Drowning Ruth | Review

This is a haunting story of two sisters and their children growing up in rural Wisconsin between WWI and WWII. The plot jumps between past and present, nearly always relating back to the tragic day of the drowning.

In the winter of 1919, Mathilda Neumann mysteriously drowns beneath the ice of a lake, leaving behind her husband Carl and 3-year-old daughter, Ruth. Aunt Amanda, Mathilda's sister, promptly assumes the role of guardian and housekeeper at the Neumann house. The tension is thick as the reader struggles to determine what really happened the night of the drowning. 

Amanda spends her life drowning Ruth with secrets and lies in an attempt to "protect" her from the truth. I was often angered by Amanda and her choices and am interested to find out what others think about her character.

While I did not particularly enjoy the way Schwartz, the author, went about feeding me clues, I will admit that I had a tough time putting the book down. The resolution is rather satisfying after much speculation.

This novel is character-driven. If you enjoy stories rich in character development, you may appreciate what this book offers; however, if you are more interested in a plot woven in a thick straight line, you may become too frustrated to read on until the end. The novel includes several smaller side-stories, which only stall the progression of the main story.

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I give this book a rating of 7/10 and here’s why:

Text: The writing is just okay. I encountered run-on sentences, which only added to my dislike of character Amanda's withholding of information.
Dialogue: I found the dialogue to be realistic.

Plot: The story is great, but the way it is told is weak. Writing from the niece, Ruth's, point of view throughout would have been more effective since she was too young to remember the night of the drowning. The events, secrets and lies leading up really were a mystery to her.

Characters: The characters were well established. I connected with Ruth immediately, craving the truth right along side her. In contrast, I could hardly stand Aunt Amanda.