Would you believe in witches or town murderers....?

First off let me start by saying I have yet to read her other novel Girl on a Train like everyone else. So I have nothing to compare her other writing style to this one. I absolutely enjoyed this novel, the perspective was from multiple characters and from the past and present timeline for each chapter. I've seen multiple people complain about this writing style, but I personally enjoyed it. It helped keep me on my toes remembering who is who, what character is doing what, and at that certain time and place. I think this novel lives up to being a psychological thriller; because you're not sure who the killer is or if there really is a killer as well as if the town rumors are true and the witches are in charge of the deaths.

Spoilers Ahead

Okay lets get the characters and their families situated so we all understand what's going on because that can be a little confusing, especially if you have yet to read this incredible book.

First, there are the women who died in the Drowning Pool. Here they are in chronological order by time: Libby Seeton (murdered in the Drowning Pool a long time ago for being a witch), Lauren Townsend (married mother who died in the Drowning Pool roughly 20-30 years ago), Katie Whittaker (15 year old who died in the Drowning Pool recently), Danielle (Nel) Abbott (single mom who died in the Drowning Pool at the beginning of the book).

Here's their families: Patrick Townsend (husband of Lauren Townsend), Sean Townsend (son of Lauren and Patrick Townsend, also the town detective), Helen Townsend (daughter-in-law of Lauren Townsend, married to Sean, has a strange relationship with the father-in-law, also the town school principal), Alec Whittaker (father of Katie Townsend not really an important character), Louise Whittaker (mother of Katie Townsend), Josh Whittaker (12 year old brother of Katie Townsend), Julia (Jules) Abbott (sister of Danielle (Nel) Abbott, aunt to Lena), Lena Abbott (15 year old daughter of Daniele (Nel) Abbott, was best friends with Katie Whittaker).

Here are the other main characters Erin Morgan (the new-in-town detective, works with Sean Townsend), Mark Henderson (town school teacher, works for Helen Townsend), Nickie Sage (town psychic), Jeannie Sage (Nickie Sage's sister, ex town detective), Robbie Cannon (Danielle (Nel) Abbott's high school boyfriend) aka the jerk as I like to call him.

Now that we've gotten all the characters out of the way lets move on to the review.

The book starts off with an expert of Libby a 14 year old girl who the town drowned in the pool in 1679 for being a witch, and for seducing a married man. She is explaining how she can't wait to be in the cool water to be cleaned she's been in the jail for weeks now and is completely filthy, she feels that no one will find her beautiful anymore. The sad part about Libby is that she believed the married man she "seduced" had loved her and as she is being taken to her death she is looking all over for him.

Nel was obsessed with the town history and the deaths she wanted to figure out if the witch drew the women to the water or if they were being murdered by the towns hidden secrets. Nels research had brought her to the conclusion that "Beckford is not a suicide spot. Beckford is a place to get rid of troublesome women" (pg 89). Since the police force was looking into her death the thought this piece of research was particularly interesting. Lena didn't believe that her mother was murdered she believed that her mother had committed suicide. Which was incredibly difficult for Jules to believe because one Nel was an amazing swimmer and always jumped off that cliff to take a swim, and two she didn't seem unhappy or depressed. The police believed that this wasn't a suicide as well they had probable cause to believe that someone had wanted Nel dead; especially with all the research she was doing on the town drownings, she had upset a lot of people especially Louise (Katie's mom). Louise was upset for two reasons Katie was Lena's best friend and the death was still so fresh, she didn't want Katie to be another statistic in Nels research.

The book changes directions multiple times I believed at different times throughout, that each one of these characters was the killer except for Jules since she didn't live in the town as the murders were happening. Jules and Nel didn't have a great relationship and as kids Nel was constantly bullying Jules. Nel was the beautiful, skinny, popular, great swimmer sister and Jules was the fat, shy, quiet sister. Of course everyone took to Nel more than Jules but Nel would let other kids bully her sister. They had a big miscommunication early on as kids; that caused Jules to never answer Nel's phone calls and believe that Nel never loved her. Nel's boyfriend Robbie raped Jules when she was 13, when he finished he told her that he did her a huge favor and she went down to the drowning pool to put herself out of her misery. Nel rescued her from drowning and told her how stupid she was to do that she took her home and gave her a bath. While Nel is helping bathe Jules since she is in shock she says didn't you enjoy the way it felt, we can never tell anyone about this ever again okay this is between you and I. Well as the book continues later on Jules finds out Nel was talking about how the water felt and to never talk about the drowning incident she had no idea that Robbie had ever raped her. Once she found this out she removed all the hate she had for her sister and was immediately sad that she never answered her phone calls Jules Loved her.

The biggest plot twist for me was the end of the book Patrick Townsend domestically abused his wife almost to the point of death took her and Sean up to the drowning pool and threw her off the cliff. One night Nel and Sean are up on the cliff and she is trying to get him to relive his mothers death. Frustrated he keeps refusing telling her no and she keeps pushing him so he shoves her off the cliff. His trauma from his mothers death is what kept him from not only not remembering his mothers death but also murdering Nel.

Every relationship in this book is dysfunctional and has some sort of secret attached to itself. There are multiple crazy plot twists in this novel, that I hope if you haven't read this book you will get the chance to enjoy as I did.

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this book if you've read it or are adding it to your TBR. Lets start a CONVO!!

Thank you so much for reading my blog review and I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!! Until next week stay reading Selena Torres