DNF at 81 percent. I am just confused... I keep thinking about this one and how I should just pick it back up, but I don't even really know for sure that I was liking it? There was just so much going on but at the same time, I actually couldn't tell you a single thing that was really happening. I wanted to see this one through since I hate quitting once I am past the halfway point, but after reading some reviews and seeing that others say it doesn't really get better, I lost the desire to continue completely.

The Ferryman is one of those books that really makes you think, especially given the current state of our daily news headlines. However, while the author ambitiously tackles a wide range of big ideas, this very ambition seems to obscure the heart of the story. I found myself confused for a significant portion of the book, uncertain about what was happening.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

So - first off this is the epitome of hard core Sci-Fi and I found myself a bit out of my depths and overwhelmed My brain doesn't work this way - there is so much going on, so many things happening.
All that to say - in the end this is a great book. I just had to find my rhythm in reading. I thought it was interesting, I mean aren't Utopian societies always a good thing to read about?
All in all this is an entertaining read. Not one of my favourites, yet not one of my least favourites either. I won't be re-reading it, but I certainly don't regret the time spent in this world, with these characters.

Unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. The writing style was a touch literary for my taste - I immediately couldn't get into it. I was drawn in by the synopsis, but couldn't connect to the writing style. Literary fiction readers will love this one, just wasn't the genre fiction take on dystopian that I had hoped.

In this dystopian/post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, Proctor Bennett is the "Ferryman" - a person who helps people at the end stages of their life. These people are going into "retirement", sometimes forced, others not, due to their mental state. Proctor is then giving the task of "retiring" his father who give him a cryptic message. This is just one of the clues that leads to the fast paced, twists and turns of this lengthy novel. The second half of the novel moved much faster than the first, which was mainly set-up. The islands in the novel are wonderfully and artfully described and the whole new world really comes to life. Overall, I found this book very enjoyable to read and would recommend it.

I loved Cronins The Passage series and this is no different. The writing is strong and while I didn’t connect with the characters I did feel interested in the plot. Hard to put down

As a huge Justin Cronin fan, I was super excited to learn about this book. I really enjoyed The Ferryman, it is very different from The Passage trilogy (that I am total in love with). The Ferryman follows the life of Proctor Bennett on the lovely island paradise of Prospera. But is everything as perfect as it seems. The Ferryman takes us on a wild adventure of people finding out that the truth is not always as it seems.

This books starts out a little slow because there is a lot of world building that has to be done. But once the story starts going it goes into to hyperdrive and stays that way until the very end.

I am very happy that I was able to read this book and very much look forward to the next story that Justin Cronin has for us.

This is a long drawn out story. It’s complex and just a little too science fictiony for me. If you like long epic stories definitely check it out

The literal definition doing too much! Wish I was watching it as a movie instead of trying to follow the many dreams within dreams within simulations.

This was my first Justin Cronin book and I cannot wait to read the rest of his backlist.

The Ferryman was a part sci-fi, part dystopian novel about a man named Proctor Bennet, who worked as a Ferryman in Prospera. Ferrymen led people who "retired" to the Nursery, a space where the old could be "restored" to a more youthful body with their memories erased read to live life anew. Yet, when he is called to accompany his own father to the Nursery, and his father has an outburst telling him "the world is not the world" Proctor comes to question his very existence and what is really going on in the world of Prospera.

While I had a hard time with the longer chapters, I truly enjoyed The Ferryman. I particularly loved some of the musings about life and our existence that Cronin weaved throughout the story via Proctor and some of the other characters.

Read this if you are a fan of Black Mirror, Fahrenheit 451, Dark Matter, or any similar books. The Ferryman had parts that reminded me of all of them! :)

This book was incredibly long, and incredibly confusing. I'm not sure I know what I just read, and that's in a bad way. Every few hundred pages it seems like we were presented with a new version of reality, along with the characters, but it left me just confused and feeling a bit like the story was annoyingly pointless. Not a great read, in my opinion.

Justin Cronin is such a gifted writer. He has a way of portraying things so cinematically, with a big brush full of wondrous images and propulsive action, while at the same time exploring the complex interior of his well-drawn characters and explaining the heady ideas he brings up in his stories. I was a huge fan of his "Passage" series, having devoured those 3 books last year, all due to his skill at telling a scary, emotional adventure story without sacrificing character or craft.

I was beyond eager to read his next big doorstopper book, "The Ferryman", and apart from a vague idea of the setting, I went in blind, hoping Cronin would deliver again. For me, he absolutely did! While the "Passage" series was a horror-adjacent multi-volume epic, "The Ferryman" is a self-contained sci-fi mystery storyline full to bursting with complex scenarios, mysterious characters, and twisty plot developments. I really enjoyed the structure of this book; for most of the novel, I was left wondering what the reality of the story actually was. The characters inhabit a society, presumed to be in the future, where most of the world is now housed on a group of three islands. They live somewhat prescribed lives and are able to "reintegrate" into society as new people after their current lives are spent. Some of these people lead privileged lives, while others are born over and over again to serve them. Cracks in this structure appear early, and the story develops from there.

To say much more would be to spoil the richness of the characters involved, not to mention the "swing for the fences" twists the entire plot takes as the nature of events and people are revealed. I could see how, taking the story as a whole and knowing all its secrets, the book might feel somewhat stuffed with ideas, but I enjoyed the cerebral nature of the plot and felt very satisfied with the full context of what was happening. Mileage may vary on that, but Cronin again demonstrated a strong sense of writing style and theme with this work. Like the "Passage" series, I could easily see this novel becoming an acclaimed film or TV adaptation. Fingers crossed!

I would recommend "The Ferryman" for existing Cronin fans and readers who like epic-feeling speculative fiction books. I could list several films and stories this book draws clear inspiration from as well, but that might spoil things for potential readers!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine and NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel in exchange for my honest review!

Omg this book is absolutely crazy and awesome and strange and trippy… in other words, it’s a book that is completely well written and once you really get into it, the story will be pulling you along as if you have no choice but to finish it. I loved our main character , the ferryman - Proctor Bennett.

We follow him in his journey to find out what’s happening in this topsy turvy world where if you’re on the right side, your skating along in a beautiful life where you never really have to die. But if you’re on the wrong side, you have to slave away, waiting on those people who never even stop to think about how their world is so perfect.

I loved the premise of this book and I really couldn’t stop reading once I got into it, which took me a minute. I had to get my bearings because it’s such a strange and interesting plot. Everything turns upside down multiple times. I continually wondered how it was going to end and what in the holy hell was going on. It was fabulous. I did take off one star because of how confusing it was at times. Took me a bit to get a handle on things.

I highly recommend this to science fiction lovers who enjoy a mystery and can handle lots of details and love beautiful prose. This is an amazing story and it will be pulling you along once you really dive in.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this for my honest opinion.

What a mammoth book. What a mammoth story! What a MAMMOTH ride! Justin Cronin delivered with this one! I’ll proudly display this one on my shelf.

Didn’t love this one. I’ve enjoyed Cronin’s others much more. This one was too slow paced for me and took a while to really get off the ground

This is my first book by this author. It's a story of the haves and have nots in a utopian society. Then things start to go awry and the have nots start questioning their place in this society. This is a longer novel with an interesting storyline. It's not something I would normally read and i found it enjoyable.

To be honest, I had this book on my TBR for some time and I would start it and I didn’t get hooked so I put it down and would pick it up again & start the process over again. I wouldn’t shelve it though, because the reviews were excellent and the author is so good. So this May I made it a point to give it one last chance and I am so glad I did. It starts on the islands of Prospera. It is a place where the privileged are taken care of by support staff that live in a cramped island. The Prosperians live an idealistic life. It is seemingly perfect and once the end is near you are sent to a mysterious third island where things are reset and it all starts over again. Proctor Bennett is The Ferryman and it is his job to help complete the retirement process for the each Prosperian citizen. He never thinks much about it until one day he brings his father to the ferry and hears his father “The World is not the World”. Those words spark memories that he can’t figure out what they mean but he is intent on figuring it out. Once he heads down the rabbit hole everything is turned upside down and he has no clue how things will end. This story was so interesting and original. I don’t read many books like this but I am so glad I read this one. I kept wondering what will come up next? Bennett can’t imagine what is hiding behind all the thoughts and memories he has. Once I gave it a chance, I could not stop reading. This is definitely a lesson of don’t judge a book by its cover. I want to thank Netgalley, Justin Cronin and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballantine Books for my copy of The Ferryman, for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book. I can’t wait to read Cronin’s next book, next time I won’t wait to start reading it.

Proctor Bennett is a ferryman. His job is to usher the residents of Prospera through the retirement process, a process that begins once a person’s health and well-being drop to ten percent. Each resident of Prospera has a monitor embedded in their arm which converts their health into an objective, measurable unit. While most individuals approach the retirement process willingly, knowing that they will be going to an island known as the Nursery, a place where their bodies will be rejuvenated and their memories erased as they prepare to start a new life, not all are willing. One who does not go quietly is Proctor’s father; as Proctor struggles to get his father on the ferry he is given a strange and cryptic message, leading Proctor to have some questions of his own, and he is not the only resident of Prospera questioning the status quo.

This novel was honestly a bit of a struggle for me. There were numerous times in which I was confused as to what was happening and why and rereading sections did not always clear things up; it seemed like things were jumping all over the place and I was never sure where the characters were going to land. I felt as though many of the characters were not developed enough, and I found myself not really caring what happened to them as the narrative progressed. Proctor was a bit of a letdown as a character; I never quite knew what his motivations were and I never felt a connection to him. Overall I was disappointed in this novel, especially the second half; after hearing certain things about Cronin and his works I was hoping for a lot more.

Oh, my word! I’m not one to read much science fiction but when I do, I seem to reach for some fantastic ones. The synopsis for this one sounded perfect but the page-length looked too daunting but let me tell you, this book did not drag. It did take me a while to get into the flow of the story but then, I needed to know more about this new world and the individuals who lived there.

This book centers around an interesting concept as a barrier separates these citizens from the rest of the world. The community is further separated into islands based on their function. As you can imagine, this is a controlled environment and productivity is monitored. High productivity is key to remaining on the island of Prospera. Wealthy educated individuals live here and you must continue be a productive asset to the community to secure your existence. Should your monitor show low productivity, you’ll become retired. The Ferryman will then escort you to one of the other islands, which is called the Nursery and your existence on Proapera is no longer. I thought of the Nursery as being a place where individuals get rehauled. Call it a transformation but who knew what really happened while individuals lived at the Nursery. They did know that who you were when you landed at the Nursery was not who eventually left that island. When all the alternations are complete, a new teenager with a new body and mind will be transported back to Prospera. Back on Prospera, this teenager would reside with some of the residents, learning how their community works and growing up to become a high performing adult. There is a third island where individuals work to maintain the upkeep of all the islands. Annex keeps this community functioning.

Our Ferryman is Proctor. Proctor’s mother had a tragic death and it’s during one of Proctor’s shifts that he’s to take his own father to the Nursery. I can’t imagine doing that myself, but this is Proctor’s job and it’s during this trip that his father says something to him that really affects Proctor. I’m not going into much more detail but the whole concept around this book, the characters, and the implications this book has really makes this book so enjoyable. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest opinion. 5 stars

I really enjoyed The Feeryman by Justin Cronin. The best ok was really well written and thought provoking. I wasn’t expecting the ending.