Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for this arc in exchange or an honest review.

So I was pretty excited to get The Last Ferry Out as an ARC, both from the description as well as because I had really enjoyed Bartz’s previous novel The Spare Room. Unfortunately, The Last Ferry Out was a bit of a slow burn for me and I had a hard time keeping myself interested in the characters and the plot. We are trying to figure out what happened to Abby’s fiance during this book and while that may have been a tad mysterious, it wasn’t thrilling or a nail biter type of book.l (at least for me).

My rating: 2 stars

Thank you Ballantine Books for my gifted ARC!

Andrea Bartz is an auto read author for me. I usually love her books, but The Last Ferry Out left me confused, because there is zero mention of a last ferry. It was a confusing and convoluted thriller - while also being … lackluster? Ouch, that hurts to say. I am serious when I say I usually love her books. I thought surely this would also be a smash hit but no. Sorry! Bartz is still an auto read author for me, though!

Andi’s books are consistently some of favorites. I find myself enthralled from the first page and struggle to put them down. This one is about who Abby whose fiancée, Eszter, just died while on a solo trip to small island. Abby isn’t convinced that the death was the accident that it’s been sold as, and wants to visit the places and people that made up Eszter’s last days. And it becomes clear pretty quickly that there is a lot more to this story…

This one was twisty and turny and I truly didn't see the ending coming! It kept me on y toes - my fave kind of thriller!

Making this even more fun is that Andi was a high school classmate of mine! Thrilled to be able to get an early copy of this one (thx @netgalley and @ballantinebooks !) Congrats @andibartz and make sure to pick this one up asap!

Im torn on how to rate this book because I enjoyed some of it and some of it I really wanted to skip over. It was promising and mysterious, it felt short and lacked enough grip to keep me fully entertained. I finished because I didnt want to have something lingering or the promise of learning that it somehow picked up and got better.

“Gators and haters” there is not a more perfect way to describe Florida 😂

After her fiancee dies while on vacation in Isla Colel, Abby is heartbroken. Something doesn’t feel right though. Esther is so diligent in what she eats and always has her epi-pen at hand. she decides she needs to visit and investigate further. When she arrives and befriends a group of ex-pats, one of them says something that gives Abby pause. Can she find out what really happened to Esther?

Phew! This book was a ride! I felt so much for Abby as she traveled to find out what happened to Esther, and felt for her even more as she found out all of Esther’s secrets along the way! I loved the different perspectives we get throughout the book as that gives us a look into what really happened, though narrators are not always the best truth tellers! The twists caught me off guard, and I did not see the ending coming! Now I just want to travel to Isla Colel which stinks since it’s fictional. I have been to Holbox which is mentioned in the epilogue though and loved it! Hit me up if you want an amazing hotel rec for there!

Thank you to @ballantinebooks for my gifted copy of this book!

The Last Ferry Out, by Andrea Bartz, is a light mystery full of twists and turns that will keep your attention.  The setting called to me, the characters were relatable, and the story was fun, but overall, I was a bit let down at the end. I think it may be that I was judging this book against previous Bartz novels, and that is probably not fair, but it just was not my favorite of hers. (I still managed to polish it off in one afternoon!)
I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing the ARC ebook that I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

I think reading such an amazing thriller before this one made The Last Ferry Out feel a little flat.

Now don’t get me wrong. I read this book in one day. I was throughly invested into the story line and the main character Abby. The storyline made it feel like there were all these secrets on the island and at the end I did not get that.

The epilogue gave me what I needed from the rest of the storyline.

Genre: Thriller
APK: Ebook
Pages: 308
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Series or Standalone: Stand-alone

The last ferrry out is a fun summer mystery by Bartz. Abby returns to the island where her fiancé ezter mysteriously died hoping to find answers. Abby is taken in by a charming group of expats on this beautiful island. One in particular promises to reveal the truth about what happened. However, he goes missing and no one in the group seems to care. Abby is unsure who to trust and knows that as the danger ratchets up, she is getting closer to finding the truth., but will she will be silenced before she gets the answers?


This is a fun, atmospheric island thriller, but not my favorite of the authors works. This one is lighter on plot and character -both seem thinner than previous works. The atmosphere and setting is where the book shines. This is sure to please many readers of thrillers and those looking for a fun beach or pool read.

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This thriller had great vacation vibes and camaraderie, all while making you second guess EVERY single character and their possible motives. I enjoyed the twists and turns this book took, especially the closing chapter! While it is not my favorite of Bartz’s works, it was still a page turner for me.

A fun little mystery, but not always deeply explored. The pacing feels a little uneven,lingering long on atmosphere but light on meaningful interactions or plot development.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel.

I really enjoyed The Last Ferry Out and all of the different twists and adventures it took me on. My favorite part was definitely the exotic location.

This was a fun suspense/thriller. It took me a little while to get into it, but it eventually picked up more. I’m not sure if the audio helped or hurt the book, though. The beginning, the narrators voice just seems so sad, and I kept losing interest. I switched to reading with my eyeballs, and that helped. Eventually I went back to listening, and that’s when things picked up.
It’s not really a book I couldn’t put down, but I was invested to see what really happened. Part of it I saw coming, part of it surprised me. I did appreciate the twist, but I wish it was a little bigger. Overall, a decent book given the genre.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑰'𝒅 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐:
Lovers of dramatic suspense

I have loved this author in the past, especially her book The Spare Room, however, this one just didn’t do it for me. I never got hooked, and nothing ever really felt at stake until the very end, which by that point I was ready to just finish the book and move on to something else that actually held my attention.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Content Warnings provided by Storygraph reviewers:

Graphic: Homophobia, Self harm, Vomit
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing
First off, let’s hear it for a Wisconsin author! Woot woot woot! Andrea Bartz is a Reese’s Book Club author, too. I had not read any of Andrea Bartz’s other books but am always looking for Midwestern authors (She lives in Brooklyn now, but she will always be a Sconnie), and I was happy to find out that one of the main characters was from Wisconsin, so there were references to bigger and smaller cities throughout the story. I love when an author doesn’t forget their roots!

I really liked this locked-room mystery (set on an island) that had a slower pace than the typical faster-paced psychological thriller. I also loved that this book featured a queer romance, as I’m always looking for different POV than from my hetero female self.

The Last Ferry Out really is an excellent atmospheric and suspenseful book. Abby is trying to find out what happened to her girlfriend, Estzer, who had been to the island and died. While she is there, her friend, Brady, also disappears. So, she definitely knows that something is not right on the island, which used to be a bustling tourist destination; a hurricane wiped out much of the island and it just hadn’t gotten back on their feet.

You don’t have to be a Wisconsinite to enjoy this slow burn of a thriller. Highly recommend!

I have been a fan of Andrea Bartz for a while now and was excited for the setting and the summary for Last Ferry Out. Unfortunately I was not a fan and that was pretty disappointing because I liked other thrillers she wrote. I was occasionally confused, but the slow pace did nothing to help the multi narrator/dual timeline questions I had. I wasn't particularly engaged with any of the characters either, so by the time I got to the epilogue, I didn't even care about the twist. I am grateful for #netgalley for giving menthe opportunity to preview this novel and look forward to her next release!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc. This one was a slow burn, I was excited for this plot, but it did kind of drag along. Love the storyline of her trying to figure out what happened to her fiance.

3.5 stars, rounded up
Slow burn mystery thriller. Decent read. Usually I'm an outlier rating books lower than everyone else, but this one I seem to have enjoyed more than others.

It's the story of Abby, who travels to the tiny island of Isla Colel to try to find out more about what happened to her fiancée Eszter, who died there. She connects with a group of expats and the more questions she asks, the more mysteries she find surrounding Eszter's death.

I liked how this unfolded and I was surprised a number of times. I didn't particularly care for Abby and Eszter's relationship dynamic, it seemed very unbalanced and immature. But we only see it through flashbacks, so I was able to set that aside and the mystery itself made the book worth reading. The tale is filled with people who are hiding things, and I enjoyed watching it all come to light.

I liked the setting and the creepy abandoned hotel, I could vividly imagine what was happening. I look forward to Bartz's next book.

This was the best thriller i've read in a while, did a late review after meeting the author at the MTL Mystery Festival. AMAZING!

Thank you for the chance to read "The Last Ferry Out" by Andrea Bartz.

I read this book as a buddy read and all of us were so engaged we moved up our reading pace and finished early because we couldn't put it down. The characters and locations were so vivid it was easy to imagine yourself there as part of the action. I enjoyed reading a story about a queer couple where the conflict didn't solely revolve around their orientation. The story was well paced between current and past time, the clues and mis-directions were done well. The only part of the book I struggled with was the last conflict and the physical aspects of what Abby accomplishes as the killer gets closer. Overall it was an enjoyable read that allowed be to escape into a book which what I look for in a thriller.

Though there was an intriguing “grab” that initially got me into this story, I felt like we meandered and took unnecessary journeys to fill the plot. At about 60% through, I realized not much of substance had happened to meaningfully propel the story forward. It wasn’t until Abby and Amira’s confrontation on the cliff and the reveal of Brady’s whereabouts did I finally find myself excited to read. Abby’s insecurities and the random pieces about data and optimization also really detracted a lot for me. The setting of Isla Colel was good and I wish there had been more to the story the involved the island.