Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

I usually start these reviews with a synopsis, but this one is hard to do without spoilers! It was a great sci-fi novel that kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. I enjoyed it but it's one of those books where you finish it and then think, what the hell did I just read? It gives my the same feelings as the movie Inception.

If you are a Justin Cronin fan, then you will enjoy this book. It was a fascinating story - well written and very timely. It definitely has a lot of sci-fi elements to it. I can't say too much about it without giving the full story away. The end gets a little confusing but it overall it was very good. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Proctor Bennett is the Ferryman who guides people to the next level of their development when their time on the idyllic island of Prospera is over. The citizen is transported from there to the NURSERY where their memory is wiped clean and they begin life again as an 18 year old.

This is a novel way outside of my general reading scope. I have never read a Justin Cronin book before so was not at all sure what journey I was about to take. The story reeled me in at the very beginning and it slowed down in the middle then got my interest again to the end. It was a long and tedious read and I felt I would have enjoyed it more if it had been shorter. I really do not know how to review this without spoilers so will just say that if you like sci-fi then this is a must read for you. I know it will have lots of great reviews from those fans. I really liked the characters and the actions scenes were brilliantly written. This book keeps you guessing.

Justin Cronin has done it again. This book was simply astounding.

He brings us into a dystopian world that seems amiable on the surface – but looks can be deceiving. The plot unfolds to reveal a startling climax that was utterly captivating to the very last page.

My thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Justin Cronin's "The Ferryman" opens with a compelling, mildly futuristic dystopia. The narrative jumps (leaps?) a couple of times until you would have to say that the novel has something interesting to say about a wide variety of topics, from the climate crisis and marriage to class warfare and grief. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling key plot points, but the writing is superb and the story moves along at a good clip. This is a long book that feels like a short one! I'm docking the book half a star for its often heteronormative, blandly American world view.

4.5 rounded up. I don’t usually do sci-fi books, but this one was really good! I didn’t want it to end! When it did end, I was fairly confused by what I’d just read, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it despite my befuddlement 🤣

I think the description of the book makes it sound more intimidating than it is. At its core, it’s a story about humans, family, love and belonging. Who doesn’t want to read that?

Thank you to #netgalley for this ARC of #theferryman

Well, what can I say about this novel without revealing a spoiler or five? Not much, sadly.

This is the story of Proctor, a Ferryman (one who escorts those who have outlived their usefulness, to the Nursery to be 'reborn'). The various characters are introduced with very little fanfare. Or explanation, for that matter. You are slowly, oh SO slowly, fed bits and pieces of information that seem to have little connection to each other. And on (and on) it goes.

The first third was a struggle to get through. Lots of expounding and pontificating and very little action. Dialogue was pretty much non existent. Characters were shoved at us with little to no background or description of their place in the storyline.

Then suddenly, things pick up and get quite interesting. The inhabitants start to show some personality and the conversations become plentiful and enlightening. Finally, we see where this all might be going and it looks to be a fascinating ride. Whee!

Then the final third of the book begins and the brakes have been put on, full stop. Interaction between the characters all but disappears and we are once again subjected to constant musings and back fill of things that happened long ago. I made it to the end (did I mention yet that this novel is long? Excruciatingly long?) and actually quite enjoyed the wrap up of everyones storylines. But then the author adds an Epilogue that destroyed all those nice feelings the satisfying ending gave us. I can't say a single thing about the Epilogue with giving away a ton of spoilers, but, I hated it. I wish it hadn't been there. But at least it's over, so there's that I guess.

This book was interesting, if you want to escape into a whole new futuristic world and get absorbed in it. It is very long and for me, that made it a bit hard to get through. Would have preferred it to be a little less detailed, but understand why the author did it. Lots of philosophical questions, lots to think about with this one.

This was entertaining! This is not my typical genre but I like to mix it up my reading outside of my comfort zone. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Loved this book and didn’t see the twist coming. Really loved the wolf building if prospera. This would be a great book club book because discussion points are endless with class, climate change, power of dreams, etc!

I loved The Passage trilogy so was thrilled to see Justin Cronin had a new book available. The Ferryman did not disappoint. Similar to the books in the trilogy, it moved fairly slowly at times, allowing us to understand the characters and the environment, then threw interesting curves that kept me guessing and reading.

My first Justin Cronin novel and I went in blind. This seemed very well done but it was a little hard for me to connect with it. Just a bit out of my normal genre which is all on me certainly not the author.
Futuristic and quiet creepy for sure.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I was really excited to read this novel but once I actually started reading this I found it a chore to read. The dialogue wasn’t natural and seemed robotic. The book was way longer than it needed to be and seemed to repeat itself. I had to force myself to finish the book.

My review didn't take months ago but this is a great Sci fi Fantasy that was both engrossing & shifting like the sands or the ocean where few will gather or guess what all it entails until the end. An island of beautiful perfect people that have wonderful lives & youth way past their time until they need to be ferried to be reborn.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to dig into the new Justin Cronin! I'm a fan of The Passage series, and I really loved how Cronin was able to take some tired tropes (vampires! apocalypse! raging life-altering virus!) and give them a fresh spin resulting in a story unlike one I've ever read before. So I was a little dismayed the more I got into The Ferryman and kept encountering one dystopian cliche after another. Here we have hints of Brave New World, Logan's Run, and The Matrix. Here we meet characters we've known in too many YA dystopian novels to count: unreliable best friends, parents with secrets, possibly evil woman dictator, gritty but idealistic rebels, and the magical disabled person. It was exhausting. And then, it wasn't. There is a twist because there are always twists in this kind of story, but this twist is where Cronin shines. Again he takes tired tropes and turns into something new, providing readers with a satisfying ending. It's just that the journey there takes a little too long.

3.5 - Although I got really into the story by the end, this book took me forever to get through (literally, I started reading it almost 3 months ago)! I felt that the first half of the book was really disjointed, and not super engaging to read; but once we got to the “big reveal” I really started enjoying it. I think it may have been better served if the stories were told alternating with the origin of Oranios being known to the reader throughout; because obviously you knew there was a twist coming, so it wasn’t like a shock when you found out there was something else going on, you just didn’t know what it was. And that was the most interesting part to me

I found that I was super into this, then I got annoyed with it and put it down for a while, then I got sucked back in when I finished it. There were some very odd parts when the truth behind the story was revealed, and honestly I wished it had just been the original story, but it was definitely inventive and unexpected. I’d recommend this if you like Blake Crouch - very similar speculative sci-fi dude vibes.

My first Justin Cronin, this was an interesting story that... is very difficult to talk about without mentioned spoilers but I will do my best.

Our main character Proctor is a ferryman, a public servant servicing Prospera citizens who are retiring to be reborn/rebooted. Obviously this is very sci-fi, which I am into, but as we meet more and more and more characters and more and more and more new plot points get introduced, it is very easy to get overwhelmed and confused.

Cronin does land the plane, however it takes AGES to get there. I have little critique for where the plot goes, other than it could easily be 100-150 pages shorter, and a much better novel for it.

If you are a science fiction fan, then this is definitely worth it, but I would not recommend it to those who are not all in for sci-fi.

In The Ferryman, Justin Cronin takes you on a wild ride from start to finish. The less you know about the plot the better, other than the basic premise (Proctor is a ferryman who has started to feel like his life in an idyllic society is missing something), so let me just say that it’s a wild, labyrinthine ride. The character development and world building are so good, and the story is thought-provoking, exciting and poignant, all at the same time. This is one sci-fi fans and Justin Cronin fans won’t want to miss.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of The Ferryman.

I loved The Passage so I was super excited to see that Justin Cronin had a new book coming out.

Overall this just wasn't the book for me. The first 25% or so was interesting and then it kind of dropped off. Mostly this is just my preference but the story got a little bit too "sci-fi" for me which is where it lost me.

The twists towards the end kind of lost me. I think it may have been better if I was reading a physical copy and could flip back to earlier pages easier but overall I just got a little bit lost.

Would recommend for people who enjoy sci-fi type books.