The Swim by Janet Hoggarth - Book Review
Publication Date: 07th May 2025
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/TheSwim
Goodreads Book Page: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223328936-the-swim
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
3.7 Stars
One Liner: Introspective but too slow and long
Book Blurb: Cordelia Franks never finishes anythingand has spent a lifetime hiding in the shadows.
So, when she decides to train to swim the EnglishChannel, she understands why no one believes she can do it. She doesn’t reallybelieve she can either, but she’s determined to try.
As she strides into the Channel with hoursstretching ahead of her, Cordelia swims against every milestone in her life sofar. Every failed relationship, every friendship let go, every exam failed,every tricky job she quit. A life lived never giving it her all. Until now.
With every stroke, with every mile, Cordelia knowsthat this is finally her moment. Because if she keeps this promise to herself,if she doesn’t give up, nothing will ever be the same again.
And waiting in France is an unimagined future andsomeone who does believe in her…
***
My Thoughts:The story comes in Cordelia’s first-person POV with a few random chapters from others’ third-person POVs.
I was tempted by the premise of a woman with pasttrauma taking up such a challenge to prove her worth to herself first.Naturally, her past wouldn’t be easy, and as expected, it wasn’t.
The first-person POV does a good job of taking thereaders into the MC’s mind and the mess inside it. The narrative style is a bitchaotic initially, but you’ll get used to the pattern. Though I haven’t watchedthe movies she mentions, I could understand their significance in her life.
The pacing is super slow, which works in the firsthalf. However, the second half feels stretched beyond its limit. Many times, Icaught myself looking at the % and wondering when we’ll get to the endpoint.The book could have been 30-40 pages shorter. This would have made the wholeconcept more effective, too.
There are many hard themes here – fat shaming,dysfunctional families, selfish mothers, toxic relationships, bulimia, bodydysmorphia, self-destruction, mental illness, racism, homophobia, AIDS, bullying,generational trauma, and many more.
This is a heavy read, and as more details arerevealed, it gets heavier. That’s okay to an extent. It is good to wind the keyand keep the reader in a state of suspended tension for the MC. However,over-tightening the key and repeating the pattern after it has been establishedworks in reverse. That’s what happened in the second half. I first thought thiswould be a 4.5-star read, easily.
The MC is not exactly likable. She is flawed and hasa truckload of trauma to process, which she refuses to do. While the swimmingdoes bring some growth in her arc, there isn’t a lot of progress. In a way,this is realistic. People don’t change so quickly after all. But as a reader,it doesn’t feel frustrating. Of course, there were so many instances when Iwanted to hug her younger version.
The side characters are decent. Derek/ Desi, thecousin, stands out for being the one person who stood for the MC despiteeverything. I really liked that guy. David was okay. He tried his best.
We get random third-person POVs from around 45%.While Desi’s POVs were useful and David’s POV was necessary, I can’t say thesame for the others. These felt more like a way to provide the missing detail.But we already have too much information!
The book ends on a hopeful note, and we can onlyhope the MC won’t revert to her self-destructive ways. At least, we won’t knowif she does!
To summarize, The Swim is a slow-paced,introspective, and heavy read about coming to terms with one’s past trauma. Itis a good book.
Thank you, Rachel's Random Resources and BoldwoodBooks, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinionabout the book.
#NetGalley
***
About the Author - Janet Hoggarth
Janet Hoggarth is the number one bestselling authorof The Single Mums' Mansion and the highly successful Single Mums' subsequentseries. She has worked on a chicken farm, as a bookseller, a children’s bookeditor, a children’s author, and as a DJ (under the name of Whitney andBritney!). She lives with her family in East Dulwich, London.
Follow the Author:
Facebook: @JanetHoggarthAuthor
Twitter: @JanetHAuthor
Instagram: @janet_hoggarth_author
Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/JanetHoggarthnews
Bookbub Profile: @JanetHoggarth1
***
This has been a stop on the #TheSwim blog tourby Rachel's Random Resources (@rararesources).Thanks for stopping by!
