Please note that I received this via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
I liked this book just because for once an author resisted the urge to have 2o POVs to get to a plot/ending. Day stuck to two main characters which I think helped with the plot and flow. I thought that there were a couple of minor holes here and there, but nothing that bothered me that much. I do think that at one point there was just too much stuff happening though that didn’t quite worked, hence the 4 stars, really a 3.5 star read. I really couldn’t put it down at one point and thought the ending just cried out for even more information.
“The Lake Escapes” follows three childhood friends (now adults) Julia, David, and Erika who go to the lake that their respective families went to every summer. Now that they are in their late 40s with some small and in some cases teens, one of the friends (Julia) is angry her long-time friend David has built a glass monstrosity and has ruined the perfection of the lake. David, brings along a new girlfriend and his new nanny too (Izzy).
The majority of the story is told via Julia and Izzy’s perspectives. We occasionally get some newspaper articles, etc. read but it stays at that level throughout. I did like the insight we get into both of these characters and Julia’s slow realization that she really doesn’t know her friends just as much as she doesn’t see or know her husband. I think at times she was blinded by the reality of what her life actually was. Her hands-off approach to her business and daughter was head shaking inducing to me.
Izzy was good, it takes a while to get at what she is there for (outside of her love of true crime podcasts). I thought once that was firmly established her character worked more.
The plot of two women going missing at the lake and David’s recent girlfriend going missing too was interesting. I was curious how they would all tie together. I think Day did an okayish job with that. The flow of the story works too.
I thought the setting of the lake which at times felt dark and ominous worked with the story. When Day gives us details about the two women who went missing before and the one who is missing now at times you imagine a monster of the lake going about its business.
The main issue I think I had was the ending and there should have been some cuts here and there to make it worked. Way too much information dumping and the explanation behind one major incident which served as the catalyst of the events today did not work at all. I legit went what in the world is happening? This is some Days of Our Lives Marlena is possessed by the Devil mess. It just did not work for me at all and I had to go back a few times because it just felt really out of flow of the rest of the book.