Cursed. That's what Meredith and her mother and mother's mother and mother's mother's mother are. For as long as she can remember, she has been drawn to the water. It beckons to her and she even hears a voice whispering when she holds a shell to her ear. Now that she is a mother of a young daughter, Meredith is determined to protect her from this strange curse that has caused death, tragedy and heartache in all of her female ancestors. Will she succeed in breaking the chain? Or is all of this just in her mind? This book broke my heart over and over and over. ( )

This is a Gothic mystery/thriller and a haunting read. It grabs you and sucks you right in and doesn't let go. Even now, a while after I've finished this book and read quite a few others, this story haunts me. This is everything I wanted in a gothic mystery/thriller and more.
The curse in Meredith's family is dark and depressing like most good curses are, I suppose. It's all so heart-wrenching and sad though. I wanted things to end differently than they did. I hoped things would end differently, but I suspected things would have to turn out the way they did in the end.
The setting was perfect. It was all so atmospheric, dark, haunting, and spooky. I had a hard time putting it down when I read it and read all of it in almost one sitting. I loved how well this was written and I would agree that if you like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, you'll love this one - it's a very accurate comparison.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me read and review this hauntingly beautiful gothic tale. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

Once upon a time, a wronged woman was willing to do whatever it took to secure her daughter's future.
Maybe if her intentions had been pure, maybe if they had not held a tinge of selfishness things would have turned out differently.
Instead, what she set in motion ruined the lives of generations to come.
Years later, rumors of witchcraft and a curse on the women are still fodder for gossip and pranks, and occasional vandalism on the family property.
When Meredith returns to her childhood home with her young daughter in tow, there is no happy reunion between her and her mother. Old wounds are reopened, and danger lurks in the water, waiting for its chance to claim another life.

This story is told on multiple timelines, from the points of view of several generations of women. I would describe it as historical horror fiction that makes its way into the modern day. It is atmospheric and dark, touching on the bonds between mothers and daughters and what it takes to sever them. There is a bit of supernatural mystery woven in, with a quick pace that kept me turning the pages. I was all in on this story until probably the final third when it took a weird turn without an adequate explanation.
I still enjoyed the story but that irked me enough to deduct a star.

4 out of 5 stars.
My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press ( )

I really enjoyed the premise of They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe, and the descriptive writing was enchanting and made me feel as if I was by the seaside. The supernatural elements were done very well and gave this seaside horror/thriller a bit of a gothic feel. I think with a bit of tightening up on the story this could have been a five star read for me.

Where it fell flat was with the added chapters of the matriarchal line. Once again, I thought the premise was interesting and it could have possibly worked with the story, but I didn’t feel the way they were written added anything to the story. It was just the same thing over and over. Woman goes crazy, no one talks about it, and then her life ends. While I understand it was one of the themes in the book, and mental health does need to be discussed more, it just didn’t add anything to the story for me.

It also felt like two different books once we got to the island. Again, I thought it was an interesting premise, but it didn’t feel like it flowed with the rest of the book. While the supernatural doesn’t need to be explained, sometimes that makes it more creepy, I felt like too little information was actually given about the ancestral line of the witches. Perhaps if more time was spent with them, and less time with the smaller chapters regarding the maternal ancestors I would have enjoyed the book more.

But this is all personal opinion, and the author didn’t write the book just for me, so this may be one that you really enjoy. ( )