I was totally drawn to this book by its stunning cover. A very atmospheric novel with lots of gothic vibes. I really enjoyed this read and it kept me hooked. I did at times struggle to keep up as there are multiple points of view but I'd still definitely recommend this read to others.

Thanks to poison pen press and that galley for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

So overall I honestly found the book hard to follow, it’s told from several family members perspectives over many different years and would find myself going back-and-forth trying to remember which character was what. I also did not find Meredith and her mother Judith likable or relatable as women, their actions just didn’t match their character descriptions and sometimes their actions were just unbelievable.

As far as spooky, I did like the storyline and did enjoy the mystery and the ghost part of the story. Just really wanted better flow for the storyline and characters that I could like or even just relate to.

THEY DROWN OUR DAUGTHERS is the creepy, atmospheric, gothic novel you didn't know you needed to bring with you to the beach this summer. The Washington coast isn't the calm, serene place most think of when picturing the Pacific Ocean and this book perfectly captures its stark and sometimes violent beauty. Both twists took me completely by surprise and really underscored the difference between a good mother and a selfish one. Monroe is an excellent writer and I very much look forward to reading what she comes out with next.

The sea has an unrelenting hold on the women in Meredith's family, including Meredith and her own daughter. Through too many timelines, the story of how this came to be, its impact on the women at Cape Disappointment, and what Meredith must do to save her daughter is told. Yes, too many timelines. Several times I got turned around trying to match up generations. The chapter titles helped by providing dates, but I wish the story had focused on one timeline and provided smaller snippets of the other ones to keep the reader grounded. And while I knew to expect a bit of fantasy / magic realism, after a solid story that didn't seem to go there to have the book suddenly swerve in that direction felt a bit jarring. I liked the overall story and the characters, and enjoyed reading the book. I just wish it had been laid out a bit less like a crazy quilt.

A story of a family curse that looks into the relationship between mother and daughter that will leave you unsettled. This book had me gripped from the very first page. The author created a beautiful and haunting atmosphere. There were times I felt like I, too, was breathing in the ocean air and feeling the sand beneath my feet.

Throughout the story there are multiple povs, which I did enjoy. However, I felt like at times it became a little difficult to keep up with all the different characters and their part of the story. Although each of them did have their own tone to it, which did make it better.

What I loved most about this book was that I never knew what direction it was going in. It was a continuous guessing game for me and I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect. The ending left me in a state of shock and wishing there was more.

Overall an amazing debut novel by Monroe. I highly recommend this one to anyone who is a fan of gothic or horror.

Thank you Net Galley and Katrina Monroe for this arc.

Happy Release day!
It dragged towards the end of the book, but it was pretty good other than that. Gothic and intriguing, I can’t say I had a bad time.

They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe is not the usual genre that I read. I am sure there will be a following for this book, but it wasn’t for me. There were many characters to keep track of and there were multiple time periods as well. The subject-matter and themes of this novel were very dark. I would say this is more about me than the book so I encourage you to judge for yourself.

I thought the story was intriguing. I love tales of ghosts lurking among the waves, ready and waiting to pull you in. Love that! And the history that was built inside these pages was perfectly crafted.

This demonstrates, in healthy and unhealthy ways, the lengths women will go to protect their daughters. This is told through generations of women of the seaside Cape Disappointment and the different relationships these mothers and daughters had.

For generations, there has been something ghostly waiting among the waves, pulling girls to its watery depths. This was floaty and atmospheric and I couldn’t put it down. There are twists I didn’t see coming and betrayals I felt hard. This book totally pulled me in.

I was wondering why reading this felt unbearably long until I saw that it's 300 pages. Much of it revolves around generations of women obsessing over the sea and each other. Overall I liked it but couldn't help feeling that it was a bit draggy in some chapters.

Holy... I loved this book. The plot, the intrigue, the mystery, it was amazing. This book kept me up at night, turning page after page to see what happens next.

Definitely will be recommending this to others.

Locals say Cape Disappointment is haunted. With a name like that, how could it not be?

Lighthouses aren't just stunning to look at, they serve a purpose. They are used to warn ships of dangerous shallows and rocky coasts. They light the way for safe sailing. Can they also be used to keep other kinds of danger at bay?


Told in different timelines, They Drown Our Daughters is chilling and atmospheric with strong gothic vibes. Meredith and her young daughter have come back to Meredith's childhood home. Her mother is in the early stages of Alzheimer's Disease believes the stories are real. She doesn't just believe it, she knows it. She can hear it in the seashell. She knows it is becoming her granddaughter as it has beckoned every woman in their family for generations.

In the past, we see the lighthouse ever vigilant as it sets the stage for what is to come.

This book touches on many things: mothers and daughters, relationships, family legacy, and tragedy. Part ghost story, part mystery, part supernatural, part fantasy. This book jumps around in time but is never confusing. There were things that I wanted more of an explanation on, but overall, this was an enjoyable gothic tale.

The author even included questions at the end for discussion.

Atmospheric, gothic, chilling

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sucks you in right from the beginning, this story was a difficult one to put down at the beginning but unfortunately there are some slow moments at about the 25-75% mark. It’s an intriguing ghost story with multiple points of view between the past and present. Each point of view focuses on a different woman and how she is affected from a curse in their past. It’s an interesting read but again, it does drag a tad which could probably have a little to do with the darker subject matter.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.

They Drown Our Daughters follows the stories of mother, Judith, and daughter, Meredith, as they contend with the haunting secrets of their home, Cape Disappointment. After years away, Meredith returns to Cape Disappointment with her young daughter, Alice, after separating from her wife, only to face all of the old ghost stories that her mother has been telling her since she was a child. But the more time that Meredith spends at the Cape, she realises that the stories that her mother may have been telling her weren't stories at all.

I really enjoyed this multigenerational modern gothic novel. Not only did the worldbuilding and setting around Cape Disappointment really intrigue me and gave me chills in the best way, but I found the relationship between Meredith and Judith very compelling. The author had a keen eye for describing the events faced by Meredith and Judith in a haunting, beautiful way but also being able to succinctly getting to the point of the story. The lighthouse as a metaphor and the literary threat of the water created a visceral, powerful story. At the heart of the story, in my view, was this beautiful, real, honest relationship between mothers and daughters, the secrets that exist in family, the resentment that children hold onto, and this bone-deep, brutal instinct of mothers to protect their children. This was an incredible book.

This book started out really good, but as it continued it felt like it dragged on a lot for me. I mostly wanted to find out what the ending was which is why I continued slogging through it, and the end delivers well. It’s also about generational trauma and that’s always pretty neat. I’m not a huge fan of flashbacks, and I’m not sure how I Personally Feel about the mother/daughter relationships in these books. IDK! We’re going to go for three and a half stars for this fantastically unhelpful review, rounded up for Netgalley/Goodreads.

This was a really unique story about several generations of women haunted by their family’s past.

Cape Disappointment seems like a bit of an ominous name for a town, but for Meredith Strand’s family, there is some truth to the rumors that surround her childhood home. When she returns with her young daughter after a split from her wife, she is determined to not let the haunting stories affect her or Alice. But her mother, Judith, is beginning to show signs of Alzheimer’s and believes the ghost stories are true. She knows there’s something in the water, watching and waiting. Once you hear it’s mournful call, it may be too late.

This story explores the lengths women will go to protect themselves and their daughters, and how one brave mother could end the curse that has plagued their family once and for all.

Highly recommend!

*Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing a copy of this book to review.*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4815780480

They Drown Our Daughters didn't really work for me. I thought the premise was interesting, and I love the idea of a curse following a family down generations, with snippets from different timelines.

They Drown Our Daughters is about a family in the present (grandmother Judith, mother Meredith, daughter Alice) dealing with a family history of female suicide, with women walking into the sea. Many of the women have visions of a strange half-girl half-creature beckoning into the ocean. The book flashes back to previous generations of women going through the same thing.

I liked the first few chapters, but I found by the middle of the book that nothing was really changing in the characters, and no new information was coming to light. It seemed to be repeating the same story over and over.

I enjoyed the atmosphere, and some of Monroe's observations about the relationships between mothers and daughters. But she never quite drew me in emotionally.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for my review copy of this book.

'They Drown Our Daughters' really drew me in from early on. I liked the multiple POV chapters that gave glimpses into the different women's lives and the strong theme of strained mother/daughter relationships. I was intrigued by the idea of a multi-generational curse and was excited to see where the story would go.

Unfortunately, the story barely goes at all for the majority of the book. The story starts off well but then it just drags on for chapter after chapter after chapter. I considered DNFing multiple times but I was genuinely interested in how the curse would play out so I kept at it...and at it...and at it.
In the end, I jumped from dialogue to dialogue just so I could know the outcome.
The ending was objectively interesting as well but I was too worn out by the drawn out bulk of the book to really appreciate or enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Katrina Monroe for giving me a free digital copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

They Drown Our Daughters is captivating from beginning to end! Katrina Monroe is a wonderfully gifted writer, her lyrical prose accentuating the complexity of her characters and plot. I've seen some reviews complaining about the different chapters focusing on different women, but I actually wound up loving it. I thought it was a clever, effective way to show how the curse and the trauma it induces really is intergenerational. More than anything, though, I wound up being surprised by how much I loved Judith's chapters of her youth the most. While the present day story with Meredith is interesting, Judith's story held my interest more intensely, and I particularly cherished her characters.

I don't know how I feel about the big twist that happens about 65%ish into the book. I didn't see it coming, which I enjoyed, but I also think the plot could have worked without it. The big final twist that Meredith realizes toward the end of the novel wasn't as big of a surprise, as I'd hypothesized it earlier in the book, but that doesn't mean it was any less delightful or clever. (I always love being right, so I relished that!)

Overall, They Drown Our Daughters is a gorgeous horror novel and one I highly recommend!

A haunting tale of a curse.
Beautifully written, this novel will capture the hearts of readers who love family dramas, moody characters, heavy atmospheres. Every word here is drenched in sea salt and evokes the ocean at its most dangerous. The sea is another character, looming and terrifying.
I really enjoyed all those aspects of the book. Sadly I wasn't very drawn to any of the characters. I found them unlikable and unapproachable. Unlikable because they did nothing that could make them be people you want to know better and be friends with, and unapproachable because of the writing style. That's a choice of course, but it meant I was very detached throughout my reading and kept switching off, which is a shame because the atmosphere was spot on. This is very much a case of a good book, with great ideas and themes, but just not for me. I hesitate very much on what to rank it, as I didn't enjoy it, but I could see how good it is for people who are more into literary works of fiction.

I really enjoyed this slow-burn, gothic, ghost-story. I found Meredith Strand to be a compelling protagonist, and I think that Monroe rendered Meredith's trauma and her complicated relationship with her family and her family's history really well. I've read a lot of excellent horror/speculative fiction books like this one which focus on the ambivalence of motherhood and all the conflicting feelings it brings to the surface. It's a trend I'm really enjoying!

Monroe handles the complexity of a novel that takes place across multiple generations very well. I think that having the majority of the story set in the same location (Cape Disappointment) and having the story focused on a single familial line of mothers and daughters helps to anchor the narrative and the reader. I never felt confused or thrown off about where I was in time/space.

I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil anything, but I really liked the twist towards the end of the book. The last 20% or so of this novel went in a direction I was not expecting, and yet it made complete sense with the themes of motherhood, mother-child relationships, and the family curse.

A fantastic debut!