Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review

If I am being honest, I decided to listen to this book because I have enjoyed Laura Bell Bundy's acting in the past. This story was a pretty good fast paced thriller. I may check out more by Heather Hach in the future!

I listened to the audiobook ARC, narrated by Laura Bell Bundy. It took me a while to get into the story & I was honestly constantly distracted by Bundy’s male voices (something about narrators making voices for characters in audiobooks totally pulls me out of the story).
However, once the book took a turn from YA smut to the thriller I expected, I found it a lot more interesting. The overall plot is interesting & haunting. There were satisfying moments when things came full circle.
If you can get through the cringey beginning, the middle and end are enjoyable.

"The Trouble with Drowning" by Heather Hach is a compelling novel that delves into the complexities of mental health, identity, and the human psyche. The story centers on Kat, a struggling writer who becomes enamored with Eden, a seemingly perfect author. As their lives intersect, Kat's obsession leads her down a path filled with manipulation and self-discovery.

Kat seems to have it all at the moment, but is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. The past always comes back. Narrator was a pleasure to listen to.

I thought the audiobook for this was really well done. I listen to a lot of audiobooks these days and some are better than others. However, this one stands out for me. I thought the narrators really added alot to an already good story. There are more and more books these days that are bringing awareness to mental health issues and I thought that this book did this well along with keeping the story from brining you down and also kept it interesting.

I listened to this one before the holidays muddled my mind and it was a fun, dark thriller. I loved watching the main character's personality come apart at the seams, and the aftermath that ensued. The author makes shares just enough about her past to make you empathetic to the MC, even though she is wreaking havoc. There were quite a few characters in this, which I find unique in the thriller genre. I will definitely read more by Heather Hach in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced listening copy.

I enjoyed this book and audiobook more than I thought I would. It had my attention from the beginning and kept it. I do believe that their should be some trigger warnings but it didn’t bother me. Kay is an inspiring author with a bad past she is choosing to write about. She meets one of her literary heroes and falls for his son. Her life is perfect but not for long.

The cast of characters was really interesting - they're from different walks of life in different areas of their career and looking for different things but are all interwoven. Really enjoyed!

The Trouble with Drowning tackles some difficult topics that may be triggering for some and just plain uncomfortable for others—so readers will want to proceed with caution. It’s a long and rather disheartening read—far from the light, uplifting story that will help you relax after a stressful day.

Full review posted on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery.

Heather Hach delivers a gripping exploration of obsession, insecurity, and mental health in The Trouble With Drowning. The novel immerses readers in Kat’s world, a space where aspiration and self-doubt collide with devastating consequences.

Kat is a deeply flawed and unreliable narrator, which makes her story both compelling and unsettling. Her admiration—and eventual obsession—with Eden Hart and Jacob drives the plot in a way that feels authentic yet suffocating. The gradual unraveling of Kat’s psyche is written with a raw intensity that makes her both sympathetic and frustrating.

The themes of ambition and comparison are explored in a deeply relatable way, especially for anyone who has felt inadequate in the shadow of someone seemingly perfect. Hach also does an excellent job of highlighting the impact of untreated mental health issues, showing how Kat’s demons fuel her self-destructive spiral.

While the book is well-paced and keeps the tension high, the second half leans into darker, almost thriller-like territory. This tonal shift might not resonate with all readers, but it adds an edge to the story that makes it difficult to put down.

The ending is haunting and leaves a lot to unpack, especially as Kat’s actions force readers to consider the price of validation and the limits of forgiveness.

If you enjoy character-driven psychological dramas with morally gray protagonists and a touch of suspense, The Trouble With Drowning is a novel worth diving into.

I struggled with this book because of the ending. Overall, the writing is good, the pacing is good, and plot is entertaining. However, I cannot stand the "mental illness means that she's evil and crazy" trope. It's 2024 and the ending really bothered me. Basically, the main male character falls in love with his sister's mysterious and beautiful roommate only to discover she's possessive and jealous. To get away from her, he goes to South America for months because he has a secret "business" idea. He gets back to America, knows he's going to break up with her, but loves sleeping with her and her breasts so does so. Good guy, right? According to this book he is because he meets his perfect match - a children's book writer who's fiance died that his crazy ex-girlfriend drove to a book reading and signing once, and she's his match made in heaven. But wait! Crazy ex-gf cannot live with this and must win him back so she starts drugging new gf with her medication. New gf gets depressed, "lazy", fat, and bf is so disgusted to see her eat a whole pot of spaghetti, he had "never been so disgusted" by her. God forbid he, I don't know, help her try to figure out why she's so unhappy and depressed all of a sudden. Of course crazy ex-gf tempts him with sex (remember her breasts are glorious) and he almost does it, but runs away to talk to his mother (that's a whole other side story). He HAS to go back and tell crazy ex-gf that he can't see her because he loves new gf even though she's depressed and getting fat and no fun anymore. Then, there's a brief mention of the cult and new gf saves bf and says that all is well if crazy ex-gf goes to a mental institution.

All this to say, that I hated this book more than any other book in recent memory. If it was satire, sure, but it's packaged and written like your standard run of the mill thrillers. While I have similar problems with other books, they are either so ridiculous (think Freida McFadden) or poorly written that it's easy enough to read through and immediately forget. The MMC was presented as this super amazing, really sweet "people think I'm stupid because I'm hot, but really I'm not" boy who at every turn immediately gave up on relationships the section the girlfriend did something he didn't like. Add to that that the crazy ex-gf was your stereotypical evil villain of the book even though, MMC didn't treat her well, and she apparently grew up in a cult which turned her crazy. I hate the depiction of all of the relationships in this book where none of the characters have any redeeming qualities and especially the crazy ex-gf who is mentally ill and therefore bad/evil trope.

Such a shame because the narrator was great, but the content of the book was NOT. It was basic, simple, and left me questioning why I finished it.

3.5 Stars rounded down. It was a little slow in spots for me with the audio version, but I was still interested. The Trouble with Drowning is a slow burn, which I think is what made the audio version drag a little more me. I look forward to reading Hach's future releases.

I enjoyed that this book was set in the literary world...I think this is a first for me for a thriller! Even having read the description, I wasn't sure the turn it was going to take and appreciated that too. Kat's struggle with her mental health is what took this book down the direction it went and this was realistic especially as she was living her fantasy life. As realistic as parts of the book and the characters were, some of it was far-fetched. If you can get past that, it's overall an enjoyable read. The characters needed to be a little more developed to give a higher rating, but no issues with suspending disbelief. I also appreciated the faster pace of the latter half of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Heather Hach and Greenleaf Book Group for the Advanced Audio Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

2.75 ⭐️

The Trouble With Drowning was okay. The first ~60% was pretty slow setup, and it got boring and repetitive a lot (Kat was writing her book, Kat was in love with Jacob one second and trying to ruin his life the next, Kat wanted to be Carol’s daughter, on and on and on…). The last 40% was much faster paced and more exciting, finally brought the prologue back around full circle, and kept me reading until the end.

I thought the commentary on mental illness and how meds make people feel (and in turn why many quit taking them) was good, but it was a little over the top at the same time because it mostly showed Kat’s unstable side. I wish there had been at least a small part of the book where Kat was medicated and stable and happy, not just the extremes - unmedicated and crazy or medicated and numb - because I think there can be a happy medium. Then again, it wouldn’t have been a very exciting ending for a psychological thriller if Kat was just a normal person going about her day, so I get it in terms of the plot.

I really didn’t like the jumping around between POVs like it did. It was one sentence to the next, in the middle of scenes, and it always took me a few sentences to catch up to who was speaking.

The narration was also just okay. The normal voice that she used for Kat was fine, and her male voice for Jacob was too. But some of the others, Pete in particular, were pretty bad; he sounded like a cartoon toddler talking rather than a ~30 year old man.

Overall, it was just okay. When more than half of the book is boring, I can’t rate it above 3 stars, even if I did think the ending was good.

3.5 ⭐
This book had my anxiety levels high, high, high, because WHAT!? It follows a struggling writer, who's life was finally coming together, just for it to come crashing down again.

✨ Has very good mental health representation.
✨✨ Enjoyed listening to the Narrator.

✨✨✨ Thank you Greenleaf Audio & NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Trouble with Drowning by Heather Hach was one of the better books I have read that addressed the topic of mental illness. I listened to the audiobook that was very well narrated by Laura Bell Bundy. It was my first time hearing this narrator but I hope to listen to more books that she narrated in the future. The Trouble with Drowning took place in Tucson, Arizona. Kat Lamb had settled there and found employment at Antigone Books, a local bookstore who often hosted up and coming and well known authors representing their books. What a perfect position for an aspiring author! Kat had recently started writing her own memoir about her own childhood in the foster care system. When her roommate invited her to swim at her mother’s house, Kat made the acquaintance of Jacob, her roommate’s very handsome brother and her roommate’s mother, Carol, a well known and famous author. Both Jacob and Carol would become very instrumental in shaping Kat’s story.

The characters in The Trouble with Drowning all felt real yet flawed at times to me. I particularly liked Kat’s character even when she was at her worst. Author, Heather Hach, was able to focus on the themes of mental illness, relationships, family, resilience, following dreams and being able to see the truth even when it was hard to detect. I enjoyed all the twists and turns The Trouble with Drowning provided. I couldn’t put this book down! Read this book. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Greenleaf Audiobooks for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of The Trouble with Drowning by Heather Hach through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review

I like this book a lot. It was intense, and I appreciate there was a trigger warning at the beginning. I liked the protagonist and I can see myself quote several lines in the future. It was well crafted and interesting.

I really did enjoy listening to this book. It was good and had a good story line. I like that it brings awareness to mental health. I did find it a little boring at points which is why I only give it 4 stars.

This book has potential trigger warnings if you're not aware! The beginning of the book started off well and then slumped a bit in the middle. Toward the end, it picked up a bit again. The ending did seem a bit anti-climatic, until the very very end when the note in the book indicated Kat didn't like the cold weather. Some pieces didn't seem to be in line, such as how long it took for Eden to get her toxicology labs back, or how she figured out what kind of meds Kat was prescribed so she knew it was Kat who was drugging her. But overall, the book was good and kept my interest.

{2.5 Stars} If you are a fan of "You" on Netflix or the 2017 film "Ingrid Goes West," this book is for you. There are three parts of this book that focus on three different characters: Kat, Carol, and Eden. As the story unfolds, so does Kat's mental health. This book is an excellent reminder of why you should always take your meds, and has many funny little quips. (I shared my two favorites down below.)

But overall, this book fell short for me. I was lost in the beginning and kind of found my way in middle, but I didn't quite understand the point of the plot until the end. Once I reached that point, things were great, and I really enjoyed how the rest of the book played out. Prior to that, there was so much setup that I felt bored (and kind of lost like I just mentioned) and didn't really want to turn the book back on. The setup is super helpful to understand Kat's character, but I feel like it would've been more compelling if it was written in a dual timeline instead of just a linear one.

When it comes to the audiobook features alone, I feel like the narrator did an okay job. There were a lot of different voices that were all very distinct. However, Lucia's accent specifically lead me to believe that she was maybe Asian or maybe from a different area of the States. It wasn't until she said "Dios mio," that I realized she was Hispanic. But other accents, particularly with other Hispanic characters, felt very over the top. Finally, the thing that bothered me the most was during the epilogue when instead of saying Antigone, like the Sophocles play, that she said it like "anti-gone." Overall, the audiobook was good, I'm just nit-picky.

Although this book wasn't for me, thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for this ALC.

"Tucson knows it's the desert and doesn't pretend to be a suburb of LA." Ch 12
"Kat was JoJo Siwa, and Eden was Taylor Swift." Ch 24

Book Title: The Trouble with Drowning

Author: Heather Hach

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Rating: 5 Stars

Quick opinion of this book: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ

Why I chose this book: As someone with mental health issues, I’m grateful for the relatability of characters going through similar experiences.

Summary: The narrator follows multiple characters, Kat being the main. She’s a new author with a dark past, and on top of a recent breakup, she received a mental health diagnosis. Despite all of her troubles, as the reader you’ll still likely be rooting for her. The story is set in Tucson, AZ, and the author makes you want to live there. Laura Bell Bundy did a fantastic job narrating!

Highlights: Mental Health, Suicide, Social Media, Tucson AZ