This is a book that feels near impossible to talk about without ruining any part of the experience…but I feel like I *can* tell you that this book felt like what it might be like if The Giver, Recursion, Project Hail Mary, and Sea of Tranquility had a book baby. It is a sweeping (500+ page) sci-fi dystopian novel, yet with slower paced atmospheric vibes. It feels like it would be the perfect rainy weekend book, which works out especially well given all the spring rain we’ve been having here in Oregon this year!
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Sometimes I have a difficult time getting into books that are heavily character driven and/or involve a lot of world building, but that was not the case for me here—there were definitely enough twists and turns to keep me on my toes along with themes of love, loss, and what it means to live.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

<b>4.5</b> rounded down. This is a tricky book to review without giving stuff away - honestly, don’t look at reviews and just read it if the blurb sounds enticing, maybe then reading reviews after to process. Now. This is definitely a mindfuck. 😅 💁🏻‍♀️ At first I was a bit resistant when it goes down because it felt like the beginning (or so it seems) and world overall was being rushed and we were getting a - granted clever and smart - spin on a somewhat predictable outcome .. but I didn’t realize we had miiiles to go before we slept. This book has a well rounded-ness I wasn’t wholly expecting and it’s clearly due to Cronin’s skill with detail and overall crafting of the story, it’s structure, flow, characters. Everywhere I was impressed by the facets of detail, though there are some more abstract scenes where I found the writing a little less successful. I wouldn’t say I tried to figure anything out, this was so immersive that I was happy to let the twists and reveals just come, but I do wish I would have read it less broken up - I’ll likely be rereading it eventually to really take it in as a whole.

<i>Thanks so much to Ballantine and Net Galley for an e-ARC of this book! 🙏🏼</i>

Wow, what a remarkable book! I thought when I started that it might be a bit too sci-fi for my tastes (and tbh it was close), but it was actually very accessible and the story was amazing. Even when I was a bit confused, I found I didn’t care because I was having so much fun reading it!

Cronin’s world building is impeccable. I was in complete awe of all the details that made up this universe (what it must be like inside his head!), and how realistic it felt. I think a lot of that can be credited to how he took issues/themes from our world (global warming, power imbalances between classes, living in a police state, etc.), and used Prospera to explore them. The end result is incredibly powerful and created a world that is easy to get lost in.

The characters were all extremely well done and distinct, to the point where the POV would switch and I knew immediately whose perspective I was in without being told. I especially loved how complex each person was, and how even the ones you were rooting against were sympathetic at points.

This novel was also a wild ride. Whenever I thought I’d figured out what was going on, Cronin flipped it on its head and shocked me. I genuinely had no idea what was happening fully until the last page, and it was such an enjoyable journey.

I found Cronin to be a truly talented writer. I’ve heard most of his novels live up to this standard and I’m looking forward to checking them all out!

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley for the ARC! The Ferryman is out today!

4.5/5

The Ferryman is an enthralling read that is nearly impossible to set aside. This captivating novel is filled with excitement, mystery, and a satisfying conclusion.

The Ferryman is a riveting standalone novel by author Justin Cronin. The story is set in a hidden island utopia called Prospera, where the residents enjoy long, fulfilling lives until their monitors embedded in their forearms fall below 10 percent. Proctor Bennett, a ferryman who gently shepherds people through the retirement process, begins to have dreams—which is supposed to be impossible in Prospera. His monitor percentage also begins to drop alarmingly fast. When he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message, Proctor begins to question everything he thought he knew about Prospera.

Cronin's writing is masterful, and he creates a richly detailed world that is both familiar and strange. The characters are complex and well-developed, and the plot is suspenseful and unpredictable. The Ferryman is a thought-provoking novel that explores the nature of utopia, the power of memory, and the importance of family. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the chance to review this advance copy. The Ferryman is available everywhere you buy books now!

he Ferryman by Justin Cronin was one of my most anticipated releases in 2023. I am a huge fan of his Passage trilogy and was excited to slip into this science fiction fantasy. While quite different from his previous works, Cronin takes us to a utopian world where all is not as it seems. With twists and surprises, I found myself caught up in the Ferryman’s fate.

Cronin takes us to the archipelago of Prospera. Created by the Director, select humans live and are reborn on these islands. They are sheltered from the outside world where natural & man-made disasters have left the world uninhabitable.

Citizens arrive as young adults and are adopted by the citizens of Prospera. They are nurtured and sent off to school. Such was the case with Proctor Bennett. He is now an employee of the Department of Social Contracts. He helps aging citizens retire and board the ferry to be re-birthed. The job is mostly comforting them as they get ready to embark, but occasionally, force is needed.

Proctor lives with his wife Elisa but has been restless lately. He is having dreams and his health monitor is dropping in numbers. When he escorts his own father to the ferry, he says something that sets off a chain of events. The story that unfolds hooked me and never let go. While I had hints about what was happening, Cronin still surprised me.

The tale is told from multiple points of view from the elite in Prospera to the workers who cross over to the island and work for them. Conspiracies, factions, upheaval and power grabs bring suspenseful moments. As cracks appeared their society mirrored more of what we see that is wrong in our current society.

The story puts forth some intriguing questions while pointing out some inherent flaws in society. An addictive, thought-provoking science fiction that you’ll ponder long after you close the book.

The story has a Matrix vibe and I could not set it down. The world-building is lush and complex and the pacing slowly builds until you grip the pages with each discovery and climatic scene.

While this appears to be a standalone and I was left satisfied, I would be curious to know what happens next. Either way, I look forward to more from this author.

This is my first Justin Cronin book and all I have to say is, wow-I was not expecting this reading experience! This book is long (~500 pgs) so it was a little intimidating starting out, but once the storyline picked up, I was reading nonstop.

Without giving too much away, it is about a dystopian world where global warming is happening and there are 3 hidden islands, each with their own roles. Everyone has a monitor embedded in their arm and they are forced to retire at a certain life percentage & are then reborn. The main character, Proctor, is their "ferryman" to their new life. It is full of action, sci-fi, and world building. I can't wait to read The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin next. Thank you Ballantine Books, NetGalley, and Justin Cronin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, this book is not light reading but rather it is though-provoking and in the genres of sci-fi and fantasy. The setting is a Utopian island named Prospera, an island whose inhabitants enjoy all kinds of privileges and even get to be “reborn” when their time of life runs out. The regular people are the servants of the Prosperans and when the book starts the “Arrivalists” are beginning to foment a rebellion against the powers over them. The main character is Proctor, the one for whom the book is named. His job is to ferry people who are retiring from Prospera to the island called the Nursery where their memory is wiped and they begin life anew. I thought the entire book was mesmerizing but totally surreal, like a Salvador Dali painting, impossible to believe but beautiful nonetheless. This book was beautifully written but cannot be read quickly for two reasons. The first is because of its length and the second reason is because of its depth. There are some chapters that I just got stuck in, wondering what had happened and how those events were going to play out. The characters are not particularly believable since they are other-worldly, but all of the characters are well-developed. I suppose that I could relate best to those who served and were trying to rebel and obtain their own freedom to choose what they wanted to be and how they wanted to live, but for the most part, I was outside of the story looking in and not an active participant as I am in many fiction books. This book is a compelling and mystifying read, so imaginative that it was creepy at times. I especially enjoyed how the plot was laid out methodically and the mystery of who was working for and against the strangely Utopian civilization was revealed slowly and brilliantly. This is the first book that I have read by this author and it’s a real head-spinning winner for me!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, and all opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guidelines Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

One of the best dystopian reads I have experienced in a long time! Justin Cronin's The Ferryman opens to a utopian society that sounds perfect. However, there are secrets that are beginning to come to light, and Proctor Bennett is beginning to question his role in Prospera's existence.

The formula for dystopia is here: Government that may be suppressing their citizens, the ordinary citizens that want to rebel, and the high society citizens that don't want their perfect world disrupted...until some are made aware of what is really going on behind the scenes. Cronin may follow the script, but he has a masterful way of laying the foundation and outcome of Proctor's story that grabs you the instance you begin reading.

It was hard to put down! I am eager to read more by Cronin!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

Well, that was a ride!

I just finished this yesterday and I’m honestly still processing the experience. Here’s what I can tell you:
- it’s extremely original and mostly entertaining
- this is true sci-fi and if that’s not necessarily you’re genre I’d describe it as a little less palatable than a Blake Crouch or Andy Weir novel
- I kept going back and forth on whether I was enjoying it or not 🤣
- there’s not a TON I can say without giving things away

Ultimately, if you’re a sci-reader or a fan of this author — I’d say definitely pick this up. I bet you’ll love it. If that’s not your thing and you’re looking to dip your toes in the water I’d probably point you to one of the authors mentioned above first. I’m glad I stuck with this and found out how it all ended, but there were moments in the middle I wasn’t so sure about it. I am always in awe of a sci-fi writer’s brain and how they are able to come up with their ideas and all their supporting details. For that, Cronin gets 5⭐️.

To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come...

Sci-fi meets closed circle mystery in this tale of a perfect life. The island of Prospera has mild temps, easy living, and beautiful families served by the service staff who live on the Annex in comparative poverty. When the Prosperans are tired of their life, they head to the Nursery to begin a new iteration as a teen ward. All is well until the eponymous Ferryman, Director Proctor Bennet meets a strange teen, Caeli who doesn't quite fit in. Is she a dream? Where did she come from - not the Nursery nor the Annex.

Delightful yet creepy parable of class consciousness and good intentions gone awry

Justin Cronin is a master storyteller. In The Ferryman, we follow Proctor Bennet on the seemingly utopian island of Prospera. Nothing is as it seems. It’s really better to go in blind, because anything else will spoil it. Definitely recommended if you liked The Passage series. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

This book was a wild ride! I have not read anything else by this author so I didn't know what to expect. This was a wonderful dystopian sci-fi novel that keeps you guessing. It started a little slow and is a bit long so I'm rating it 4.5 stars. The storytelling was amazing and I definitely plan to pick up more books by this author.

Proctor Bennett is a Ferryman, he takes residents of Prospera, an island chain in the middle of the ocean, when they are ready to "retire" and be reiterated at the Nursery. Prospera is a utopia, seemlingly perfect...unless you live on the Annex, where your only job is to serve the people on Prospera. People from the Annex also don't have the option to be reiterated, unlike the Prosperans, who begin life at around 16 years old, people from the Annex are born, grow up, work, and then die. And the Annex is starting to rebell against Prosperans, and Proctor is caught in the middle between them. His wife's mother is the leader of Prospera, but he feels like things aren't right for everyone. While Proctor struggles with this, the island seems to be falling apart, the weather is out of control, with heat waves and tornados and torrential rain. After a disastrous medical exam, Proctor is slated to be involuntarily reinterated, and that's where everything just falls apart.

I started out not really liking this book. Cronin had a stranglehold on the vocabulary, insterting some really random, almost obscure, words into the text. Thank goodness I was reading this as an e-arc so I could look up the words on the go lol. But at around 20-25%, he relaxes on the $20 words and the book just...takes off. I read almost all of this in one day, because it was that absorbing. This started out as a 2.5-3 star book, but in the end I'm definitely giving this a 4.5.
It took me to a place I was 100% expecting, and then took it beyond, to a place I never expected. I didn't like all the characters all that much, Elise is kind of a wooden cutout that creaks as she moves, but many of the characters, including Procter himself and many of the inhabitants of the Annex are vibrant and well fleshed out. I think that if you've liked Cronin's previous books, you'll like this one. I really liked the storyline, and it speculates with how humanity deals with things like the climate crisis, on putting humans into stasis, and how our ability to dream affects us as a person.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine, Justin Cronin and Netgalley for an advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Somewhere, not shown on any map, are three hidden, isolated islands. The largest, the island of Prospera, is a utopian paradise, where people live long healthy lives, wanting for nothing, while pursuing their passions. The people that work for the Prosperans live on the tiny island of Annex and struggle to get by. The only way to the third island, the Nursery, is by a ferry. It's a journey every Prosperan takes twice in their life, once as a teenager and once when they retire, when they then go through a regenerative process, where they are "reiterated" and "born again" to live life over (and over).

MC Proctor Bennett is a ferryman - he escorts retirees to the ferry where they go to begin life anew. One day Proctor is told he must escort his father to the ferry. Everything is going normally until they reach the dock, when his father jumps out of the car, running around, rambling, saying outlandish, crazy things. At first Proctor dismisses what his father said, but as he starts to dig into what his father could have meant, he begins questioning things around him, and shocking truths are revealed and begin to unravel not just his life, but his entire existence.

When I began The Ferryman, I knew diving in that I was embarking on an epic journey. I set aside time away from any distractions that might normally interrupt my reading, and let myself become fully immersed in this new world. Books like this come along rarely. I'm lucky if I get to read a book like this (my favorite tbh) - an action-packed, dystopian/sci-fi, wondrous thrill ride, that has that mysterious, confusing (wtf) vibe that I love - that's this good, once maybe twice a year. The Ferryman has everything I love in a book from the start.

The writing, which is sublime, combined with the high level of detail in the world building let's you picture Prospera, the Nursery, and the characters in your mind. The story which feels fresh and new, is so intriguing, the novel's long length (445p) flies by. And just when you think you know what's going on, Cronin turns the story 180 degrees. If you like the kind of books that don't make any sense, until they do, you'll love this.

The Ferryman isn't just another science-fiction novel; it's a thought provoking, dreamy, contemplation of some of the real world problems of today.

"The mind works wondrously; it is capable of astonishing feats. It is the only machine in nature capable of thinking one thing while knowing its opposite."

Highly recommended for lovers of: Science-fiction, Action-Adventure, Suspense, Thrillers, Mystery, General Fiction, Literary Fiction

I was first introduced to Justin Cronin's writing through his first novel, MARY AND O'NEIL. His quiet character study of a couple won the Pen/Hemingway Award as well as my admiration. I then read THE SUMMER GUEST and enjoyed that as well.

When Cronin began to explore the worlds of speculative fiction / sci-fi / horror, I stopped reading his books for a while because those are not my preferred genres. I crave a quieter more introspective read.

I decided to try again with THE FERRYMAN. Justin Cronin's writing is as sharp as ever, building worlds for his readers. The story of Proctor Bennett, his wife, Elise, and a host of other characters, drew me in at first. His lush descriptions of the surroundings are vivid.

Once the story picks up in intensity and the mysteries start to reveal themselves, the excitement kicks in and yet I had trouble keeping up with it all. If you like speculative fiction and dystopian novels, there is much to enjoy about THE FERRYMAN. I appreciated the overall message and writing, but it felt very long at times, clocking in at over 500 pages.

I continue to admire Justin Cronin's imagination and I'm grateful to Netgalley and to Ballantine Books for the early digital review copy.

I received a copy of The Ferryman from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Tax season got away from me and I was working an extraordinary amount so I didn't get to read as much as I thought I would. So, I haven't quite finished the book yet, but I am enjoying it a lot so far. The world building is very interesting and I have enjoyed the multiple points of view in the narrative. There is an interesting dynamic at olay between the haves and the have-nots as well as the unique society of people forced to "retire" and then be reborn in a young body to start over.

I am looking forward to all the reveals at the end and am going to be reading this as time allows until I finish it!

This was an absolute wild ride that kept me invested and and asking so many questions up until the very end. I have not read any of Justin Cronin's previous work but I definitely want to know!

This is not my typical type of book I pick up but the depth in the story was intense. I would not call this a light read and at times there was a lot going on so I had to pay attention to many details. I did love how it came together though and was throughly entertained!

First off, I am a big fan of Justin Cronin. I absolutely devoured The Passage trilogy, and this book is the perfect example of why I’ll read anything and everything from him. I was thrilled to get my hands on the ARC.

Five stars with no hesitation.

Thank you to Justin Cronin, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the early copy.

I was provided a free advanced copy of this book from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This book will be hard to review. It has so many layers... like an ogre, or onion, or even parfait (everyone loves parfait)! When you read the back and begin the story you believe one thing, as you continue on you start to question those beliefs, and about three or four times throughout the whole story all you believe is turned on its head! And yet, I couldn't get enough!
This is my first Justin Cronin and it will not be my last. It felt similar in style to some Bake Crouch books I've read. I loved it!
You will not be able to put this book down as you navigate the lives of these characters! It is pretty long, and it takes a bit of time to get into the world as a lot needs to be built up, but I definitely feel like it picked up fairly quickly and was pretty full force til the end!
I would say it may be difficult as an audiobook. There are some points where even as a visual reader I was questioning what was happening and flipping back to make sure I didn't miss something. When I've read books like that before on audiobook it was more of a jarring feeling and harder to "flip back". Seeing the visual breaks helps you recognize shifts that can't always be portrayed the same way through audio.
This comes out tomorrow, so you won't have to wait long for this fun ride!
#TheFerryman #NetGalley