What a debut from this author!! This book was the epitome of how far you will go for motherhood. This had good suspense, but in a low burn kind of way. Plus, you cannot go wrong with the setting in Maine.

Sawyer's writing sucked me right into this one but the story left me wanting. The pace was a bit too slow and I kept waiting for more to happen. Is it literary fiction or a mystery? I'm still not sure, but I do know that the author has an interesting voice and while this one may not have been for me, I'll read whatever she puts out next.

Thanks to Zibby Books for the copy to review.

I wrote about this on the StoryGraph, Goodreads, a Ravelry book group, and various social media sites.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7030608932

A Zibby Book Club selection which included a Zoom call with the author. Compelling mystery, family dynamics, and motherly misgivings keep the reader invested in discovering the conclusion.

I loved this book. It kept me interested through to the end, and I couldn't put it down. It was a fascinating twisted and mysterious journey through memories. It was an amazing debut novel, and I can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you Net Galley ARC and Zibby Books

The premise of this book was excellent, but fell short due to a few things. I felt like there was too much about some characters and not enough about others. Bee was insufferable and I learned way too much about her that did not add to the plot.

Sarah Sawyer's debut book, The Undercurrent, is the best book that I've read in 2024, and I've read some good books this year, so that's saying A LOT! Told by multiple characters in two different time lines, this story had me riveted from the very beginning of the book. I started reading it quite quickly, zipping through the pages in an effort to get to the heart of its mystery. However, mid-way through, I recognized that the language and phrasing used by Sawyer is so exquisitely beautiful that I forced myself to slow way down simply because I did not want this book to end! Sawyer is truly gifted with words. The story, itself, is well-crafted and well imagined, such that I was so immersed in reading it that it felt like a gift to myself as an avid reader! Sawyer's writing felt fresh and delightful, even during the telling of, at times, a difficult story. I finished the book, and I immediately wanted to start reading it again. In short, reading this book was one of the best experiences I have ever had as a reader, and I hope we see more from Sawyer very soon because she is supremely talented.

What kept me turning the pages was not the mystery of what happened to the missing girl, but the tension-filled interactions among all these deliciously complicated characters.

Our entire staff loved The Undercurrent. Sawyer has written a smart and timely mystery that is well-paced and unforgettable. I was intrigued by every character and plagued by a vague sense of dread (this is a good thing) until the last page.

This was such an impressive debut! I was blown away by how in depth it was, how much it intrigued me and how it was so well written!!

Quite an impressive debut! This is a slow burn mystery filled with deeply complex characters. It explores motherhood, childhood memories, family secrets, and circles around the idea of what we think we know to be true. This is really well done and was a compelling read. Thank you NetGalley a publisher for providing a digital ARC for review

This one is told from multiple POVs with two different timelines. Bee is a new mother who finds herself wrapped up in the cold case of a missing girl from her hometown when she was a teenager herself.

I had a little bit of a tough time following the story and what was happening in this book, and I think that was due to the multiple POVs, but others may not have a difficult time with that.

The book was a slow burn that slowly reveals what happened back when Bee was a teenager. There were a lot of moving pieces to the story and I am not sure that all of them were necessary.

Overall, I thought it was a fine read and good for people who enjoy slow burning mysteries.

A captivating read from beginning to end. The book is set in 2011, following new mom Bee in Portland, Maine, and Bee's Texas hometown in 1987—a pivotal summer in which a neighborhood girl goes missing, her father dies in a car crash and her twin brother Gus and his BFF/neighbor Leo are increasingly withdrawn. In the present, Bee is drawn back to her hometown after a run-in with Leo reveals Gus, who has struggled with a addiction in the decades since and with whom she is estranged, wants to see her. The present storyline moves quickly, taking place over several days, but the incorporation of the 1987 events, which adds perspectives from Bee and Gus' mom as well as Leo's mom—who live opposite one another in the neighborhood—provides a level of depth that works really well. The story seems like it's about a missing person case—and in some ways it is—but it is really about the hidden tragedies these neighbors endure and the anguish that, yes, permeates through.

This debut novel from Sarah Sawyer (thanks @zibbybooks for my early copy!) is full of mystery, intrigue, dual timelines, and life as a mother are all woven into a storyline that keeps you wondering what the truth is, and what the hidden secrets are.

In the dual timelines we see Bee, a new mom who is shocked by the arrival of her twin brother, Gus’s best friend, Leo- who has news of her brother. Then we see Mary from 1991, feeling much like Bee in her trapped existence, who also happens to be Bee and Gus’s mother. Mary then seeks Diana’s help throughout the course of the novel as secrets are revealed.

I was super surprised that this was a debut novel (I seriously checked my notes several times). Sawyer is a great weaver of stories that hold and grip us.

The Undercurrent is a slow burn, which works for this small town mystery. We get to spend time with the characters, get to know them, feel immersed in both the 1987 & 2011 timelines. Themes of friendships and motherhood are deftly explored as well as the frailties of the human condition. Thank you NetGalley and Zibby books for the opportunity to read this wonderful eArc. 3.5/5 ⭐️.

Oh, mothering. This book was heartbreaking in many ways. The language in The Undercurrent is beautiful and while the ending felt unsatisfying (to me), there were parts I loved and will continue to think about, especially this quote "you can never be half-good, half-paying attention, when you are a mother. The world threatens." Thank you to the author, Zibby Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and share my thoughts.

This is probably one of the best books I read this year. If you like character-driven plots, a good mystery, and a small-town feel, this book is for you. I would recommend it to anyone who loved "Where the Crawdad's Sing" by Delia Owens or "The Little Freind" by Donna Tartt.

Bee is a new mom. Her brother, her twin Gus, has not spoken to her for almost a decade. Then, out of the blue, her brother's best friend (and her childhood crush) shows up and begs her to go back home. When Bee was a child a girl she went to school with went missing. Fueled by a desire to solve this mystery and aching to find her brother, Bee returns home to uncover some secrets.

This is a haunting tale, a gorgeous tale, fast-paced and invigorating.

The Undercurrent by Sarah Sawyer is a haunting story of motherhood and mystery. Bee, a new mother overwhelmed by postpartum depression, finds her world thrown into chaos when her childhood crush, Leo, brings her face to face with unresolved trauma. Drawn back to her Texas hometown, Bee becomes obsessed with the decades old disappearance of Deecie Jeffries, a mystery she had long left behind but now can’t escape. The story unfolds across two timelines, delving into the lives of Bee’s family and neighbors, and gradually exposing secrets and fractured bonds that shaped them. Bee’s journey is as much about discovering her family’s buried truths as it is about facing her own struggles with identity. Through shifting perspectives and beautiful storytelling, this book will keep you hooked!

Wow.

Layered with so many velvety bands of literary texture and nuance, this is an absorbing, mesmerizing, haunting read, leading the reader deep into the hidden lives of two families, — the stories untold, the fears blindly enacted, the words not spoken but festering, for years, and even decades, stultifying all characters held in their clogging masses.

"How can there be so little to say aloud when there is a torrent of words gushing beneath the surface?"

Alternating between two timelines, this is the tale of 1987’s fifteen-year-old Bee (Beatrice) Rowan, her twin brother Gus, and her mother Mary Rowan, living in Austin,Texas. In the same timeline, we enter the world of Leo Nastasi, Gus’s best friend, and his mother Diana, an almost-tenured professor.

Although the two families exist across the street from each other, aside from the relationship between Gus and Leo, they are not at all close. Until the terrible happens — a thirteen-year-old girl, last seen in the field that abuts both houses, disappears, — and the terrifying emotional crises that follows overwhelms them all.

Decades later, the timeline is now 2011, and Bee, married with a new baby, estranged from both her brother Gus and his friend Leo, is struggling. Try as she might, Bee is emotionally disconnected, unreachable — the fallout from decades-old questions and fears rendering intimacy impossible.

As the author slowly and deftly unveils worlds, exquisitely fragile in the tentativeness of their telling, we the reader struggle to put the pieces together. Bordered on all sides by heart-stopping love (mother, sister, lover, friend), ravaged by the wildness of grief, longings and imaginings, and of course, built on secrets, — when all is revealed (no spoilers here) the revelations will be seen to be as tragic as they are illuminating.

A beautifully written, deeply stirring, magnificent read (not to be missed in the opinion of this reader), this is definitely one of 2024’s best.

A great big thank you to #Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

This novel set in two time periods - 1987 and 2011. The prologue shows us 13 year old girl Deecie, who goes missing in the summer of 1987. The book then jumps to 2011, when Bee is a new mother who hasn’t seen either her twin brother Gus or their friend and her teenage crush Leo, in many years for reasons we don’t know. But when Leo returns and tells her Gus wants to see her, it stirs up old feelings, and an interest in the unsolved disappearance of Deecie, who lived in their neighborhood, all those years ago. The 1987 chapters, meanwhile, are told from the perspective of Mary (Bee and Gus’s mom) and Diana (Leo’s mom).

I’m usually more tolerant of slow mysteries more than most people, but this one was a little too slow even for me. I think it might have been better if I had approached it as a literary novel rather than a mystery, because the mystery really didn’t even get going until the back half of the book. And honestly I was still confused about some things when the book ended. The writing was interesting though, and the end of the book was really good. I may not have loved this one, but I’d still try Sarah Sawyer’s next book since this was a debut novel.

3.5 stars