By Kaylie Seed
Content warning: self-harm, suicide, alcoholism, mental illness
Gripping and heartbreaking, The Drowning Kind is a story that centers around grief and the guilt we feel when unfinished business between family members never gets solved. Jennifer McMahon has taken grief and turned it into a slow-paced ghost story that you won’t want to stop reading. Jax and her sister Lex have always been close but as they grew up they began to drift apart, leading to an estranged relationship between them. When Jax hears of her sister's sudden death at Sparrow Crest, a home that’s been in their family for generations, she assumes it has to do with her mental illness but quickly learns there’s more to this story. Jax has no idea of the secrets that are waiting to be told at this family home. The Drowning Kind focuses on Jax in the present day, as well as including history on how Sparrow Crest came to be the place that it is through a woman named Ethel. McMahon’s novel is bound to keep the reader guessing until the very end.
The characters in The Drowning Kind are all intricate and it is clear that McMahon has taken the time to craft each of them as individuals with interesting backgrounds and unique perspectives. A lot of readers are going to find that The Drowning Kind will speak to them in regards to grief and how it’s processed. While this is a ghost story with aspects that you can find in other similar stories, The Drowning Kind is unique, and readers will find that they won’t want to put it down.
McMahon has a way with words that completely draws the reader into the story. The Drowning Kind may unfold at a slow pace but with so much going on readers will find themselves needing to know what’s happening next. McMahon weaves the two plots together seamlessly so there is nothing left unsaid in the end. This ghost story focuses on family dynamics, mental illness, and grief, as these are the themes ever-present throughout The Drowning Kind. McMahon has truly crafted a hauntingly beautiful story centering around the grieving process and what happens to family members individually and as a whole.
Thank you, Simon & Schuster Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!