Drowning (Review)

“Six minutes after flight 1421 takes off, it crashes into the ocean. The passengers who survived the crash think it’s a miracle. They believe they’re the lucky ones. Then the plane begins to sink to the ocean floor.”

— Drowning by T.J. Newman

The vibes

I call this — cozy up and tuck in, because there’s no way you’re putting this book down.

book (pre-order) / lounge set / slippers / bottle / popcorn bowl / blanket / book light / teapot / tea

The review

From just reading the back cover — which I quoted above — my heart was racing and I could not stop thinking about this book. And — just as I expected and as I did TJ Newman’s first novel, Falling — I devoured this book cover to cover in less than 24 hours.

Newman, who’s a former flight attendant, writes viscerally real scenes from a plane. They are our worst nightmares come to life — wait, I mean, come to the page. Sorry, that’s how real it all felt! She also writes incredibly real and relatable characters. There’s a lot of characters, but I had no problem picturing them in there various roles onboard and as a rescue team. The book’s short chapters hop between perspectives — it’s brilliant storytelling throughout. Feels like an action movie but I’m reading a book.

And on that note.. this book is billed as a thriller (what isn’t these days) and I would like to re-categorize this as a suspense action book. I mean, we can have action movies, can’t we have action books? There’s HELLA suspense, and yes I was thrilled, but it was sooo different from any other “thriller” in that there wasn’t a bad guy so much as a wildly unfolding situation with tons of danger.

Honestly, I don’t know what all to tell you about the plot because it jumps around so much — the crash, the sinking, the rescue process, and all the things that go wrong. This book is very technical and includes a LOT of descriptions that, to be honest, my eyes flew through because I was so stressed. I had to stop myself from reading on so many times because I needed to get a visual in my head first. Like truly it was hard to picture some of these precarious scenes and the complex skill set that some characters had were challenging to understand.

If you’re reading this and are like, “I don’t know if I’m up for this propulsive thriller that gets my heart racing,” you might need to listen to your gut BUT let me tell you there’s also a lot of heart in this book. There’s loss and grief, and there’s also romance. I actually really got into the romance and I balled at the end (not entirely uncommon for me).

Pre-order this one asap! And, if you can’t wait, get Falling by TJ Newman to tide you over!