Following the success of The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins is back with a brand new thriller filled with secrets. But what have critics been saying?
The Guardian: “Into the Water isn’t as slick or as clever – or as relatable – as The Girl on the Train, but it’s creepy enough, provided you can stay on top of the multiple voices and the deaths piling up through the centuries.”
The Independent: *** “A good beach read, yes, but one that you may have forgotten by the time you’ve come back from your next dip in the sea.”
The National: “There is, of course, pleasure to be had in theorising who is responsible, but Into the Water struggles to ring true.”
SMH.com: “Into the Water is not just “dark”, it’s as “noir” as they come. It’s also a book that begs the question, if everybody screws life up, why is it the women who must pay the ultimate price? Prepare to be perturbed – again.”
Evening Standard: “Hawkins’s device of using her characters’ false memories to keep twisting the direction of the plot does overstretch credibility. Will her legion of fans be disappointed ? Maybe. But then again, maybe not.”
The Star: “Into the Water is well-written, well-structured and well-crafted. It delivers, too, on dark mood, twisted emotion — and the Hitchcock-levels of paranoia and dread that once caused Stephen King to tweet that The Girl on the Train had kept him up most of the night.”
The Irish Times: “the sheer number and diversity of narrative voices tend to undermine suspense and mitigate revelations when they come.”
Star Tribune: “the novel also flows with an instinctual understanding of relationships, young love, devoted friendships and dedication to duty, familial faults and small-town paranoia. Every character is believable. The actions seem right and real, even when you don’t see them coming.”
The New York Times: “Into the Water is jam-packed with minor characters and stories that go nowhere.”
The Times: “It is virtually impossible to treat Into the Water as if it were just another novel. The shadow of The Girl on the Train cannot be avoided.”
The Financial Times: “Into the Water remains largely arresting as layer after layer is peeled back to reveal the truth about the deaths in the river.”
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins is available to buy through Amazon now.