This year has not seen a good start to reading as I have struggled with finding time and motivation to read for multiple different reasons. One of the main ones has been that school has been chaotic, and so it has become a priority to meet the multiple deadlines that I have had, especially recently, as opposed to finding time for reading. However, this finding time for reading has been another factor that has contributed to my lack of reading progress so far this year as I have found myself to be extremely unmotivated and uninterested in reading and so have been stuck in a reading slump for the past few months which has not been fun, especially looking back on how only a few years ago I was getting so many books done (for my standards anyways) and how quickly I was getting them done (again for my standards). These two factors really caused me to take nearly 7 months to read the entirety of this book which I really wish didn't take me so long, especially as recently, I have felt more motivated to read and to make progress with my reading goals this year yet that motivation has been limited to reading a lot of The Hunger Games and leaving essentially nothing for this book, again another factor in causing me to struggle with reading. 

Yet, finally I have managed to finish this book, after putting of the final 60ish pages of it for months on end and despite the major gaps between reading it and my preoccupations with both other books and other things going on in my life like work and school, I still really enjoyed reading The Night Swim and my time with the book. I was surprised by how, when I finally returned to the book today, I was able to quickly reimmerse myself back into the story and the characters of the book without any real issue or confusion, something that I think is a testament to Megan Goldin's writing prowess. After reading this, I am very interested in not only reading the second book in the Rachel Krall series but also reading more of Goldin's work, including Stay Awake. 

The main thing that I liked about the book was its themes and conversations surrounding the topics of rape, victimhood, societal pressure and expectations, and the grey nature of the law surrounding sexual crimes. I feel that these subjects and topics were handled extremely well through the two main stories running through the book, as well as the courtroom scenes of the 'present' storyline. These topics and subjects worked all the more for me, considering how they are all topical currently and unfortunately, felt extremely realistic. I also really loved seeing the discourse over the rape trial and whether Scott was innocent and Kelly was lying or if he was guilty and Kelly was telling the truth as it once again felt very accurate and realistic to how these cases are dealt with in real life, with the media and society forcing a narrative that they build themselves through their own beliefs and expectations as opposed to building them off of the evidence presented through the cases. 

If I had one issue with the book, it was that I felt that I didn't really connect with many of the characters as while there were characters that I liked and found interesting, mainly Rachel, Hannah, and Jenny, I didn't fall in love with them and most characters felt that they existed to fill the role that the plot required as opposed to existing as their own characters if that makes sense? That is a sort of natural result to have with a book that is fairly short and is much more plot-driven as opposed to being character-driven. It also could have been the result of my inconsistent reading of the book that made it worse, as the plot was much more memorable in the months that I wasn't reading the book, instead of the characters.

It is slow but the ending was amazing. I really loved how this book handled this hard topic and brought the issue with the system in this specific case to light and explained it in a way everyone can understand. 

I enjoyed this one but did find that the first quarter I was struggling to pay attention. As it went along I was invested but I found it fairly predictable. I’ve love to re read some day with a physical copy instead of audiobook. But overall a decent listen.