The Drowning Kind
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF 2021
“A haunting exploration of grief and a tale that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.” —Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author
A woman returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming ​pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.
Be careful what you wish for.
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 modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us, The Drowning Kind “is satisfying on every level: Marvelously chilling, elegantly written, a true page-turner” (Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author).
“A haunting exploration of grief and a tale that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.” —Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author
A woman returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming ​pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.
Be careful what you wish for.
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 modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us, The Drowning Kind “is satisfying on every level: Marvelously chilling, elegantly written, a true page-turner” (Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author).
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Community Reviews
Do yourself a favor and go into this book blind. This
was my second novel by Jennifer McMahon and I was
NOT disappointed. Her writing is perfection. Creepy
and thrilling. Character development is fantastic. My
heart was racing at several points during this book. It
kept me guessing the whole time and I never expected
the twist at the end.
was my second novel by Jennifer McMahon and I was
NOT disappointed. Her writing is perfection. Creepy
and thrilling. Character development is fantastic. My
heart was racing at several points during this book. It
kept me guessing the whole time and I never expected
the twist at the end.
Jennifer McMahon has been dubbed "the literary descendent of Shirley Jackson" by author Chris Bohjalian. Her latest book, The Drowning Kind, is an absorbing ghost story about sisters who are compulsively drawn to a unique pool . . . in which several before them have died.
The water in the pool is a character in its own right and the centerpiece of the tale. Measuring twenty by forty-five feet, the pool is surrounded by granite. It is spring fed with no pump, and an outlet at one end that drains into a stone-lined canal snaking across the yard to a brook below, and then on to a nearby river. The icy cold water is black and emits an odor akin to a combination of rot and sulphur, tasting like burnt matches and rust. The pool is situated on the grounds of Sparrow Crest, the estate in the tiny village of Brandenburg, Vermont, that once belonged to the grandparents of Jax and her older sister, Lexie. The girls spent summers with Gram when they were growing up, swimming in the pool but unable to find its bottom. Lexie insisted that Rita, Gram's younger sister who drowned in the pool when she was just seven years old, was waiting for them down in the water. Indeed, Gran said she felt close to her deceased sister when swimming in the pool. The girls loved playing The Dead Game, floating facedown together to see who could hold her breath the longest, but never in front of Gram, who, according to Lexie suffered from agoraphobia. She grew up at Sparrow Crest, was married there, and raised three daughters on the property that she never left. She did not drive, and had groceries and household goods delivered, but she swam in the pool regularly, even chopping through ice in the winter to do so.
But as the story opens, the house belongs to Lexie. She inherited it from their grandmother, a point of contention between the sisters. Jax is a social worker living in Seattle. She has avoided the increasingly manic messages she has received from Lexie, confident that she is off her medication again. The two had barely spoken in the year since Gram's death. Angry and bitter because Gram bequeathed Sparrow Crest and most of her savings to Lexie, as well as money to Gram's sister, Diane, Jax related in a first-person narrative that she received an old coin collection and some first-edition books, even though she was the one struggling to pay off her student loans and living in a tiny apartment across the country. Jax came to rely upon Diane to keep her apprised of Lexie's condition.
It is Diane who notifies Jax that when she went to Sparrow Crest to check on Lexie, at Jax's urging, she found Lexie's body in the swimming pool. And it is clear that, unlike just two weeks earlier when Diane observed that Lexie seemed to be doing well, judging by the state of the house, something was very wrong. Jax rushes home, leaving a colleague, Barbara, in charge of her clients, including nine-year-old Declan, a troubled boy who has just gotten situated in a school that seems to be a good fit.
Another first-person narrative is from Ethel O'Shay Monroe, the wife of Will, the local doctor. It is 1929 and Ethel desperately wants a child. She was thirty-six -- "an old maid" -- and Will was thirty-nine when they married the previous year. She watches Will interacting with the local children and sees what a wonderful father he would be, but every month brings disappointment. She has taken to employing various mystical ploys to get pregnant, including carrying a sparrow egg tucked against her breast. Ethel keeps a lot of secrets, including the fact that she self-harms when anxious or stressed.
The spring water that flows into the pool is believed by many to hold magical healing properties. So some people drink it, despite its horrible taste, and others believe that swimming in the pool will help them. Will takes Ethel away on a holiday to the newly-opened Brandenburg Springs Hotel and Resort for a romantic weekend. On the way, they stop at a small store where the proprietor is selling bottles of the spring water for five cents each, claiming it "has a funny taste, but it brings good luck and good health." But his wife warns, "Those springs are a dark place. You'd do best to keep away from them." At the hotel, Ethel and Will swim in the springs, and Ethel is befriended by the owner's wife, Eliza. She too talks about the water's healing power, adding that there's "more to it than that." She tells Ethel that the water "can grant wishes" and Ethel hopes that's true -- that the water will grant her wish for a child. Many of the locals believe, however, that the springs are cursed: "If you came to the water looking for a miracle, you had to be prepared to pay a price."
Jax searches for clues as to how Lexie -- a strong swimmer -- could possibly have drowned. And examines the notebooks filled with Lexie's research into Sparrow Crest's history. Her entries descend from coherent curiosity into disjointed ramblings and then trail off. What secret did she discover? And could her death have been a suicide?
McMahon's alternating narratives eventually provide the answers Jax seeks, coming together to form an atmospheric, dark tale of longing, disappointment, regret, and despair spanning generations. McMahon injects creepy, unexplainable developments involving the magical, mysterious water that flows through and complicates her characters' lives.
Her portrayal of the relationship between Jax and Lexie is moving and poignant, with Jax relating the ways in which the two girls interacted as they were growing up and the point at which it became clear that Lexie needed help. Her anger at Lexie for always being, from Jax's perspective, more popular and favored by family and friends, is raw, palpable, and believable, as is her grief over losing her sister. McMahon compassionately portrays Jax's journey from being disconnected from her family emotionally and geographically to understanding Lexie's struggles and discoveries. Ironically, Jax shut Lexie out, building strong boundaries around herself, because she could not deal with the mental illness that led Lexie into wild, manic states. Jax's own therapist pointed out, "You've never gotten over the fact that you couldn't fix your sister when she got sick. You couldn't save her, so you're trying to save all these other kids." But the bonds of sisterhood are far-reaching and unbreakable, as McMahon illustrates, with Jax's guilt propelling her to uncover the secrets that Lexie learned as the story races to a shocking and disturbing conclusion that will undoubtedly infuriate some readers.
McMahon weaves legend and myth, truth and reality into a chilling and intriguing confection that moves at an even pace, complete with glimpses of ghosts in the pool, phone calls with either no one on the other end or a quiet voice that sounds like it's coming from far away, and wet footprints -- of the dead? -- leading from the open front door up the stairs. Despite the supernatural elements, at it's core, The Drowning Kind deals with family ties, how we deal with the things our ancestors have passed down to us, and if we are constrained and limited by our family history. And, as Jax puts it, whether a person can be too heartbroken to walk away from it all.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
The water in the pool is a character in its own right and the centerpiece of the tale. Measuring twenty by forty-five feet, the pool is surrounded by granite. It is spring fed with no pump, and an outlet at one end that drains into a stone-lined canal snaking across the yard to a brook below, and then on to a nearby river. The icy cold water is black and emits an odor akin to a combination of rot and sulphur, tasting like burnt matches and rust. The pool is situated on the grounds of Sparrow Crest, the estate in the tiny village of Brandenburg, Vermont, that once belonged to the grandparents of Jax and her older sister, Lexie. The girls spent summers with Gram when they were growing up, swimming in the pool but unable to find its bottom. Lexie insisted that Rita, Gram's younger sister who drowned in the pool when she was just seven years old, was waiting for them down in the water. Indeed, Gran said she felt close to her deceased sister when swimming in the pool. The girls loved playing The Dead Game, floating facedown together to see who could hold her breath the longest, but never in front of Gram, who, according to Lexie suffered from agoraphobia. She grew up at Sparrow Crest, was married there, and raised three daughters on the property that she never left. She did not drive, and had groceries and household goods delivered, but she swam in the pool regularly, even chopping through ice in the winter to do so.
But as the story opens, the house belongs to Lexie. She inherited it from their grandmother, a point of contention between the sisters. Jax is a social worker living in Seattle. She has avoided the increasingly manic messages she has received from Lexie, confident that she is off her medication again. The two had barely spoken in the year since Gram's death. Angry and bitter because Gram bequeathed Sparrow Crest and most of her savings to Lexie, as well as money to Gram's sister, Diane, Jax related in a first-person narrative that she received an old coin collection and some first-edition books, even though she was the one struggling to pay off her student loans and living in a tiny apartment across the country. Jax came to rely upon Diane to keep her apprised of Lexie's condition.
It is Diane who notifies Jax that when she went to Sparrow Crest to check on Lexie, at Jax's urging, she found Lexie's body in the swimming pool. And it is clear that, unlike just two weeks earlier when Diane observed that Lexie seemed to be doing well, judging by the state of the house, something was very wrong. Jax rushes home, leaving a colleague, Barbara, in charge of her clients, including nine-year-old Declan, a troubled boy who has just gotten situated in a school that seems to be a good fit.
Another first-person narrative is from Ethel O'Shay Monroe, the wife of Will, the local doctor. It is 1929 and Ethel desperately wants a child. She was thirty-six -- "an old maid" -- and Will was thirty-nine when they married the previous year. She watches Will interacting with the local children and sees what a wonderful father he would be, but every month brings disappointment. She has taken to employing various mystical ploys to get pregnant, including carrying a sparrow egg tucked against her breast. Ethel keeps a lot of secrets, including the fact that she self-harms when anxious or stressed.
The spring water that flows into the pool is believed by many to hold magical healing properties. So some people drink it, despite its horrible taste, and others believe that swimming in the pool will help them. Will takes Ethel away on a holiday to the newly-opened Brandenburg Springs Hotel and Resort for a romantic weekend. On the way, they stop at a small store where the proprietor is selling bottles of the spring water for five cents each, claiming it "has a funny taste, but it brings good luck and good health." But his wife warns, "Those springs are a dark place. You'd do best to keep away from them." At the hotel, Ethel and Will swim in the springs, and Ethel is befriended by the owner's wife, Eliza. She too talks about the water's healing power, adding that there's "more to it than that." She tells Ethel that the water "can grant wishes" and Ethel hopes that's true -- that the water will grant her wish for a child. Many of the locals believe, however, that the springs are cursed: "If you came to the water looking for a miracle, you had to be prepared to pay a price."
Jax searches for clues as to how Lexie -- a strong swimmer -- could possibly have drowned. And examines the notebooks filled with Lexie's research into Sparrow Crest's history. Her entries descend from coherent curiosity into disjointed ramblings and then trail off. What secret did she discover? And could her death have been a suicide?
McMahon's alternating narratives eventually provide the answers Jax seeks, coming together to form an atmospheric, dark tale of longing, disappointment, regret, and despair spanning generations. McMahon injects creepy, unexplainable developments involving the magical, mysterious water that flows through and complicates her characters' lives.
Her portrayal of the relationship between Jax and Lexie is moving and poignant, with Jax relating the ways in which the two girls interacted as they were growing up and the point at which it became clear that Lexie needed help. Her anger at Lexie for always being, from Jax's perspective, more popular and favored by family and friends, is raw, palpable, and believable, as is her grief over losing her sister. McMahon compassionately portrays Jax's journey from being disconnected from her family emotionally and geographically to understanding Lexie's struggles and discoveries. Ironically, Jax shut Lexie out, building strong boundaries around herself, because she could not deal with the mental illness that led Lexie into wild, manic states. Jax's own therapist pointed out, "You've never gotten over the fact that you couldn't fix your sister when she got sick. You couldn't save her, so you're trying to save all these other kids." But the bonds of sisterhood are far-reaching and unbreakable, as McMahon illustrates, with Jax's guilt propelling her to uncover the secrets that Lexie learned as the story races to a shocking and disturbing conclusion that will undoubtedly infuriate some readers.
McMahon weaves legend and myth, truth and reality into a chilling and intriguing confection that moves at an even pace, complete with glimpses of ghosts in the pool, phone calls with either no one on the other end or a quiet voice that sounds like it's coming from far away, and wet footprints -- of the dead? -- leading from the open front door up the stairs. Despite the supernatural elements, at it's core, The Drowning Kind deals with family ties, how we deal with the things our ancestors have passed down to us, and if we are constrained and limited by our family history. And, as Jax puts it, whether a person can be too heartbroken to walk away from it all.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
This book was published on my birthday, which I find really cool.
As someone who loves swimming and being in the water, I was instantly drawn to this book and the characters. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole story. I thought some areas dragged on just a little, but overall it kept my interest. I love Lex & Jax and honestly I don’t really believe there’s a character I didn’t like in this one. I enjoyed the different timelines & character backgrounds, but my favorite part was the ending. SO GOOD.
As someone who loves swimming and being in the water, I was instantly drawn to this book and the characters. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the whole story. I thought some areas dragged on just a little, but overall it kept my interest. I love Lex & Jax and honestly I don’t really believe there’s a character I didn’t like in this one. I enjoyed the different timelines & character backgrounds, but my favorite part was the ending. SO GOOD.
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