Audiobook Review: The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on April 7, 2023 | 1 Comment


Audiobook Review: The Night Swim by Megan GoldinThe Night Swim by Megan Goldin
Series: Rachel Krall #1
Published by St. Martin's Press (8.4.2020)
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Format: Audiobook, 344 pages
Length: 10 hours, 16 minutes
Narrator: Bailey Carr, January LaVoy, Samantha Desz
Source: Library


4 Stars

After the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name―and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.

The small town of Neapolis is being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. The town’s golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping a high school student, the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season Three a success, Rachel throws herself into interviewing and investigating―but the mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insists she was murdered―and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody seems to want to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

My thoughts

TW: Rape and sexual assault, child molestation, physical abuse

I’m not gonna lie, I probably never would have picked this up if my book twin Christy hadn’t recommended it. That cover is awful, sorry. But I’m glad I did give it a try! This book had some major A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder vibes, which is the kind of mystery I’ve been after ever since I read it. It even featured the same narrator, Bailey Carr (who is fantastic, by the way!). It also had January LaVoy (who narrates one of my fave audiobooks of all time, The Ten Thousand Doors of January), who is also fantastic. There’s a third narrator as well, Samantha Desz, which I didn’t realize until after the fact…because both of the latter voice Rachel. One voice for her POV, and another voice for her podcast, which was interesting. They sounded similar enough that I didn’t even notice (which is kind of embarrassing tbh, since I adore January LaVoy and should have been able to tell). So what I’m saying is, the audiobook was awesome. If you haven’t read this, I highly recommend this format!

I don’t get how we can almost unanimously agree that murder is wrong, yet when it comes to rape some people still see shades of gray.

This book tackles rape head on, which is an uncomfortable subject. It addresses the fact that many rapists get away with it because there’s not enough conclusive evidence, and it usually comes down to his word against hers. It’s a very sad reality, and some parts of this book were difficult to read. View Spoiler »

I found the ending to be quite predictable, but I still enjoyed the journey getting there. There’s not much else I can talk about without spoiler tags! View Spoiler »

I only have a couple of minor complaints about this book. The first is that I had a little trouble keeping everything straight in the beginning. There were a lot of people introduced (probably why I didn’t remember who the chief of police’s son was), and there were also two timelines happening, and I mixed them up pretty frequently at first. It took me a while to separate them. My second complaint is that I lacked a connection to Rachel herself, who is the person we spend the most time with in the story. I think probably the narrator didn’t help, because while I liked her voice, she wasn’t super great at injecting emotion into the story (which right there should have told me that it wasn’t January LaVoy, who is great at it).

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4.5/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 4/5
Originality: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Pace: 4.5/5
Feels: 3.5/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 2/5
Overall rating: 4/5

Jessi (Geo)

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