One night, in the midst of an unprecedented storm Simon’s
grandmother suffers a heart attack. Upon learning about her death, Melissa and
Leo return to the island for the first time in years to support their friend.
Only, when they arrive, Simon has vanished without a trace. Even stranger, just
beyond his childhood home, a massive, mostly-intact house has washed ashore on
the beach. When the local police prove to be unhelpful in the search for their
friend, and when no one on the island seems to even know this mysterious house
exists, Melissa and Leo take matters into their own hands. They perform their
own investigation, attempting to untangle the web of secrets the island seems
to be housing. But as more mysteries and strange occurrences arise with the
pair coming no closer to finding Simon, things begin to take a dark and
disturbing turn. However, one thing becomes very clear: something horrifying
happened on Marrowstone Island, and that mysterious house, as well as Simon’s
grandmother herself, might have been right in the middle of it all.
I went into The Drowning House looking for a horror-mystery
novel. While it is certainly a mystery, I felt the book didn’t quite deliver on
the horror elements that I was hoping for. It does successfully build up a
generally creepy atmosphere but once it really starts getting somewhere with
the mystery plotline, it becomes more of a fantasy story than anything else. A
mystery with a bit of a fantastical twist could still be really interesting to
me, but unfortunately the direction the investigation takes (and especially the
way it is resolved) were very unsatisfying. I also struggled with a lot of the
book’s dialogue. The way most characters in the story speak felt very stilted
and unnatural at times. The strongest aspect of the book was without question
its setting. By the time you get to the third act, the island almost feels like
its own character, or rather a force of nature that itself is trying to prevent
our heroes from completing their mission. Speaking of the characters, our two
leads are strongly written. It is clear early on in the book that they are both
very flawed people that seem to harbor a resentment towards their childhood
home and even each other. I think the way they butt heads as they try to find
their missing friend was handled very well.
The Drowning House presents a compelling mystery with
a strong atmosphere and well written characters. Unfortunately, an unsatisfying
resolution and some fairly weak dialogue prevented me from really getting into
it. Still, I think it is pretty breezy to get through and I think it would make
for a very solid read for fans of mysteries with a bit of a supernatural twist.
Reviewed by Michael Realmuto
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