Bethany McBeth

Those We Drown is both tiresome and dissatisfying. The protagonist "Liv" spends most of the book waffling between believing her eyes and ears, that she is onto a nefarious plot aboard the Eos, and believing she is a hysterical, paranoid, "stage five clinger". The self gaslighting becomes tedious and exhausting after the 3rd or 4th go around. The gaslighting from the romantic interest goes farther still, crossing into the realm of being ridiculous. The revelation that Liv was right all along is unfulfilling to say the least. Their final attempt to escape is hurriedly glossed over. Suddenly supernatural beings who up to this point have been impossibly fast and strong are stuck behind a door held closed with a chair. The ending felt like the author had gotten bored and had given up.