Something in the Water got a lot of attention last year; Steadman’s debut novel was nominated for two Goodreads Choice awards and was Reese Witherspoon’s June Book Club read. I borrowed this one from the library based on these facts so I didn’t know much about the novel going in which is sometimes best with thrillers.
“I notice my sudden jump in logic. From making a mistake to actively committing a crime. Just like that. I wonder if that’s how it starts with a lot of criminals…”
Erin is a documentary film maker who is weeks away from her wedding when her fiancé, Mark, gets fired and sends their financial future into a tailspin. They get into a huge fight and some major red flags are thrown but despite this uncertainty the duo get married and go on their (albeit shortened) honeymoon in Bora Bora. While scuba diving one day they find “something in the water” that is not completely innocent but could change their lives for the better in so many ways they go ahead and take the risk. As I said before sometimes it is best to go into thrillers without a lot of information so I will leave my summary vague.
This is very much a debut novel. There are a lot of convenient plot points and I could have done without all the time spent on the documentary subjects but overall I give this one a 3 rating. Although I can understand why some people rated it higher and other’s rated it lower. Despite these flaws there are a lot of great pieces and a pretty interesting plot, I just think it would have benefited from some strong edits.
I actually started this one at the tail end of last year but it is so incredibly slow moving for the first half of the novel that I kept finding other things to read or do and eventually ran into the library due date. I put myself back on the wait-list since it was getting fairly interesting right around the time I had to let it go and eventually picked it back up last week.