Page Count 482
Publication date May 2023
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Synopsis
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When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.
And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.
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Review
It’s taking me forever to gather my thoughts on this book, I can’t remember the last time I was so divided. Let’s give it a try.
The premise is brilliant. With very little build up to Caz waking up alone on the cruise liner, I was truly at a loss to explain how and why.
I do love survival stories and I’d yet to encounter one set on a boat adrift at sea. Dean leverages the usual threats of starvation and hypothermia to an all new level; no land, no naturally occurring resource, no fixed location.
Reading from Caz perspective in first person, present -as is Dean’s strength- we can only ever know as much as the main character does, a vital format for a thriller such as this.
However, this meant a ridiculous amount of repetition. Whilst I found Caz a sympathetic character, I quickly grew bored of her inner monologue. I’d estimate a third of the novel is her whining about the decade old betrayal of her deceased gambling-addict father or worrying about her mentally ill mother and ex druggy sister.
There is plenty of action in The Last Passenger Those scenes are tense and fast paced, the motive is well thought out and the story is within an inch of being plausible in a horrifying way. I was completely blindsided a few times, something I relish in a well written thriller.
But then there was the ending. The absolutely awful, cheesy trope of an ending. I hated it.
The characters were stereotypical, not a jot of diversity in sight and no development save for the slow changing of the American oldboy from selfish narcissism to a glimmer of empathy.
It’s hard not to review without spoiling the surprises in store, it’s hard to review full stop. Half the time I loved The Last Passenger, the rest I despised. Fully on the fence but rating above average for ingenuity and decent writing.
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Roxanne Reviews 