What do readers think of Palace of the Drowned by Christine Mangan? Write your own review.

2.5 stars. I read and loved Tangerine. So I was excited to get an opportunity to read and review Palace of the Drowned, to be published in June 2021. I have traveled to Venice twice and I thought the description of the city was spot on. So atmospheric! However the characters were hard to warm up to. Frankie was just not that interesting and Jack, why name a female character Jack? It was distracting to me. All in all an ok read. I'm just tired of the stereotypical weak female in distress storyline. Thank you to Bookbrowse and Flatiron books for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you like a sense of eeriness and gloomy atmosphere then you might enjoy this story. As a reader it kept me on the edge mostly because I had no idea what was going on with the main character; so many things are "hinted" at and I found myself constantly trying to nail down the storyline. The ending was okay, but it left me feeling that there were so many other ways it could have ended. The author's previous novel, Tangerine, has been on my TBR list for awhile. This book has left me more inclined to read it so that's a good thing!
My 3 stars is because it was good but not great. But I'll be anxious to read the next one.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” This is the quote that comes to mind in my review of this new novel by the author of Tangerine, which was a favorite of mine. This thriller is very slow to unravel. Frankie, the protagonist suffered a breakdown a while ago and goes to Venice to a friend’s palazzo to recover and resurrect her faltering writing career. She is approached by a strange young woman who claims to be a huge fan. This stranger ingratiates herself into Frankie’s world. Frankie’s dearest friend Jack, the owner of the palazzo, is delayed in her plans to meet Frankie in Venice. Mangan drops tiny hints throughout the novel that make the reader question who are the good guys and who are not. The reader is stumped throughout most of the novel, never quite feeling sure what to believe. That constant feeling of doubt and suspense, created by the author is a sign of a good plot and great writing. The theme of ambition is well addressed in the novel. My rating is not higher due to some unresolved plot lines and a very unexpected ending.

Palace of the Drowned is suspenseful and atmospheric, but its sinister undertones never quite pay off. The best character in this book by far is Venice. The author did a wonderful job describing the city in the off season and then the historic flooding of 1966. The human characters seem less successfully rendered. Neither of the main characters, Frankie and Gilly, are very likable, and I found their actions and their motivations at times inexplicable. For a supposedly strong, independent woman, Frankie easily gives in to her editor at a crucial point late in the book. And Gilly's motivations are never clear to me, even after the plot is fully revealed. Although I enjoyed the book while I was reading it, I was ultimately disappointed when I got to the end.

Attracted to a description of this book as a "literary thriller" and taking place in the great city of Venice, I enthusiastically delved into the lives of the three main protagonists: Frankie - the author, Jackie her best friend, and Gillian the aspiring author and much younger of the three.

Frankie, sensitive, single, not immune to criticism is suffering a downer from the not well received publication of her latest novel has just physically accosted someone she believed wrote the poor review. At Jackie's suggestion she takes a break from her life in London traveling to Venice in the Winter only to be subsumed by what she feels is a depressing life in general. There she meets Gillian who inveigled herself into Frankie's life under false and suspicious pretenses.

More of a dissection of a life of an artist cum three women with life crises then a literary thriller, I enjoyed the prose used to describe each character's dilemma at a special time in their lives-mid life crisis versus starting a anew.

Atmospheric and eerie thanks to the pitch perfect depiction of Venice off season. The barely likable main character, Frankie and her relationships with Jack, Leonard and, above all Gilly seem contrived to me. Her indecision regarding these friends changed with each new chapter. The pacing seemed to drag in the middle though I did finish to see how the story resolved...(not a surprise ending). My main issue however is I felt I had read this storyline before: young author befriends older author whose latest efforts failed to live up to expectations, "mayhem " ensues, young author's manuscript becomes latest offering of older author...
A disappointing read.

Palace of the Drowned was not a compelling read for me. I was never able to develop any sympathy for the characters. I found them shallow and uninteresting which made me lose interest in the plot about halfway through the novel. The author did make an effort to set the scene with interesting descriptions of Venice. But that alone could not save this book. This was not my favorite read.

I feel I need to state from the beginning that I did not like this novel. I wanted to, but I just didn't. The main characters and there were really only five, didn't grab me. I thought the time frame would interest me (1966), the location of the novel (Venice), and the main character's career (writing novels). Nope, nothing. I still didn't completely understand what the main character (Frankie) did to bring on her breakdown. Yes, there was a twist at the end which helped clear up some questions. As the book dragged on, towards the end, it started to be more interesting but in the end it was just depressing