Paula Hawkins – Into the Water [REVIEW]

Title: Into the Water

Author: Paula Hawkins

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 360

Rating: 3/5

Well, I had mixed feelings about this one, although at least I was more favourably disposed towards it than I was to The Girl on the Train, which is the book that established her reputation as a thriller writer to watch.

This one basically revolves around a suspicious death that took place in a deep pool of water in an English village. The pool is almost a character of its own, as is the village, and both the pool and the village also have rich histories that are slowly revealed as the story progresses.

My big problem is that there are too many characters with too many different points of view, and we keep jumping from one to another. I wouldn’t mind if there were two or three, but it gets to the point where it’s feeling like a Game of Thrones novel, or like Game of Thrones would read if there were POV chapters from minor characters like servants and groundskeepers.

As if the sheer number of points of view wasn’t already a problem, they also feel pretty samey. When we go from one character to another, you can tell that the same writer created their narratives because they don’t feel different. It’s almost as though all of the characters think in the same way. They’re all the same character.

But that’s the thing, because they’re not. The way that they actually act is the true test of what a character is like, and everyone has their own agency and even their own ways of talking. That’s what’s so weird about all of the different points of view.

If you took out the POVs, this would be a pretty good book, with most of the value and intrigue coming from the pool and the way that it lurks in the background throughout the novel like a ghost that you can’t get rid of. It’s the pool that could elevate this from being just another thriller, but it’s fighting a losing battle against all of the other stuff.

Learn more about Into the Water.


G. K. Chesterton – Collected Nonsense and Light Verse [REVIEW]

Title: Collected Nonsense and Light Verse

Author: G. K. Chesterton

Type: Poetry

Page Count/Review Word Count: 192

Rating: 3.5/5

I picked this book up for free at the Global Education Trust “GET Free Books” pop-up store in High Wycombe, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know too much about Chesterton beforehand, other than that he’s the author of the Father Brown books, but I thought it was about time to get to know his work.

I love me some nonsense poetry and Chesterton was great at it, and I also enjoyed his Clerihews, to the point at which I’ve been thinking about writing a collection of my own based on contemporary celebrities. For example: Taylor Swift / Works another shift. / She’s still not sure / About the Eras tour.

This has some of Chesterton’s illustrations thrown in as well, alongside a few notes here and there to provide some additional context. Considering that half of the thing is essentially meaningless, I found myself whizzing through it and enjoying every page. Definitely one for fans of playful poetry.

Learn more about Collected Nonsense and Light Verse.