by Melanie Golding

This was a well written Horror story based on historical folklore from Ireland and other places in the British Isles about changelings. I love the way bits of actual folklore like superstitions for how to protect a baby from being taken by the fairies is placed at the beginnings of some chapters.

The story itself follows two women; one, a new mother of twins who believes someone is trying to take her babies and the other a female cop who has good instincts and doesn't swallow the psychiatrist's explanation that the woman is just hallucinating. There's a definite supernatural aspect involved causing the mother to doubt her perceptions and the cop to doubt the dismissal of the mother's concerns by hospital staff.

The story kept me interested, especially the last quarter. I even stayed up late reading because I had to know what happened next! The characters were well defined and I really hated two of them, though I liked both of the two primary women.

There were some plot points that I felt could have been further developed, but my only real complaint is the ending. Too many questions were left open and side plots unresolved. The evidence for whether the happenings were hallucinations or psychosis could have supported either way. Perhaps it's meant to leave the reader to decide.

Lauren Tranter hat gerade in einer Klinik in Großbritannien entbunden. Doch kaum sind die Zwillinge, die Jungen Riley und Morgan, auf der Welt, beginnt ihr ganz persönlicher Alptraum. Noch im Krankenhaus erscheint eine Frau mitten in der Nacht an ihrem Bett und will ihr einen schrecklichen Deal aufzwingen: Lauren soll eines ihrer Kinder gegen eines der Frau austauschen. Zwar kann sich Lauren mit ihren Zwillingen noch in die Toilette retten und dort die Polizei rufen. Dann jedoch werden ihre Kinder entführt. Niemand nimmt Laurens Aussagen ernst. Nur eine junge Polizistin, Detective Sergeant Joanna Harper, glaubt ihr. Aber hat sich wirklich alles so zugetragen und was hat es dann damit auf sich? Will man Lauren bewusst in den Wahnsinn treiben? Oder wird sie tatsächlich allmählich verrückt?

„Kalte Wasser“  ist der Debütroman von Melanie Golding.

Meine Meinung:
Der Roman besteht aus 43 Kapiteln, denen ein spannender Prolog vorangestellt ist. Erzählt wird vorwiegend aus der Sicht von Lauren, aber auch der von Harper. Die Handlung umfasst einen Zeitraum zwischen dem 13. Juli und dem 10. Oktober. Orts- und Zeitangaben zu Beginn der Kapitel erleichtern die Orientierung. Ab und an sind Zitate aus literarischen Werken, Mythen, Märchen und Liedern eingefügt. Dieser Aufbau funktioniert sehr gut.

Der Schreibstil ist anschaulich und detailliert. Nach dem Prolog braucht die Geschichte ein wenig Zeit, um Fahrt aufzunehmen. Dann aber konnte mich der Roman packen.

Die Protagonisten bleiben insgesamt ziemlich undurchsichtig, was die Spannung aufrechterhält. Niemand außer der Polizistin kommt sehr sympathisch rüber, was mich allerdings nicht gestört hat.

Die recht kreative Grundthematik der Geschichte hat mir gut gefallen. Zwar wird hier mit Ängsten vieler Leser gespielt, zum Beispiel vor einer Kindesentführung. Dennoch werden auch alltäglichere Probleme wie postnatale Störungen und die psychische Gesundheit thematisiert, was durchaus Denkimpulse geben kann.

Der Autorin gelingt es, einige falsche Fährten auszulegen. So wird die Spannung größtenteils bis zum Schluss erhalten, obwohl auf blutige Grausamkeiten und derartiges bewusst verzichtet wird. Nur streckenweise ist mir der fast 400 Seiten umfassende Roman ein wenig zu langatmig. Die Auflösung wirkt schlüssig, aber das Ende lässt auch noch Raum für eigene Interpretationen und Überlegungen. Interessant ist in diesem Zusammenhang das mit „Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser“  beginnende Nachwort der Autorin, in dem sie erklärt, was sie dazu bewegt hat, dieses Buch zu schreiben.

Das ansprechend gestaltete Cover passt gut. Die deutsche Version weicht bei Optik und Titel von der britischen Originalausgabe („Little Darlings“) ab, was ich in diesem Fall jedoch nachvollziehen kann.

Mein Fazit:
„Kalte Wasser“  von Melanie Golding ist ein mystisch angehauchter Spannungsroman, der für fesselnde Unterhaltung sorgt. Eine empfehlenswerte Lektüre für alle, die nicht viel Blutvergießen brauchen, um auf ihre Kosten zu kommen.

This book was so unexpectedly creepy! I tend to put any thriller and secret twist looking book that I find available on Overdrive on hold and then wait in line for weeks and weeks and by the time my turn comes around I have no idea what the thing is about. This is often the best thing to do with “twisty” books so wasn’t I surprised in the best way imaginable when I started this one and realized it was a creepy, modern day dark fairytale with horror underpinnings! I LOVED it from sinister beginning to sinister end.

The story starts off with the arrival of the Little Darlings. Lauren gives birth to two beautiful identical twin boys. The delivery is exhausting and once they arrive she feels a little twinge of guilt because she isn’t drowning in overwhelming feelings of love for them - this fleeting thought causes her much grief and anxiety later on. Lauren is tired, she’s sore, her belly is mushy and she feels sad and then a bedraggled woman shows up in the hospital and whispers strange things and demands she hand over one of the boys as “justice done” or she'll take them both and replace them with the dirty shape-shifting creatures she's holding in a filthy basket! Lauren calls the police but they convince her that she imagined it all. Her husband isn’t exactly the caregiver type, so as the days pass she doesn’t begin to feel any better and struggles to simply get out of bed. She has fallen in love with her little boys though and she will do anything to protect them. . .

I don’t want to spoil the story so I’ll only say that it may or may not be about changelings, old fables and that it gave me a major The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman vibe only re-imagined for modern times. There is some scary shit happening in this story! The atmosphere and characters are crafted with care. You’ll feel for Lauren and for police officer Jo Harper who doggedly pursues the case for Lauren and does some questionable things because she has a gut feeling and she goes with it no matter the risk to her own career. I loved that her character was so multi-faceted and that she wasn’t just plunked down into the story to get things done.

If you like stories with a dark fairy feel and horror-ish undertones, I cannot recommend this addictive and creeptastic book highly enough! It is the best of the best, in my opinion. All the stars.

So... I might have gone a bit overboard with my new purchases but hey I just recovered from a reading drought - imagine how 'thirsty' I am =P 

Besides, it's not that I just pile them up like my old self: I already read some of them. Ha! Imagine that!

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I really enjoyed this book! I knew that I wanted to read this book after seeing a couple of really favorable early reviews. Since I didn't get to it prior to the book's release, I decided to take a look at the audiobook and I was sold on it after listening to the sample. I was somewhat mesmerized by this story and found myself frequently wanting to read just a little bit more. I am really glad that I made the decision to read this book. 

I didn't really know what to expect from this book when I started reading it since I try to go into books as blindly as I can. I was drawn into the story right away. I think that one of the main strengths of this story is its descriptions. I felt like I was right there with Lauren when she had the twins and felt her frustration and exhaustion as she worked to care for them largely on her own. Her fear, her panic, and her desperation were all beautifully illustrated through the details of this tale.

This was really more of a mystery than anything but there is a bit of otherness to the story. There is definitely a fairy tale aspect to the story with changlings at its core. I really liked the fact that in addition to Lauren's point of view we also get to see things from Detective Harper's perspective. I couldn't help but wonder what was really going on and I wanted both of these women to succeed in their quest to figure things out and protect the babies.

I thought that Stephanie Racine did an amazing job with this book. This was an emotional story at times and I think that the narration was able to add a certain element to a number of passages. She had a very pleasant voice with a nice accent that was easy to listen to for hours at a time. There were quotes at the beginning of some chapters that were done by a different narrator, the author I believe. I would have preferred to see a single narrator for this story. I don't think that there was really a point to having someone else read the quotes at the beginning of the chapters and I wasn't a fan of the delivery. Even the audio quality seemed off during those sections. Thankfully, the quotes are very infrequent and had no real impact on the story or my enjoyment of it.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought this was a really well-done story with just enough of a creepy factor to keep me hooked from beginning to end. I cannot wait to read more of Melanie Golding's work!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

Initial Thoughts
I really enjoyed this one. It was mystery more than anything but I liked the fact that there was a bit of otherness to the story as well. I liked Lauren a lot and really felt for her over the course of the story. I listened to this book and thought that the narrator did a fabulous job with the story which added to my enjoyment.