There's just too many heavy things out of this story for me to process right now,leaving me feeling exhausted,overwhelmed and confused. There's just too many things going on in this complex,multi-generational story about a cursed family who all acted very strangely like they are not a family or even related.

A lot of things that did not make any sense to me. I am still trying to fathom on what i just read here as my minds got all jumbled up and messed up with so many things,weird things going on here. Well there's some weird LGBTQ-lesbianism theme, witchcraft/sorcery/spells, murder, attempted murder, suicides,attempted suicides, depressions,kidnapping/abduction, beating,drugging and locking down a kidnap person, violence, aggression,drinking,making out on the beach,etc. Arrghh!

There's just too much and too many things going on,weird things and weird characters that didn't make any sense to me,with so many povs from God knows,four or was it five generations of women of the same descendants that keep switching on and off between them,with some left unanswered with no proper closure,especially to Constance/the witch's family/descendants.It's all very hazy,confusing and messed up to me. And not to forget, this story really drags and is very slow, which makes me bored and feeling depressed and drained out until i had to take a long breaks in between before i forced myself to finish it (but i skipped and jumped most of the parts for a quicker read and faster ending).

So, sadly this story is worth of only a 2🌟 out of 5 for me. That is only because i love the theme of motherhood,even though i am not a mother yet myself but i understand those feelings of being one,as i am currently taking care of my own elderly mother and taking over her role as well,as both a daughter and a mother to her as she is now incapable of caring for herself and acts just like a baby/a child. So i know those feelings; those sadness,despairs,regrets,frustrations,sacrifices,etc of failing to be a good mother, and a good daughter, failing to do something to make things better and right again, failing to heal, to bring back hope and a smile to the person you loved most, to protect them,to keeping them safe, to love them or make them feel loved and appreciated, to make them feel worthy only to find myself being a bad,worthless and useless mother and a daughter for failing in all of these things,for making a bad decisions and choices in life, for hurting the person you loved the most out of frustrations,despairs and anger you had with yourself,for failing to do what's best and you hoped for for the beloved person. In the end, we are all flawed and messed up in our own ways,just like the mothers' characters in this story.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this e-ARC copy.

Initially, I was enjoying the writing style with the flashback into the family's history. However, the story is extremely slow-paced and unfortunately predictable ending. Eventually some of the flashbacks due become not that important to the plot and made me want to skip them at times in order to get to the present where there was more tension.
Although I hadn't enjoyed the book for leisure, I do believe this would be a great novel to study the complexity of human nature in this book. This would be great for high school book reports or for reading groups to discuss the meaning of the book.

This book is filled with lots of dark family drama and a touch of slow burn mystery. I found it to be a little slow at times but throughly enjoyed the story details and plot. For Katrina’s debut novel, she did an amazing job and I will be asking for more of her books in the future. Well done!

This is an intriguing and atmospheric story, but I struggled a lot with pacing. Slow burn mysteries don’t work out for me every time. This is a touching story about mothers, daughters and small town life. If that’s something you enjoy, you’ll love this.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for the e-arc.

I actually read this ages ago, back during the summer and forgot to post a review. Whoops. Let's see if I can scrabble a brief background on what I read, what I liked about this and why it didn't work for me!

A curse, a haunting, and a queer girl in search for answers. All that sounds good, right? But for some reason I just wasn't drawn into the story! I felt no connection with any of these characters, and it felt like other authors have done this and made a better job of it. It had all the creepy elements, but I wasn't captivated. Probably 15 year old me would have adored this but adult me is just "meh, it's okay" and I'm sorry but that's just how I feel about it. The writing was good and showed promise. The plot was decent and showed vague interest. But overall? This was another solid 3 star read for me. Maybe her next book will work better for me.

Unfortunately, I have been locked out of my netgalley account for a few months and was not able to see which books I had on my list, in order to properly read and review. I do apologize and am doing a 3 for neutral. Will update once I’m able to obtain a copy and read!

This book is filled with dark atmosphere and family drama, following the women of a particular bloodline and a curse that entangles their lives.

I would say that the book does a great job on building a mystery and suspenseful atmosphere, but the pacing bogs it down. The characters were interesting, but I never built a strong connection to them.

The premise of the story seemed intriguing. However, I struggled through this novel. The story was very slow moving. I also could not connect with the characters. Thus, it would have been better if it was shorter. I recommend this for fans of Wendy Webb!

First and foremost, the premises of the book is so spooky and eerie but I almost did not finish this one because of the certian changes of pacing, which I had so much hopes for. I might have to reread this in the future and might possibly like it, I belive in that feelings.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This book kept me hooked. I wasn’t too sure how it would be from the description but I really enjoyed it.
Well written and sucks you right in.

I DNF'd this at 35% -- I couldn't get into it -- a lot of pacing issues in my opinion.

I think it has a good premise, maybe I wasn't in the right mood, but I was extremely bored and it didn't hold my attention. Love the cover though!

They Drown Our Daughters is a masterful take on family curses and mermaid legends. What I really loved about this book was the atmosphere. The author made it feel like I could feel the ocean breeze and feel the sand between my toes. Coming from growing up in a beach town, this made me feel some type of way. My only complaint is that it felt like there were gaps in the story in some places and some things could have been fleshed out better. Other than that I loved it, though. Definitely going to add this one to my physical shelf when I can.

They Drown Our Daughters had me absolutely enraptured from the first chapter. The story opens in tragedy in 1881 before jumping to the modern day. We follow a line of women cursed by the events of 1881, and we get to follow the generational trauma, woman by woman, mother by mother, until we find our way to Meredith and her daughter in the present day.

They Drown Our Daughters is, at its heart, a story of generational trauma and the relationships between mothers and daughters. It was a beautiful, atmospheric read, set at a lighthouse in Washington. I will be rereading for spooky season.

Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great book. I really enjoyed the characterizations and depth of emotion. I think this would be a great addition to any library collection.

After reading the first few chapters of this book, I turned to my husband and said "I don't know whether I want the bad guy to be a ghost or a living person." Lucky for me, there's a bit of both in there. Spoilers, I guess, though you have to know that any good gothic is going to have villains with pulses and without.

Meredith comes from a long line of drowned women, all accidentally cursed by a terrible matriarch. They are all drawn to the water, and they're all eventually pulled down into it by an angry, miserable ghost woman. The ghost took Meredith's mother, and now Meredith's daughter Alice has gone missing. Can Meredith break the curse and save her daughter? Not without a few false-endings a la The Ring. (It's the predictability of the many "we think she's gone, no wait she's back" moments that lost the book a star from me).

The ghost story was fun and reminded me of the teen horrors I read as a kid in the 90s when ya was just becoming a thing. The struggles between mothers and daughters were really moving as well. Or maybe they weren't and the fact that I'm pregnant with a daughter of my own has me over-relating. Still, I think this book will find a special resonance with women and particular mothers.

Heavy CW: Suicide, SH, Violence

They Drown Our Daughters was an eerie read; think "The Haunting of Bly Manor" meets generational trauma. I found the storytelling enthralling; the multiple storylines created a sense of racing towards a single impending doom so that the twists and turns along the way felt pleasantly unexpected.

I was captivated by the depth that was given to each of the characters, no matter how small their part may have been. In particular, Meredith, the present day character, has all the ferocity and determination you could want from a protagonist without any of the cliches; she has just as messy a history as anyone else, and yet she stands her own.

All over, a highly enjoyable read. That said, if you find suicidal ideation, depictions of suicide, or depictions of depression upsetting to read, please be advised that those and similar themes are prolific throughout this book.

Full review in Library Journal. A multi-generational ghost story that bounces between narratives but drips in ambiance

This is a slow burn Gothic horror book which focuses on women from a particular bloodline. Multiple POVs and timelines are used throughout. I usually don’t mind this too much, but sometimes timelines or POV didn’t shift smoothly and threw me a bit. I also thought the ending wasn’t satisfying. It wasn’t missing anything, and it wrapped up nicely but with the buildup it just wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Thanks so much for the review copy. I was really in to this book for the first half however I did find that the pacing faltered in the last half and it made the book feel longer than it is. In saying this though, i did like the way these characters were crafted, the atmosphere and the themes the book explored. While I wouldn't read it again personally, I would still recommend it to anyone looking to ease into a thriller.

a very silly thriller that doesn't bring anything new to the table. i found the writing very melodramatic and could not suspend my disbelief enough to immerse myself into the story.