Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchison

Deadly Waters 

by Dot Hutchison
Published: Thomas & Mercer, 2020
Pages: 302
Genre: Thriller
Amazon, Goodreads

“It’s not about whether or not she did it; it’s that she could have. It makes us feel better about our snarling, seething cores of rage.”

About the book

Florida journalism undergrad Rebecca Sorley is like any other college student. She tries to keep up with her studies, her friends, and her hot-tempered roommate, Ellie, who regularly courts trouble with the law.

When a male student’s remains are found in alligator-infested waters, the university warns students to stay away from the reptiles. But then a second body shows up, and the link is undeniable. Both men belonged to the same fraternity and had a reputation for preying on and hurting women.

Ellie has previously threatened to kill men who don’t take no for an answer. Rebecca and her friends thought Ellie was kidding. But now a vigilante killer is roaming campus—someone who knows how to dispose of rapists. Someone determined to save female students from horrible crimes.

With each passing day, those who know Ellie become more convinced she’s responsible. But if she is, stopping her might not be in everyone’s best interest…

Review

Deadly Waters is just what its name suggests — a story spotlighting an important issue that also questions what constitutes appropriate punishment and how that line can quickly blur.

So what’s the book about?

Rebecca is a 20-year-old journalism student at the University of Florida who, along with her flatmates, is struggling following the after math of her friend’s brutal sexual assault.

Around her, men who have been accused of assault are finding themselves being murdered with the help of alligators. At first no one thinks anything of it… after all, college kids are known to do dumbass things. A pattern soon emerges, and Rebecca and her frustrated roommates find themselves in the middle of an investigation. The deaths also spark a movement, one that conveys the pain of sexual assault and communicates to men on campus that this behavior is NOT okay.

The topic is close to my heart and the story really spoke to me, especially because of an argument I recently had with a man who insisted that women not reporting assaults is “stupid” because if anyone ever laid a hand on him, he would have them charged to the full extent of the law. Naturally this pissed me off. I started explaining how sexual assaults leave women feeling shame and how having to explain their most shameful acts to police and in court is basically reliving the assault over and over again… but he just rolled his eyes. (Which doubly pissed me off). Deadly Waters shows how men often don’t understand sexual assault and how their behavior and thought patterns can contribute to the problem.

“We don’t report because the optimistic outcome is that we get ignored. Too often we’re punished for it, in ways they never are. Now we know someone’s listening. Someone cares. It’s so much easier to be brave when there’s the chance something good can come of it.”

However, the story also makes readers ask how perpetuators should be justly punished? Often those accused of sexual assault just get a slap on the wrist while the victims have to relive their pain everyday. Is the killer right in what she did? (It’s obvious from the beginning that the character is female). Or is it crossing that line?

What makes this story stand out is the structure of the duel points of view, the first being the first person perspective from the killer who is steadily and calmly executing young men proven to be assaulting innocent women. The other point of view is from an omnipresent narrator that follows Rebecca’s account throughout the novel. Though the author drops hints on the killer’s identity, readers are left guessing until the end.

A criticism I do have is that I guessed pretty easily at near the beginning who the killer was. Also, the constant use of pronouns left me confused quite a bit as almost every character in the story is female. Other than that, Deadly Waters is a book sure to leave readers thinking about it long after putting it down.

RATING (out of five puppies)