Into the Water
The author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon The Girl on the Train returns with Into the Water, her addictive new novel of psychological suspense. “Hawkins is at the forefront of a group of female authors – think Gillian Flynn and Megan Abbott – who have reinvigorated the literary suspense novel by tapping a rich vein of psychological menace and social unease… there’s a certain solace to a dark escape, in the promise of submerged truths coming to light.” –Vogue A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return. With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present. Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath.
In some ways it's like a modern telling of The Scarlet Letter. Once again women are all powerful to the point we can 'force' men to commit violent, evil acts against their will just with what our bodies have to offer. Women have been burned at the stake for witchcraft because a man couldn't be held responsible for his cheating ways - it was all her fault from the spells she cast. Women have been beaten and killed for enticing a man into adultery because he couldn't be held responsible for his lustful actions - it was all her fault for the way she looked.
I've never understood why men and even whole cultures are so quick to adopt this idea that they are weaker than women. After all that's exactly what they're saying - women have all the power to bring men to their knees, force them to do things they would never have done otherwise, they couldn't be held responsible for their actions.
Hawkins takes this centuries old idea, adds a bit of historical context, craftily developed characters, a suspenseful storyline and tossed it between some eye catching art work on the cover to bring you Into the Water. After reading Girl on the Train I went into this with high hopes and she did not disappoint. Once I started reading I remained glue to the pages because I had to know where she was taking this story and even when I thought I had finally gotten everything she threw one more twist at the end.
Two dark, suspenseful thrillers down - does she have more in her?