Fiction Review: The Ferryman

With my husband's encouragement, I chose The Ferryman by Justin Cronin from my stack of Big Books in late August. It was longer than some of the other books still in my pile, but he assured me it was a quick, gripping read. And he was right! This inventive novel from the author of The Passage trilogy (and a very different (not sci fi) novel,  The Summer Guest) took me on a rollercoaster ride, with surprises around every corner.

Proctor works as a Ferryman, a very respected position, on the island of Prospera. There was some sort of global crisis out in the wider world that resulted in the creation of this hidden, remote paradise. No one dies on Prospera. Mental, physical, and emotional health is constantly monitored, and when someone's rating starts to decline (and definitely before they hit 10%), they "retire." Ferryman like Proctor guide them through this transition phase and accompany them to a ferry, where they will travel to a neighboring island known as the Nursery. There, they will be "reiterated," eventually taking the ferry back to Prospera as a new 16-year-old iteration (with no memory of their past life/lives) to start fresh. Proctor remembers his own ferry ride to Prospera at 16, meeting his adoptive parents, Cynthia and Malcolm, who were delighted at his arrival. Now, Proctor enjoys his important job--and is very good at it--but he has started to have some difficulties. First, his mother dies (actually dies) in a very unexpected and unusual way, and now he's been summoned to retire his own father. Even more disturbing, Proctor has been dreaming, which isn't supposed to happen to Prosperans, and his dreams are increasingly disturbing. He begins to see cracks and flaws in their perfect society, as he wonders what is happening to him.

That is just the broad framework of the earliest chapters in this unique novel, which is continually surprising. As Proctor's journey continues, the reader goes along for the ride. Every time you think you have something figured out or know what's coming next, there is another shocking twist you never saw coming. It's a truly unique science fiction plot that provides insights into our own humanity and society (as the best sci fi does), like this passage:

"It's been my experience that a lot of human interaction comes down to just these sorts of exchanges, less an actual conversation than a form of parallel confession--the two parties performing their interior monologues, not really listening to each other but merely taking turns. I do not mean this cynically or as a statement of personal superiority; I'm as guilty as the next guy."
 

Cronin's writing pulls the narrative along at a fast pace; this was indeed a quick read because I couldn't bear to set it down. His characters are fully fleshed-out and feel real so that you are rooting for (or booing for) them throughout the story. I love this combination in a novel: unique, gripping plot with plenty of emotional depth and thoughtful insights. The end result is truly magical and a delight to read, and the ending was perfect. I wish I could read it again for the first time, not knowing what was coming.

538 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - August: Seasons, Elements, Weather
Big Book Summer Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. It sounds great, with multiple narrators.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

It's Monday 9/2! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Yay, it's finally September! Fall is my favorite season, and I really struggle with the heat and humidity of summer these days. Right on time, a storm came through yesterday, leaving in its wake cooler temperatures and low humidity--ahhh!

So where have I been for the past two weeks? We were on a short vacation last week, after a hectic week in between trips filled with appointments, unpacking and repacking, unexpected house guests, and a lovely graduation party for our younger son's girlfriend, who is now a board-certified Physician's Assistant!

So, last Sunday, after a harried morning packing, we drove our camper to Promised Land State Park in the Poconos Mountains region of Pennsylvania, about three hours away. We both really needed a break after having to cancel our vacation in July/August, and this was perfect. We were there Sunday through Thursday, so it was nice and quiet, with only a few other campers in our loop (the way we like it!). It was our first visit to this park, and it was beautiful.

Thrilled that our campsite had a water view! Beautiful at sunset.

View of the lake from my bed in the morning.

Our peaceful campsite

 

My stamina is still quite low after my bout of COVID two months' ago, so we mostly took it easy, but we enjoyed a short, flat walk around Conservation Island in the park's Upper Lake. Since it's an island, it was a beautiful hike with water views all around.

A bench along the path on the island

Enjoying a rest break!

Much of the trail runs along the edge of the lake

LOTS of lily pads, many with blooms

One of two beaver dams we saw in the park

After lots of rest, the next day we took our kayaks out onto Upper Lake for a relaxed paddle on the quiet lake.

Ready to kayak on Upper Lake

There's a deer on that shore in front of the kayak

Beautiful reflections in the still water!

Great day on the lake!

 

On our last day, we did another short hike, to Little Falls. The whole trail followed the stream through dense woods, with smaller riffles and falls along the way, so it was absolutely beautiful.

Lovely walk along the creek

Lots of riffles and small falls along the way

Little Falls

Oops! We missed a bridge, made a wrong turn & had to cross on rocks!

We enjoyed our little hike to Little Falls!

And we enjoyed the views from the Wildlife Observation Area. We saw Great Blue Herons and white egrets, but neither of the bald eagles who nest near the campground (though we could hear them). We also heard two Great Horned Owls calling to each other late one night!

Great Blue Heron

Storm coming over Lower Lake

Evening reflections

The Labor Day weekend for us was mostly unpacking, lots of laundry, and catching up here at home after a hectic few weeks. We leave again on Friday!

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On Video

Tag de France Booktube Tag - This fun video asks book/reading questions based on prompts related to the Tour de France and the Olympics this summer. Fun!

Friday Reads 8-23-24 - my brief weekly update of what I am reading and listening to

 My Answers to Your Questions, Part 1: Travel, the Outdoors, Where I've Lived, and More - To celebrate hitting 1000 subscribers in the spring, I asked my viewers for questions ... and they had some great ones! I had a blast answering their questions. This video covers the general questions asked.

My Answers to Your Questions, Part 2: Books! - in Part 2 of my Ask Me Anything series, I answered viewer's questions about books and reading, including my favorite books of all time (no, I couldn't pick just one), and the Big Book Summer question that stumped me!

(Part 3 on chronic illness is coming this week)

Fall TBR Reading Plans - R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Peril - Fall doesn't just mean cooler weather; it also means my annual switch to darker, suspenseful books. Another thing I love about fall!

Little Falls, Promised Land State Park - this 1-min short captures the beauty of the falls we hiked to - instant peace!

#FridayReads  - this is a 1-min review of my current read, Trust, as I finish Big Book Summer!

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On the Blog

Not much writing time lately!

Friday56 - Trust by Hernan Diaz - I didn't have enough time to write any reviews in the past two weeks (I'm way behind), but I managed to try out this fun weekly link-up!

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 What We're Reading

After finishing The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, which was fabulous, I started my last book for the #BigBookSummer Challenge: Trust by Hernan Diaz. I had the pleasure of meeting the author in 2022, the weekend this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was released, at Booktopia. None of us knew then what a huge hit (and award winner) it would turn out to be! I'm finally reading it, buddy reading with my YouTube friend, Nikki. It's a very unique novel, and I'm glad I'm discussing it with someone. It's divided into four parts, and each part is a separate written piece by a different character: a novel written about a wealthy financier and his wife, a partially-finished autobiography, a memoir by a journalist, and journal entries from another character. It shows how the exact same situations can be viewed and described differently from different perspectives. It's also a bit of a mystery as to whose description is accurate and what certain characters are really like. I'm down to the last section (the journal) and will finish it tonight, to cap off my Big Book Summer reading!

I also finished listening to my last Big Book Summer audio, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (release date September 10). It picks up right where the first book ended, carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the unique children of Marsyas island, and Linus. There is a bit of a prologue about how Arthur first returned to the island and started the home there, and then it jumps back to the present day, as Arthur prepares to give testimony before the Council of Utmost Importance about his abuse as a child supposedly under the protection of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). And there is a new child coming to join the home on Marsyas. It was just as delightful, funny, warm, and thoughtful as the original.

 

On our short road trip, my husband and I listened to a short story by thriller author Linda Castillo (new to us), Dark Storm Rising. It features Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, who appears in a 27-book (so far) series by Castillo. Here, she and her new husband return to the area where Kate grew up, an Amish community near Lake Erie in Ohio. They're on their honeymoon, looking forward to winter hikes and cozy nights in the cabin, but instead, they encounter a violent criminal who's been setting fire to the cabins, owned by a kind, older Amish couple. When things take a dangerous turn, Kate and her husband jump in to help the couple and the community. We enjoyed it and would definitely read more from this author.

 

My current audio is also a Big Book, though I won't finish it by tonight! It's a cross-over book that also counts for the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) event in fall: The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey. Until just this moment, I thought this was a YA novel, but its listing doesn't say that, so I guess it is adult suspense/thriller. It does focus on a group of older teens, coming of age in rural Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After a night spent partying up in the woods in an area their parents have warned them to stay away from, they encounter Alvaretta Graves, whom many in town call a witch. That's about as far as I've gotten so far, but apparently the witch curses the kids, leading to all kinds of problems. It's good so far with a great narrator.

My husband, Ken, picked a chunkster for his last Big Book of the summer! After studying his stack of Big Books he set aside in May, he instead picked a book off the bookcase full of Stephen King and Dean Koontz books we inherited from my dad: Dreamcatcher by King. It's about four childhood friends who saved a mentally disabled kid from a bully as young boys. They now gather together as adults for an annual hunting trip in the snowy Maine woods. During one such get-together, they encounter a stranger ... and something otherworldly. Ken says it's classic Stephen King horror (and we both love the way King writes about kids--he captures childhood so perfectly).

Our older son, 30, is probably still reading book 2 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington, An Echo of Things to Come. He started a new job last month and hasn't had any reading time and was out on my his grandparents' sailboat this weekend. Despite how busy he's been, I did (of course) get him books for his birthday! I chose two by favorite authors: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie and Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell, book 1 of his new series, Court of Shadows. He loved them both, and his girlfriend also gave him The Heroes, so he'll have some bookstore credits to spend, too.

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What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.

 

What are you and your family reading this week?

Friday56 - Trust by Hernan Diaz

This is my first time participating in Friday 56, but I've been meaning to for ages!  To participoate, gran the book you are currently reading, turn to page 56 (or 56% in an e-book), pick a passage, post it on your blog, and then link up with Anne at My Head is Full of Books.

I'm currently reading my last book of #BigBookSummer, Trust by Hernan Diaz.

From page 56 (actually, page 56 is blank, so this is from page 57, and it happens to be a passage I marked):

"Intimacy can be an unbearable burden for those who, first experiencing it after a lifetime of proud self-sufficiency. suddenly realize it makes their world complete. Finding bliss becomes one with the fear of losing it. They doubt their right to hold someone else accountable for their happiness; they worry that their loved one may find their reverence tedious; they fear their yearning may have distorted yheir features in ways they cannot see. Thus, as the weight of all these questions and concerns bends them inward, their newfound joy in companionship turns into  deeper expression of the solitude they thought they had left behind."

Join the fun!

It's Monday 8/19! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

 Life

Last week was a week of highs and lows (the chronic illness rollercoaster, as we say), as I continue my slow recovery from COVID last month. I had a few good days early in the week, when I got some work done, got a haircut, and enjoyed a short walk on a nice walking trail I hadn't been on in months. 

Then, I crashed (that's what we call it in ME/CFS when you suddenly get much worse). I was completely couchbound Thursday. I always know I'm in bad shape when I cry easily, and Thursday morning, I cried over a podcast (hey, it was a good one!), an e-mail from my doctor, a text from a friend, and my lab results. At that point, I gave in and spent the day on the couch (and cried over an old Grey's Anatomy episode--nothing like a good, cleansing cry over fiction! ha ha). I found out that in spite of getting so sick with COVID, once again I hardly made any antibodies, so I don't even get some partial protection for a while. That's why I can't get the vaccines, too--they make me worse for six months, and I hardly make any antibodies anyway. 

The good news is that the day of "aggressive rest" worked, and I was able to make our planned trip to Long Island with my husband Friday. It was our older son's 30th birthday (!!), and he couldn't come home because he's been working long hours (he has the same illness I do). His girlfriend and her family invited us to come visit, and we had a wonderful time meeting her family and celebrating our son's birthday. They took us out to dinner Friday, and then they hosted a family BBQ/pool party on Saturday, so we got to meet some extended family, too. I only took one picture the entire weekend (off my game!), but here are our two families together. I'm the short one, and my son, husband, and older son are to the right of me. We really enjoyed the weekend and getting to know her family.

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On Video

July 2024 Reading Wrap-Up - a short summary of the 5 Big Books I read and listened to last month, including some outstanding novels!

Friday Reads 8-16-24 - a quick overview of the two excellent Big Books I am currently reading and listening to.

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On the Blog

Movie Monday: Killers of the Flower Moon - I read (and loved) the book; my husband did not read it. But we both loved this immersive, suspenseful, engrossing movie about a "truth is stranger than fiction" historical horrifying series of crimes, and the newly-formed FBI that solved it.

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 What We're Reading

I'm still reading The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, another pick for #BigBookSummer. My husband and I are both big fans of Cronin and loved his The Passage trilogy. I also enjoyed his very different novel, The Summer Guest (realistic fiction, not sci fi), and my husband enjoyed The Ferryman last summer. Wow, this book just keeps blowing my mind! It's a unique sci fi story about a "perfect world" created on an isolated island that has been cut-off from the rest of the world, presumably due to some massive global crisis that occurred. There, on Prospera, no one dies. Mental, physical, and emotional health is constantly monitored, and when someone's rating starts to rapidly decline (and definitely before they hit 10%), they "retire," boarding a ferry to a neighboring island called The Nursery, where they will be reiterated, with a new 16-year-old iteration eventually taking a ferry back to Prospera (with no memory of his/her past life) to start fresh. The main character, Proctor, works as a ferryman, guiding people to the ferry on their last day, and begins to suspect that maybe their perfect world has some flaws. This novel is unique, gripping, has wonderful characters, and is constantly surprising! I'm down to about 100 pages and hate to set it down.

 

After finishing The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune on audio, I immediately began listening to the new sequel, Somewhere Beyond the Sea. It picks up right where the first book ended, carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the unique children of Marsyas island, and Linus. There is a bit of a prologue about how Arthur first returned to the island and started the home there, and then it jumps back to the present day, as Arthur prepares to give testimony before the Council of Utmost Importance about his abuse as a child supposedly under the protection of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). And there is a new child coming to join the home on Marsyas. It's excellent so far, just as delightful, funny, warm, and thoughtful as the original.

My husband, Ken, picked a chunkster for his last Big Book of the summer! After studying his stack of Big Books he set aside in May, he instead picked a book off the bookcase full of Stephen King and Dean Koontz books we inherited from my dad: Dreamcatcher by King. It's about four childhood friends who saved a mentally disabled kid from a bully as young boys. They now gather together as adults for an annual hunting trip in the snowy Maine woods. During one such get-together, they encounter a stranger ... and something otherworldly. Ken says it's classic Stephen King horror (and we both love the way King writes about kids--he captures childhood so perfectly).

 

Our older son, 30, is still reading book 2 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington, An Echo of Things to Come. He started a new job last month and hasn't had any reading time! He's loving his new job so far, but it's keeping him busy. Despite how busy he's been, I did (of course) get him books for his birthday! I chose two by favorite authors: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie and Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell, book 1 of his new series, Court of Shadows. He loved them both, and his girlfriend also gave him The Heroes, so he'll have some bookstore credits to spend, too.

 __________

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.

 

What are you and your family reading this week?