Andrea Bartz did a fantastic job with this book! It had me on my toes with guessing what was happening. I wasn’t even close to knowing what was going to happen in the end. I felt the characters were well explained. I do appreciate how each chapter would state on whose POV it would be. I would highly recommend The Last Ferry!

Thank you to the publisher for letting me read an e-ARC of this book!

This isn't the kind of thriller that will give you nightmares, but it is the kind of thriller that will have you turning pages late into the night and then give you dreams about wandering around a tropical island (at least it did for me).

Truthfully, I'm not sure I'd call this book a thriller at all. The first half felt more like a mystery—maybe even a cozy one—with some more thriller elements coming in the latter half of the book. Genre aside, it's an enjoyable suspense novel overall.

The story follows Abby as she lands ashore on a remote Mexican island, where four months earlier her fiancé died of anaphylaxis, to learn more about her fiancé's final days. The island, however, is inhabited by a group of expats who live on the island to escape their checkered pasts—and who don't want their secrets, no matter how innocent, to be revealed.

This was a nice, quick, suspenseful read with a slow burn build to a thrilling and satisfying ending. I am never left disappointed by Bartz's books.

The Last Ferry Out (May 2025)
By Andrea Bartz
Random House Publishing–Ballantine Books, 320 pages
★★★

Mysteries and thrillers frequently parallel Alfred Hitchcock movies in that most have details that defy logic and probability. As Hitchcock observed, if you do the details well, your audience won’t notice. The new Andrea Bartz novel The Last Ferry Out works well as a heart-thumping thriller, but is marred by too much foreshadowing and forced resolution. It partially redeems itself by exposing the flaws of internalized colonial thinking.

Bartz’s protagonists are Abby and Eszter, a couple who met at the University of Wisconsin and, at age 27, became engaged. They are besotted with each other, though they are an odd couple. Abby grew up with an indecisive alcoholic mother, couldn’t wait to be out on her own, has minimal contact with her mother, and is an extrovert who goes hard (sometimes too fast) at things she wants. Estzer is a child of a successful Hungarian/Jewish immigrant family, but is introverted, analytical, and deliberate. Her parents don’t outwardly condemn her choices, but give little outward sign of agreeing with them or of embracing Abby. This enrages Abby, who reminds her beloved that she is an adult who doesn’t need their permission to get married. To Abby’s chagrin, Eszter wants to have a relationship with her parents.

Both young women are socially conscious. Eszter’s portfolio project at UWI–the feasibility of pairing those with resources with those without by opening a hybrid high-end resort that subsidizes low-income housing–evoked equal parts admiration and skepticism. Insofar as Abby knows, Eszter abandoned it as impractical. She tells Abby she is going to Miami to think things through. Abby, in turn, imagines that Eszter is getting cold feet. Has her father talked her out of getting married?

Bigger shocks await. Abby has actually gone to Isla Colel, a Mexican island off the Yucatan peninsula. (It’s an invention, though it shares some physical characteristics with Isla Mujeres near Cancun.) Abby is devastated but filled with questions when she discovers that Eszter died of anaphylaxis there after accidentally consuming orejas cookies that contained nuts. Where was her EpiPen, which she so assiduously carried everywhere? Why didn’t she write and where is her journal? Why did Eszter lie to Abby about her whereabouts? Abby is inconsolable, hence she puts her job on de facto hold to go to Isla Colel, grieve, and investigate.

The bulk of the novel takes place on the island, which holds surprises of its own. The titular ferry to the mainland only runs once a week. It was once a tourist destination until a hurricane blasted its infrastructure. It is now home to an offbeat, tightknit assortment of expatriates, and locals who don’t find them as charming as they think they are. The oldest emigrant is German-born Rita, who acts as an experienced elder to the non-native community. Among the others on the island is hyper-sensitive Brady, who left his homophobic home in Australia; LA-born naturalist Pedro; and Amari, a gorgeous lesbian. The expats are carefree and gay-positive, as if a band of 20th century hippies were crossed with 21st century college students. (One wonders if Bartz intended her title to be a faint pun!)

Most of the ex-pats rent from grumpy islander Gloria, whose husband Esteban is a fisherman whose fair-weather boat is one of the few private vessels on Isla Colel. He holds his views inside, but it seems as if everyone on the island holds secrets of one sort or another. Thus, Abby’s search for answers runs up against what is not said, temperamental WiFi, diversions, bad weather, Eszter’s lies, and dissuasion. Abby is suspicious of everyone she encounters, but how does one investigate without trusting someone or hastily jumping to conclusions?

NA (new adult) readers will probably find The Last Ferry Out satisfying and sensitive. As an older reviewer, I admired the strong framework Bartz established and her attempts to normalize non-heterosexuals. Yet, I also felt that the novel packed less wallop than it should have. There was too much petulance from major characters old enough to know better, and too many telegraphed clues and coincidences. The post-island revelations perhaps soothe, but they made me think of Hitchcock’s warning.

If Bartz’s target audience is indeed the NA sector, The Last Ferry Out is the ticket aboard. Older readers, though, may long for something–for lack of a better term–more literary.

Rob Weir

I thought this book was OK. I didn’t really connect to any of the characters and it was a bit slow in multiple places. I was surprised by Brady’s involvement as I had suspected Pedro instead. The end was also quite the surprise.

I so badly wanted to love this book but it ended up me barely liking it. The build up was so good with lots of possibilities but there was barely a resolution, and a whole lot of over explaining.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed that the main characters were a queer couple without it being the major focus of the story. I appreciated that it was treated like any other relationship and did not become the reason for violence or a point of homophobia within the story.

I also loved the multiple types of characters that were presented throughout the story and the way they seemingly wove together, despite being vastly different from one another but shared a desire to 'start over' or live differently.

Andrea Bartz' writing is excellent. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Colel and the nature. I felt like I could picture myself there.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! The characters were interesting, the story kept me engaged. I had moments of being enraged by certain characters (don't want to spoil anything!) but in a way that made me want to keep reading.

3.5 stars!

"The Last Ferry Out" by Andrea Bartz is a suspenseful and twisty thriller set on a remote island. It follows a woman with a troubled past who returns to the island where she experienced a traumatic event years ago, only to find herself entangled in a new mystery. Bartz expertly builds tension and atmosphere, and the island setting adds a layer of claustrophobia to the story. With its unreliable narrator, secrets lurking around every corner, and a plot that keeps you guessing, "The Last Ferry Out" is a compelling read for fans of psychological thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity. Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into the plot, it was a bit slow for me. I didn’t find the characters to be ones I could really latch on to.

Andrea Bartz can write a suspense novel so I was excited to read "The Last Ferry Out." The island setting of the story is lush and atmospheric, and the characters and plot are engaging. The ending could have been better, but this was altogether an entertaining read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Pub Date: May 20, 2025.

#TheLastFerryOut

I loved this book! I like seeing more queer love stories in all books, but I loved that this one was rooted in a thriller that had a great epilogue twist! Themes centered around family - blood or chosen, and which is most important, which I thought was important. Abby was an excellent character who navigated the grief process realistically, and it kept me guessing until the end!

Thank you, NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Andrea Bartz for this ARC.

This is my first book by this author and it took awhile for me to get into. I wouldn't say that it kept me drawn in but it was a pretty good book. I enjoyed the characters and the plot even though there were sections that dragged for me.

This book will keep you turning the pages. I stayed up way to late to finish this book one night. So glad I did! It was truly such a good book.

Full discretion- I've read all books authored by Andrea Bartz, and she has become one of my "must-read" authors. That said, I think that this is, by far, her best book. The setting was so descriptive and lush that there were times I was genuinely upset and surprised to realize I wasn't on a Mexican island, but in a rare snowstorm in North Georgia. I didn't know exactly where the book was heading, and while I'd definitely classify it more as a mystery than as a thriller, there were some thrilling moments- towards the ending, especially, I could feel my blood pressure rising as I read. Everything about this book.was just very well done, in my opinion. Although, yes, of course, the whole premise it's based on is obviously sad, it's also fulfilling to watch Abby come into herself, to feel empowered, and to bravely seek answers to questions that so many others would just accept as-is. The writing, the plot, the pacing, the characters, the development, the storyline. . . .it was all some of Andrea Bartz's best work, as I previously said. I obviously will be recommending this book, and it is a contender for my May "Employee's Choice" book. Cannot WAIT to read books from Bartz in the future!

After her fiancé Eszter dies on a remote island called Isla Colel, Abby who was four days shy of meeting her there, decides to visit the island as part of some sort of closure. Eszter died of anaphylactic shock, eating something she was allergic to and not getting to her EpiPen in time.
Still, Abby wants to visit the island and meet the expats that Eszter had befriended and learn what her last few days were like here.

To her surprise, she receives a cryptic message from one of them saying that she deserves to know the truth about what really happened to Eszter. Only he never shows up at their meeting place and goes missing all together.

Abby now starts to dig deeper among this group of expats and comes to discover of web of deceit and lies which causes her to wonder just who her fiancé really was. But will her pursuit of the truth, make her the island's next victim?

Andrea Bartz sets the tone and atmosphere like no other. You will literally be on the edge of your seat racing to an ending that you won't see coming.

Andrea Bartz is quickly becoming one of my "must-read" authors. I appreciate her writing style and felt like she gave a fresh twist on the "lonely island" thriller trope. The characters were well-developed and the plot line consistent. I did feel like the final twist was not as "twisty" as I would have expected but there was still an element of surprise. I will definitely recommend this one.

This was overall a good book, the story, the characters, all good. However, multiple parts seemed to drag and the ending was a let down.

3 stars
Thanks NetGalley

Thank you for the advanced copy

I really loved Andrea Bartz’s books and was extremely excited to get approved for this one. I love the isolated setting on an island. It pulled me in right away. It was drama, mystery, the suspense all the things I love in a book.

When Abby's fiancé, Eszter, dies of an allergy reaction, Abby senses something is off. Eszter was very conscientious about her allergies. Abby decides to retrace Eszter's last days, to see if anything was amiss. Abby travels to the Mexican island to meet the ex-pats her finance had been hanging out with during her time on the island. Abby starts to discover that Eszter had been less than honest with her in regards to her relationship to the island and what the next months of their relationship might look like. Told in alternating points of view and time periods, this was a steady paced book that was hard to put down. Would be a great beach read this summer!

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley.

Andrea is a favorite author of mine. I enjoyed this story as I always do! The plot wasn’t something I’d normally pick, but it ended up being a good read. I also love the cover!

Reading this book is like walking through brambles. Once you start, you are "in it" and there is no way out but through it! But you won't want to put this book down until you see the end! The story starts on a soft note, where Abby just wants to reconcile with the loss of her partner by walking in her last steps. But you can see from the start that Eszter was hiding things from Abby. As Abby learns more about Eszter's last days, she questions so much about the life she thought they were living together and the circumstances surrounding Eszter's death. This is a dangerous discovery set against a backdrop of an island whose residents don't want their pasts unearthed, new relationships with questionable strangers, and isolation brought on by a hurricane. With twists that keep pulling you closer, this is a nail-biter right up to the end!