what I’m reading: drowning by t.j. newman.

Just after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean outside of Hawaii. As the passengers scramble to evacuate the plane, an engine explodes and the water outside catches fire. A small group of survivors take shelter in the body of the airplane but water starts to leak in and the plane slowly floods and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Now it’s a race against time to save the passengers before they run out of air.

I was thoroughly entertained by this book and read it in one sitting. I thought it was captivating, the action was great, and I liked the characters. It became a book where I just had to read “one more chapter”.

The beginning of the book is a little confusing because we are introduced to many characters all at once. Each character has a one to two-page introduction while all the action is happening so I was trying to figure out what characters I needed to remember. There’s also a lot of airplane terminology in the beginning that kind of went over my head; I just knew that the airplane had crashed into the water.

I found that as the story went on and really focused on the surviving characters inside the airplane, it became much easier to distinguish them all and remember who was who. My only complaint is that I wish there was a little more character development. Even though the author does a great job of giving each person something to tell them apart – blue polo guy, the newlywed, lifevest lady – I kept getting two of the women confused. There wasn’t much to differentiate either of them and I feel like if this book was made into a movie, these two characters would be consolidated into one.

That being said, I was definitely emotionally invested in these characters and I was rooting for the rescue to succeed. I thought this book was a fun and exciting thriller!

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