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.

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Bartz, and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for the eARC.
This was a slow-burn thriller that had me hooked from the very beginning. Bartz masterfully builds tension, drawing you into the story with every page. As the plot unravels, the twists and turns are truly jaw-dropping—just when you think you know where it’s going, it surprises you all over again.
An engrossing and cleverly crafted read that’s perfect for fans of psychological suspense!

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

I was excited about this book from the blurb but unfortunately this one didn't keep my interest. We follow Abby who is trying to find out what happened to her fiancé but there was not thrill or shocking moments in this book. I do think others will like it so I recommend everyone to read it and form your own opinion.

1.5 rounded up

Looking for your next summer thriller? Give this one a try. The Last Ferry Out follows Abby on her quest to find out the truth about her fiancée and what happened on the island where she died. Abby discovers multiple secrets and begins to question if she even knew her fiancée at all. Overall the book was a little slow for me, with a build up that didn’t quite deliver, but was a decent read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group/Ballentine Books and NetGalley for sharing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Abby's fiance Eszter dies suddenly on the small Mexican island of Isla Colel Abby sets out in search of answers. Before she passed away Eszter sent Abby a grim text that no one wants to get...'we need to talk'. On her search for closure and answers Abby runs into a group of expats living on the island that she hopes can help her, however, she ends up unsure of who she can trust and what to believe.

Overall I thought this was a good read despite being a bit slow. Luckily the characters were well written and there was enough intrigue to keep me engaged. While there were no blow your mind moments this was still a solid read and is worth checking out.

I struggled to get into it because nothing really interesting happened for the first half of the book and it felt very slow moving. I saw the twists coming so it wasn’t that much of a shock.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first read from Bartz despite the fact that I have collected several of her titles that are currently neglected on my shelves.

I was searching for a thriller to take to the beach that would whisk me off to an interesting place filled with secrets and tension and that’s exactly what Bartz delivered with The Last Ferry Out. This is a story of deception and suspense set on a very small Mexican island where locals and expats reside.

From the start, I felt a connection to Abby and her journey to find out what really happened on Isla Colel and the truth of her fiance's death. Did she really die from a food allergy when she was ultra conscientious about what she ate or did someone conspire to murder her?

As the story unfolds, Bartz delivers twist after twist to readers that drive suspicions across the cast of secondary characters. Who can Abby and readers really trust?

Add to that an atmospheric quality that transports readers so vividly to this secluded island and you have a recipe for a story that you’re going to keep grabbing for until you finally reach the juicy ending!

Reading in Between the Wines book review #53/125 for 2025:
Rating: 2🍷🍷
Book: The Last Ferry Out
Author: Andrea Bartz
Available now!

Sipping thoughts: I really wanted to love this book. I loved The Spare Room by Bartz, but this one was just okay. There was a little mystery but not a thriller, in your opinion, and the mystery wasn't all that shocking. There were some twists, but nothing that shocked me. Overall, it kept me interested.

Cheers and thank you to @Netgalley and @RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine for an advanced copy of @TheLastFerryOut.

#TheLastFerryOut #AndreaBartz #RandomHousePublishingGroupBallantine #NetGalley #ARC #advancedreader #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bokreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

The Last Ferry Out is a slow-burn thriller set on a storm-lashed, tropical island where one ferry comes and goes each week.
.
Abby travels there after her fiancée, Eszter, dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances—and of course, nothing is quite as it seems. The expats she meets are charming but clearly hiding something, and the deeper she digs into Eszter’s final days, the more tangled everything becomes.
.
Andrea Bartz absolutely nails the atmospheric tension. I could feel the damp heat and the creeping dread of being stuck somewhere you’re not entirely welcome. The dual timelines and shifting POVs added emotional layers, especially as Abby’s grief and the fragility of her relationship with Eszter are slowly revealed.
.
While I didn’t totally connect with the characters—and the pacing dragged a bit in places—the twists had me hooked, and I loved the way the ending left just enough uncertainty to linger.
.
Despite this, it’s still a beautifully written, character-driven mystery with themes of love, loss, and trust that will resonate with many readers. If you enjoy locked-room vibes, remote settings, and moody tension, this one is worth checking out.
.
Solid 3.5-4 stars from me—and I’m still always excited to see what Andrea Bartz does next.

This one held a lot of promise as I liked the author's last novel and the premise for this seemed interesting. It was an uneven story where Abby goes to an island where her fiancee has died looking for the why and some closure. A group of expats Ezsther, the fiancee was spending time with, takes Abby under their wing. The story unfolds in a haphazard way but had a surprise Epilogue. The chapters were sometimes previous, real time or the future and that was awkward. The different narrators also mixed things up. I'm not giving up on this author, I will lookout for her next book.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I had the pleasure of meeting author Andrea Bartz at the Montreal Mystery Fest and learned that pre-Covid she was also a travel writer. This is not altogether too surprising given the lush, atmospheric tropical setting of her new psychological thriller, The Last Ferry Out.

In this book, we find Abby visiting Isle Colel, a made-up, hurricane ravaged island off of Mexico, several months after her fiance's sudden and mysterious death on the island. Abby is grief striken and trying to retrace the steps of her beloved, Eszter, who went to Isle Colel for an impromptu vacation, but sent a cryptic text before her death which said ”I need to tell you something”. On Isle Colel, Abby meets a bunch of expats Eszter befriended and quickly realizes that she's not being told the truth about how her fiance died.

I found this to be different than your typical twist-filled thriller, as it's told through the lens of grief, which makes Abby an unreliable narrator as it causes her to question things she thought she knew about her relationship with Eszter. This book really asks the question of how well do we really know the people we love. I also liked the commentary on why people leave their home countries and end up in places like Isle Colel.

A very solid and well placed-thriller read for the summer that will transport you!

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️
Pub Date: May 20, 2025
How I Read It: 📱

Synopsis
Abby gets on a plane to go to Isla Colel in Mexico. She needs to visit the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died. Nothing about her death makes sense, but she knows where to start looking for answers. While Eszter was on the island, she befriended a group of expats, so Abby sets out to find them.

Things take a turn when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s death. He and Abby make a plan to meet, but he never shows. He just disappears. Abby starts looking for the missing expat and discovers that maybe she didn’t know her fiancé as well as she thought she did.

My Thoughts
This book was good!! The twists and turns kept coming, and I felt like I could never truly get a grasp on who to trust on the island. I liked all the characters and their mysterious pasts, which kept the book engaging and suspenseful. The setting of the book was perfect, a tropical paradise with a mysterious abandoned resort you were not supposed to venture into. There were a few times in this book when I was yelling at Abby, because why was she doing what she did? Was she trying to get herself killed? But that just added to the suspense of it all! Pick this one up if you’re looking for a thrilling summer page-turner.

Themes
🫣 Suspense
🌪️ Twists
🤫 Secrets
Multiple POVs

Ratings
Characters: 4.5 ⭐️
Pace: 4.5 ⭐️
Enjoyability: 4.5 ⭐️

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!