Flight attendant Mina is working the inaugural non-stop flight from London to Sydney when she is handed a note – “The following instructions will save your daughter’s life.” Now Mina has to decide who she will save – her daughter or the 350+ passengers on board.
I thought this was a good book that really made me think. The novel asks an interesting question – would you save one person or hundreds? I don’t know what I would have done in Mina’s place. I know that when Mina first read the letter, I kept thinking “Don’t do it. You can’t doom 350 people just to save one person.” But then again, I’m not a mother. I don’t know what I would do in a situation where a family member was threatened and I really liked how the author laid out this dilemma.
The story is told in alternating viewpoints of Mina and her husband, Adam, as the night goes on and the plane gets closer to Sydney. Adam is at home with their daughter and neither Adam nor Mina knows what’s happening with the other. There is a lot of suspense both on the airplane and back in London. Sprinkled in between the dual storylines are little snips of some of the passengers. We get to know what they are thinking and why they are on board the flight. I was really glad I read this book in physical form as I kept flipping back and forth when a new passenger was introduced to read their snippet.
I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look into how the cabin crew handles such a long flight. I tried to picture the airplane and its layout and just cannot imagine a plane that has a bar in it, and where people just walk around and hang out at the bar during the flight. I guess that’s what you do when you have 20 hours to spare.
There was a secondary story about Adam having a secret that I didn’t really think the book needed. I would have been fine if that whole plotline had been left out. In fact, I didn’t really care much about any of Adam’s storyline but that might be because I didn’t care much for his character.
I liked this suspenseful and claustrophobic novel.
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