Audio Review : The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
Narrated by : Madeleine Maby
Pages/Time : 304/8h55
Genre : Thriller
Stand alone
My Rating : 2.5/5
About the Book :
She meets Blue, a female bartender who recognizes the hunted look in a fugitive’s eyes and offers her a place to stay. With dwindling choices, Tanya-now-Amelia accepts. An uneasy―and dangerous―alliance is born.
It’s almost impossible to live off the grid today, but Amelia-now-Debra and Blue have the courage, the ingenuity, and the desperation, to try. Hopscotching from city to city, Debra especially is chased by a very dark secret…can she outrun her past?
My Thoughts :
By now you guys know how much I enjoy reading a good mystery. You also know I don’t particularly enjoy writing negative reviews – so I’ll try to keep this short.
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz sets an interesting premise : a woman escaping a mysterious past with a suitcase full of secrets, switching identities like others change socks. After recently reading and enjoying Still Mine by Amy Stuart, I was definitely up for another woman-on-the-run story. Reviewers who I find myself usually agreeing with also gave it highly positive reviews, so I went in with a few expectations.
Unfortunately, I didn’t think much of the story. I finished it thinking : “Did I just read the same book as everyone else?”
I found a lot of things to be lacking in this one : the character of Debra wasn’t that interesting, and her story felt very disjointed. I kept wondering where the story was going, not because I was intrigued, but because it just felt like Debra was wandering around, aimless, waiting for the Big Finale. Which is pretty much how I would summarize my experience. Even though stuff happened, it didn’t leave a big impression on me. I also had a hard time believing that the character of Debra would make some (if not most) of these choices. I think Debra would have had to be a very different character than the one portrayed in the book for these to make sense to me.
The reveal at the end didn’t do much for me either. It was highly predictable, which I wouldn’t mind if it hadn’t been built as this huge, impossible secret. Hmm. It all felt very cliche to me.
All in all, this was clearly a miss for me. It’s not a bad book exactly, but it’s not one I really enjoyed and cherished either. I think there are much stronger thrillers out there, but I also know I’m in the minority for this one : so if this book interests you, give it a try. Chances are you’ll like it more than I did!
