out who was who and what was going on. I guess that may have been the writer’s intention but I’m not sure how well it worked.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from HarperCollins Australia via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TheDrowningGirls #NetGalley #HarperCollinsAu

Set in the small coastal (fictional) town of Port Flinders in Far North Queensland, The Drowning Girls provides us with a strange tradition, a community utterly invested in its success and a mysterious death.

We pick up the story as Nate Bass, a teacher who has been assigned the job of taking up a teaching job in the tiny community, hits town. The town is known for its Drowning Girl tradition of offering the statue of a woman up to the ocean each year, setting her afloat and then tossing stones on her body until she sinks. The legend is that the offering will result in a bumper fishing season in the coming months.

During a night of celebration the body of a real woman is discovered in the water. She’s pulled out but can’t be revived. It becomes apparent the dead woman was thought to have drowned in the same waters 25 years earlier.

It’s at this point that the story very much becomes a slow-burn mystery as we begin to switch back and forth between the present and the events of 25 years earlier. Through this process it begins to become apparent that we’re uncovering facts about, not one but two deaths, each somehow connected to this unusual drowning girl tradition.

From the sprawling ensemble of characters to the sense that the town is slowly in decay, there is an eeriness about the town of Port Flinders. It’s atmospheric to the point of gothic with a sort of brooding darkness surrounding the place, quite a chilling feeling, actually.

There are some similarities between this story and Lando’s first novel, The Whispering. Both are set in small North Queensland towns, both involve someone returning to a small town after being away for years, both returning men are haunted by events that took place in the town in their pasts and both feverishly try to solve a murder. And both are intricately plotted mysteries that uncover secrets that are assiduously held and jaw-dropping in their revelation.

I did have a couple of problems with The Drowning Girl and the first was the clumsy way in which the unreliable narrator device was used. I felt it was done in such a way that we were essentially being lied to through the first third of the book. My other problem was with the pacing of the story. At times I found myself disengaging with the story as the narrative drifted along to no conceivable goal.

Fortunately, a nice save is executed with an ending that left me somewhat gobsmacked with surprise. The ethereal image of the dark haired woman in the white shift drifting in the dark waters of Port Flinders will stay with me for some time.

My thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC to read, enjoy and review The Drowning Girls.

<i>The Drowning Girls</i> by Veronica Lando is reminiscent of her first novel, <i>The Whispering</i> as it offers up vivid imagery and again Lando manages to place readers in the north of my state of Queensland. And I was very much reminded of a trip I had earlier this year to Weipa (further north than the setting of this book), where we were welcomed to the ‘west coast of Queensland’. It was surreal to most as we tend to forget that my states’s entire west isn’t landlocked and there’s a whole coastline in the tropics – offering a dichotomous view of red dirt reminiscent of outback Australia against palm trees and blue sea.

Like <i>The Whispering</i>, <i>The Drowning Girls</i> is based on a local myth and again I was slightly fearful we'd dip into the supernatural as it's not a genre I read. However, though some of our characters are convinced by the folklore (ie. sacrifices bring wealth to the community), Lando keeps our feet in this realm. Of course the town isn't without its tragedies and we learn about the deaths of a child and teenaged girl over two decades before Nate arrives to teach at the school. 

We move about in time a little and I initially struggled with the introduction of multiple characters. However Lando's intent becomes obvious, as you move through the book with some surprises on offer when you least expect them. Lando offers us complex characters and it's hard to get a read on some as - as in real life I guess - they're not good OR bad - there's shades of grey and though we're offered a villain (or two), I finished this feeling that some of our players received fates they didn't entirely deserve. And others... did not.

That said, Lando's writing is beautiful particularly as the story nears its end and there's a poignance to her prose. Long descriptive sentences balanced with short sharp phrasing. I got a little lost at the very end, but think that was because I too was swept away by what was real and what was not.

"The word sacrifice scratches in my ears, like fingernails on a chalkboard. I try not to look out the small window next to me. It's smudged and a thin layer of crusty salt has built up on the outside. I look anyway. Across the water, the long jetty stretches out into the ocean. It's empty." p 317

The second crime novel by Aussie author Veronica Lando, The Drowning Girls is a mystery surrounding a drowning death. The town of Port Flinders on the Gulf of Carpentaria holds a yearly festival, celebrating a sacrifice of a girl to the sea in order to ensure a plentiful fish bounty. Nate returns to the small coastal town to teach having been sent there due to the trouble he caused at his last school. Nate holidayed in Port Flinders when he was a child and is well aware of the girl who disappeared in the sea all those years ago. On the night of the festival, a woman’s body is found dead in the sea near the pier, but it’s considered an accident. As Nate settles into town, he finds the coincidence between the two drownings odd and decides to investigate. A slow burn of an intricate mystery unfolds, with building tension and many secrets to be revealed. Once again with the atmospherics of Tropical North Queensland and small-town darkness, comes a most enjoyable Aussie noir with a four stars read rating. With thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own and freely given.

I struggled to get into this book. I didn’t warm to any of the characters and while the plot was intriguing, it just didn’t pull me in. I really wanted to love this title but sadly that didn’t happen.

A story set in Far North Queensland, a suspenseful mystery thriller, a drowning girl festival. A strange occurrence and a strange book. This is a book of many twists and turns but to me it just didn't gel and I couldn't really get into it.

I really did want to like it but alas it wasn't a book for me. But having said that it is definitely a thriller and I can see that some people will really enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I devoured this book! Suspenseful from the very start, this foreboding and tangled mystery
was beautifully and cleverly written.

Set in a small Australian town in Far North Queensland, The Drowning Girls had that
quintessential Australian feel, but at the same time I feel like it was in its own lane compared
to a lot of other Australian thriller/mystery books, which I loved and found refreshing.

One of the main things that stood out for me was how this book was laced with mysteries
and reveals, which slowly untangled throughout. Unlike many thriller/mysteries which often
leave a big twist or crescendo to the last few pages, the Drowning Girls was a mufti-layered
mystery. The way in which Lando was able to reveal twists, and keep them coming, was
refreshing and meant it was truly a page-turner to the very end.

Highly recommend this book!