Thank you Ballantine Books for the gifted digital ARC!

I'll admit that Andrea Bartz's writing style skews a tad more "literary thriller" than I'd typically enjoy, and I think that's why I had a hard time getting into this one. I honestly couldn't even tell you at what point I got sucked in, but it got to the point that I was skipping bathroom breaks and staying up way past my bedtime for "just one more chapter."

The big reveal was pretty twisty and honestly pretty dark, but I enjoyed it and thought it was well done.

I can't wait to see what Bartz comes up with next! The Last Ferry Out pub date is May 20.

I'm a fan of Andrea Bartz's writing and have thoroughly enjoyed all of her novels. This one is no exception! The writing is stunning and so immersive, and the armchair travel is topnotch. I was so eager to find out what happened and loved how Bartz slowly peels the layers of her story.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Andrea Bartz for an advance reader's copy. All opinions are my own.

This is a solid thriller that was enjoyable. I was even riveted by certain parts. It is atmospheric and easy to feel like you are there. It is very much slow burn, but it is filled with tension that kept me turning the pages. I recommend this one if you like slow burn atmospheric thrillers. If you want an edge of your seat, gripping thriller, this is not the book for you.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc. This book had potential but fell flat. The island storyline has been done a lot lately, most recently with beautiful ugly by Alice feeney. I didn’t feel like there was anything unique with this story line. The story felt really slow to me and took me a long time to get into.

The story is told through multiple POVs and timelines, which I liked. But it wasn’t enough to keep me interested in the story itself. I also noticed a huge typo about halfway through when hilde called eszther Abby. I thought it was a clue that eszther was going by Abby’s name when she got to the island, but it was just a typo that made me confused.

Overall a fairly quick read, but not sure I would recommend.

I wanted to like this book, but I found it very slow and dry. The eventual ending with the epilogue wasn't clever so much as it was frustrating. I do like the author, so I'll try this again but this wasn't for me.

"The Last Ferry Out" is an atmospheric thriller set on an isolated island. After enjoying Bartz's last two releases, I had high hopes for this book. I loved the eerie setting, and the island's remoteness and desolation created so much tension and suspense. It was a bit of a slow burn, though, and it took awhile for things to really start happening. But even with its slow pace, the plot was intriguing, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next. The twists were good, but in the end I just wanted more. Not my favorite from the author, but I will still read her future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz
Rating: 3.5 stars
Pub date: 5/20

Abby heads to Isla Colel hoping to find some closure after the sudden death of her fiancée, Eszter, but instead, she uncovers way more questions than answers. The island’s basically abandoned, the ferry barely runs, and the locals (especially the group of expats she falls in with) all seem to be hiding something.

“The Last Ferry Out” drops you right into the middle of a remote island with a seriously eerie vibe, and the atmosphere is where this book really shines. Bartz nails that sense of isolation and unease. At times, I could practically hear the waves crashing in the distance. The mystery has some great twists, too, and I liked how it explored love, grief, and who we can really trust.

That said, I didn’t totally connect with Abby. She’s fairly unlikeable, and her choices were a little frustrating at times. The ending was anticlimactic, and I didn’t get the closure I was hoping for.

Still, it kept me curious, and I definitely wanted to know how it would all unfold. While it’s not my favorite thriller, it’s a solid read with plenty of atmosphere. Definitely worth checking out if you like locked room mysteries!

I very much enjoyed this mystery/thriller. It was different enough from the eleventy billion other ones out there, and I sped right through it, trying to Scooby Doo my way to the conclusion. I recommend for those who like a good mystery.

I did not finish this one. Hated the characters, hated the mystery, was not invested at all. This is my favorite premise for books, and I have enjoyed the author before, but this one did not do it for me.

Abby heads to a small island off Cancun where her partner, Eszter, passed away on vacation from anaphylaxis. She meets a group of “expats” that are English speaking and had contact with her partner before her death. From there, Abby unravels, a whole lot of truth.

This book was just OK. I had high expectations for it, but it really wasn’t all that thrilling. In fact, I was waiting for some big twist and it just didn’t really happen and the twists that did happen weren’t all that exciting.

3.5/5

Thank you @ballantinebooks @netgalley #partner for the gifted copy of this ebook!

I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery set on a remote, atmospheric island — and Last Ferry Out definitely scratched that itch. The story follows Abby, whose fiancée Eszter heads off for what’s supposed to be a quick, relaxing island getaway… only she never makes it home. Eszter dies from an allergic reaction, which seems bizarre because she was always super careful and never went anywhere without her EpiPen.

Struggling to make sense of it, Abby heads to the island to retrace Eszter’s final days, and what she finds is a tight-knit, slightly shady community of expats — each of them carrying their own secrets. Andrea Bartz does such a good job creating those questionable characters you can’t quite figure out if you should trust or side-eye. There’s this constant sense of unease that kept me guessing.

I also have to give Bartz props for how well she captured the vibe of island life. The descriptions of the beaches, rum punches, humid air, and slow, sun-soaked days were spot on. It totally got me in the mood for a tropical escape — just maybe without the murder.

That said, I’ll be honest...some of the twists and coincidences in this story felt a little unbelievable. If you’re someone who needs your mysteries to be 100% realistic and believable, then this one may not be for you. But if you’re like me and you don’t mind suspending a little disbelief for the sake slow-burn mystery in a gorgeous, dreamy setting, then grab yourself a drink and dive in.

This story had many twists and I loved it. Keep me guessing until the end! Another win for Andrea Bartz!

A sapphic psychological thriller? Say less — I’m in. The story follows Abby as she travels to a remote tropical island to uncover the truth about her fiancée, Eszther, who died under mysterious circumstances. It’s got all the right ingredients for a twisty island thriller.

That said… this one was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The pacing dragged, and while I usually love a slow burn, this put a little too much emphasis on the slow. I also struggled to feel any real chemistry between the main characters — their connection felt forced, and it made it hard for me to get fully invested in their relationship.

On the plus side, the atmosphere was so good. The author’s sense of place is incredible — I could picture every beach, jungle path, and shadowy bar. Even when the plot lost me a little, the setting kept me turning pages.

I’ll definitely be checking out whatever this author writes next, but this one didn’t fully deliver what I was hoping for.

While I loved the setting of this one, the pacing felt off and I could not get invested in the story or characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz

Andrea Bartz’s The Last Ferry Out transports readers to a remote island off the coast of Mexico, immersing us in an atmosphere of mystery, melancholy, and unease. While the novel wasn’t my favorite of Bartz’s works, it still showcases her skill at crafting immersive settings and slow-burning suspense.

The story follows Abby, who travels to the island where her fiancée, Eszter, died a few months earlier from an apparent anaphylactic reaction. Haunted by Eszter’s final, cryptic text—hinting at something important she needed to say in person—Abby’s grief soon gives way to suspicion. Eszter had spent significant time on the island among a group of English-speaking expats while working on a creative project. As Abby struggles with the language barrier and the island’s faded, almost eerie charm—once a bustling resort destination now left in economic decay—she begins piecing together Eszter’s final days.

Bartz does an excellent job painting the island’s decaying beauty and cultural isolation, which heightens Abby’s sense of displacement. The plot moves slowly through the first three-quarters of the book as Abby forms connections and unravels threads, but the final quarter delivers a satisfying payoff with twists I didn’t anticipate. The dual timeline structure adds dimension, though the frequent time jumps may be disorienting for some readers.

Though not my top pick from Bartz’s bibliography, The Last Ferry Out is a compelling exploration of grief, secrets, and the lingering echoes of a love story cut short.

Thank you to Andrea Bartz, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

Bartz is 5 for 5 when it comes to thrillers. I did *not* see the twists coming at all and really appreciate the nuanced approach to expats. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley!

I received a digital advance copy of The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz via NetGalley. The Last Ferry Out is scheduled for release on May 20, 2025.

The Last Ferry Out follows Abby as she visits Isla Colel on a quest to make sense of her fiancee Eszter’s death on the island. Abby finds a group of expats, each of whom acts oddly when Abby mentions Eszter. Abby begins to question if the death was really an accident, or something more sinister is happening on the island.

As the story is told from Abby’s point of view she is the character we get to know the best. Outside of her relationship with Eszter, and her interactions on the island, we don’t get to know much about her other than she is in a job that she might not care that much about. All of the people on the island are filtered through her perspective, so we get to know them as she sees them, which gives us a decent, but not deep, understanding of each of them.

This novel is set on a tropical island, which Bartz utilizes well in the story. In some portions of the novel, I had a strong sense of place, but in others I could have used more description and atmosphere.

In the end, the novel puts more emphasis on current events, and bit less on solving any mystery around Eszter’s death. There are some turns and revels, which made sense within the story, but I did feel the final resolution of Eszter’s death seemed tacked on. I would have liked it to be more thoroughly incorporated into the rest of the story.

Overall, The Last Ferry Out is a satisfying mystery that will appeal to readers who enjoy vacation/travel stories where things do not go as planned.

This. Is. Perfection!

Abby makes the journey to Isla Colel to find some closure on her fiancée, Eszter’s, unexpected and tragic death. Isla Colel is just a small tropical blip on the Caribbean map and only accessible by a two hour ferry from Cancun. When Abby arrives, she is determined to meet the group of expats who had befriended Eszter, hoping to find answers about her last days on the island. But all of these expats have secrets and, when one of them goes missing after setting up a meeting to tell her the truth about Eszter, Abby’s instincts to dig deeper intensify….and so does the mystery surrounding her fiancée.

I could not put this one down, I ate it up from the first page to the last. I loved the vivid island setting with the sunsets and bug noises, I felt like I was really there with Abby. Don’t miss this one, it is so good!

Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing-Ballantine, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on May 20, 2025

Reviews on goodreads - pub date: 5/3

2 Stars

This book took a long time to pick up and felt like a lot of filler. I almost DNF'ed a few chapters in and kind of wish I had. It wasn't until a solid 10 chapters in that it felt like anything started to happen. The pace then did pick up, and I started to fly through the story. I was interested to see where it would go, but then it would get sidetracked by the overly descriptive writing style, which didn't seem to match the tone of the book. The author also felt the need to explicitly lay out the themes in a way that felt ham-handed. Ultimately, the resolution felt unsatisfing.

I also didn't connect with the characters - none of whom felt fleshed out at all. The main character alternated between being a naive idiot and overly paranoid. Why did it take her so long to connect a character disappearing with a mysterious text he had just sent, but then freaked out when another character just went by a nickname? The other characters felt like they were only there to drive the plot and were not “real” people.

Overall, this latest thriller from Andrea Bartz brings the action and the mystery but falls a bit flat in its delivery and intrigue. The characters felt a bit clunky, though I appreciated the inclusion of LGBTQ. The storyline paces back and forth between past and present; alternating at times between the different characters. This works to create the mystery by presenting partial glimmers of what unfolds but does little to advance the overall storyline. Ultimately, this book is passable but doesn’t hold up to the same acclaim as Bartz’s previous work.