Audiobook narrated by:Joy Osmanski and Imani Jade Powers
THE DROWNING KINDis a Mystery/Thriller from Jennifer McMahon that involves a mysterious spring that seems to grant wishes but always collects a price. This story is told from the points of view of two women, one past and one present. In the present, Jax heads to her family home to sort through her sister’s things after her death to find out she drowned in the pool; in the past, Ethel and her husband travel to a hotel with springs rumored to bring healing and relaxation.
Jax’s point of view was interesting. She’s a therapist who is dedicated to her patients, but when it comes to her sister and her sister’s mental health, she finds it draining. It was easy to sympathize with Jax, as she had cut her sister out of her life the year before she died for her own mental health. She obviously feels a lot of guilt at this point. This event also pulls her alcoholic father back into her life, opening a lot of old wounds and making things incredibly tense. As for the pool, it was always a point of contention in their family; even Jax’s parents steered clear of the entire property, and while everyone else thinks Lexie’s drowning was an accident, Jax is starting to have her doubts. Her family history was interesting, and I was suspicious of almost everyone in her life. Add an aunt of Jax’s who drowned in the pool when she was a little girl, and there’s a lot going on here.
But it was Ethel’s point of view that was my favorite. I loved her marriage with her husband, and I felt bad for her as she was watching all of her friends and family start their families without being able to get pregnant herself in a time when that was what women did. And she desperately wanted a family. I had suspicions of the people in her life and what might happen (that didn’t pan out, and I’m thankful for that,) and I just found everything that happened so interesting. There was more of a desperation to Ethel’s life and some of the people surrounding her that was gripping.
I will say that as far as the ending goes, it was predictable, and for me, not satisfying. It was very cliched, and one of the most interesting storylines with a patient of Jax’s was never resolved. That was incredibly disappointing. But it doesn’t change the fact that throughout most of THE DROWNING KIND, it held my attention and made me wonder what could happen next. This taste of Jennifer McMahon’s writing definitely left me wanting more, and I can’t wait to check out her back list.
Narration: I’ve listened to both narrators before and enjoyed them, so when I heard their voices here, I knew they’d do a great job. And they really did. I thought they were cast wonderfully, and each woman embodied the emotion of the character they were portraying. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend either of them if you’re a listener of audiobooks and looking to discover some new narrators.
When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.
In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.
A haunting, twisty, and compulsively readable thrill ride from the author who Chris Bohjalian has dubbed the “literary descendant of Shirley Jackson,” The Drowning Kind is a modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us.
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