This book was interesting, if you want to escape into a whole new futuristic world and get absorbed in it. It is very long and for me, that made it a bit hard to get through. Would have preferred it to be a little less detailed, but understand why the author did it. Lots of philosophical questions, lots to think about with this one.

This was entertaining! This is not my typical genre but I like to mix it up my reading outside of my comfort zone. I can't wait to read more by this author.

Loved this book and didn’t see the twist coming. Really loved the wolf building if prospera. This would be a great book club book because discussion points are endless with class, climate change, power of dreams, etc!

I loved The Passage trilogy so was thrilled to see Justin Cronin had a new book available. The Ferryman did not disappoint. Similar to the books in the trilogy, it moved fairly slowly at times, allowing us to understand the characters and the environment, then threw interesting curves that kept me guessing and reading.

My first Justin Cronin novel and I went in blind. This seemed very well done but it was a little hard for me to connect with it. Just a bit out of my normal genre which is all on me certainly not the author.
Futuristic and quiet creepy for sure.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I was really excited to read this novel but once I actually started reading this I found it a chore to read. The dialogue wasn’t natural and seemed robotic. The book was way longer than it needed to be and seemed to repeat itself. I had to force myself to finish the book.

My review didn't take months ago but this is a great Sci fi Fantasy that was both engrossing & shifting like the sands or the ocean where few will gather or guess what all it entails until the end. An island of beautiful perfect people that have wonderful lives & youth way past their time until they need to be ferried to be reborn.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to dig into the new Justin Cronin! I'm a fan of The Passage series, and I really loved how Cronin was able to take some tired tropes (vampires! apocalypse! raging life-altering virus!) and give them a fresh spin resulting in a story unlike one I've ever read before. So I was a little dismayed the more I got into The Ferryman and kept encountering one dystopian cliche after another. Here we have hints of Brave New World, Logan's Run, and The Matrix. Here we meet characters we've known in too many YA dystopian novels to count: unreliable best friends, parents with secrets, possibly evil woman dictator, gritty but idealistic rebels, and the magical disabled person. It was exhausting. And then, it wasn't. There is a twist because there are always twists in this kind of story, but this twist is where Cronin shines. Again he takes tired tropes and turns into something new, providing readers with a satisfying ending. It's just that the journey there takes a little too long.

3.5 - Although I got really into the story by the end, this book took me forever to get through (literally, I started reading it almost 3 months ago)! I felt that the first half of the book was really disjointed, and not super engaging to read; but once we got to the “big reveal” I really started enjoying it. I think it may have been better served if the stories were told alternating with the origin of Oranios being known to the reader throughout; because obviously you knew there was a twist coming, so it wasn’t like a shock when you found out there was something else going on, you just didn’t know what it was. And that was the most interesting part to me

I found that I was super into this, then I got annoyed with it and put it down for a while, then I got sucked back in when I finished it. There were some very odd parts when the truth behind the story was revealed, and honestly I wished it had just been the original story, but it was definitely inventive and unexpected. I’d recommend this if you like Blake Crouch - very similar speculative sci-fi dude vibes.

My first Justin Cronin, this was an interesting story that... is very difficult to talk about without mentioned spoilers but I will do my best.

Our main character Proctor is a ferryman, a public servant servicing Prospera citizens who are retiring to be reborn/rebooted. Obviously this is very sci-fi, which I am into, but as we meet more and more and more characters and more and more and more new plot points get introduced, it is very easy to get overwhelmed and confused.

Cronin does land the plane, however it takes AGES to get there. I have little critique for where the plot goes, other than it could easily be 100-150 pages shorter, and a much better novel for it.

If you are a science fiction fan, then this is definitely worth it, but I would not recommend it to those who are not all in for sci-fi.

In The Ferryman, Justin Cronin takes you on a wild ride from start to finish. The less you know about the plot the better, other than the basic premise (Proctor is a ferryman who has started to feel like his life in an idyllic society is missing something), so let me just say that it’s a wild, labyrinthine ride. The character development and world building are so good, and the story is thought-provoking, exciting and poignant, all at the same time. This is one sci-fi fans and Justin Cronin fans won’t want to miss.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of The Ferryman.

I loved The Passage so I was super excited to see that Justin Cronin had a new book coming out.

Overall this just wasn't the book for me. The first 25% or so was interesting and then it kind of dropped off. Mostly this is just my preference but the story got a little bit too "sci-fi" for me which is where it lost me.

The twists towards the end kind of lost me. I think it may have been better if I was reading a physical copy and could flip back to earlier pages easier but overall I just got a little bit lost.

Would recommend for people who enjoy sci-fi type books.

A huge thanks to NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

Long time TBRer first time reader, thank you. Oh my gawdness. This book.

Have you ever been reading a book in bed and you get so lost in the story that when you suddenly need to go to the bathroom, you're not sure if you were reading or dreaming? Yeah, me neither until this book, but let me tell you, it is an intensely disorienting feeling to realize that you have...not lost, but...read through hours without realizing it but also not sure if you dreamt the reading...

So, we start with Proctor Bennett, who is a citizen of Prospera. It is...dystopian? post-apocalyptic? and the Prosperans (or prossies, depending on whether you're a proper Prosperan or the support staff) live in a bubble where there is no birth (children come to caregivers via a Ferry from the Nursery, which also happens to be where people retire to when their life monitor drops below a certain percentage) and rarely any death. Proctor is a Ferryman in charge of taking those at the end of their current iteration on the ferry to the Nursery. Sometimes the task is easy, sometimes it's not.

Proctor is married to Elise on their first contract (marriage contracts can be extended or renewed past the original contract time), but Elise has made it clear she wants no children. One day, Proctor meets a girl on the beach named Caeli. They strike up a strange kind of relationship akin to a father-daughter type situation and he agrees to teach her how to swim.

Meanwhile, there is a community of Arrivalists who know something is wrong with Prospera, they just don't know what. There is Mom, who oversees them, and Papi, a blind artist whose artistic renderings touch something deep inside people. There are the cousins - a group of children who run around and hide from the Prosperans who would follow them to locate Mom.

By the time to think you start to understand what is happening and Proctor is trying to also get a handle of what is going on....BAM! Emeril throws some spice on it and transforms it from something great to a freaking masterpiece. I have to say....

"I did NOT see that coming."

I did not see that coming. This is on my top ten list of favorite books. Color me impressed and moving on to more Cronin.

I was quite pleased to be able to read a copy of this book. I had read Cronin's earlier books and was excited to read this enormous new one. And it did not disappoint. I loved the characters and the whole society in which they live. I kept seeing the book as a movie as I was reading it.

Proctor Bennett is Director of the Department of Social Contracts and a Ferryman in Prospera, a city many years in the future. Proctor is an ethical, caring man who has a lot of responsibility. It took a while to figure out what is really happening in this futuristic novel where things are certainly not what they seem. It is difficult to review this novel withing revealing things that would unfairly reveal too much, so I will end by strongly recommending THE FERRYMAN for your next read.

I dont know if I have ever read a book with as many wild and unpredictable twists as The Ferryman had. This story was intense and at times a bit difficult to follow, but not in a bad way. It’s just that good. This story weaves together many complex details but in an intricate yet beautiful way. I loved how original it was. It did remind me somewhat of the TV show Westworld. Overall I really enioyed this one and highly recommend it!

This was my first Justin Cronin novel, and I can tell you it will not be my last. The storytelling, world building and mystery was spot on and helped to suck me in right away. I was completely fascinated with Prospera and its citizens that retire to the island of "The Nursery" when their embedded monitors indicate less than 10%. Our lead character, Proctor has the job of "ferryman", who helps people with their journey to retirement, where their memories are wiped, bodies restored, and they are brought back to Prospera for a new life.

I really had no idea what might lie beyond the "veil" of Prospera and where Cronin could possibly take this story. The suspense crafted throughout the novel was spot on to keep me wanting to know more and know the secrets of this island. The world building was absolutely incredible, and had to be my favorite part of the whole novel. I really enjoyed the overall story and appreciated the details to get from start to finish. I had some trouble with some of the details, at times there was a lot going on and made certain jumps difficult for me to grasp. By the end of the novel, everything made more sense to me, however I think things could have been condensed a bit more to make for a more concise and understandable story. Despite these few issues, I really enjoyed this book and it will definitely leave a lasting impression on me.

What a journey. Everything about this novel was great. The characters were complicated, messy, and had layers upon layers. The writing was enticing and compelling, and the way it changed perspectives kept the pace exciting and kept the reader interested in the various threads of the plot. The structure, the way it revealed its secrets, was really well done. Anyone that reads speculative sci-fi can probably guess some of the twists and turns ahead of time, I did, but that didn’t take away from the joy of experiencing it at all. While it starts as a pretty straight forward narrative style, as more chaos erupts into the lives of our protagonist there is almost a fever dream quality to the story, keeping the story exciting and a little unmoored, but if also felt wonderfully purposeful, never confusing or misleading just for the sake of it. The story itself takes a couple of different ideas and tropes we are used to and combines them together in a fun way, making a sum worth more than the value of its parts. A remarkable, cinematic journey that kept me on the edge of my seat!

I want to thank the author, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to the author, Justin Cronin, publisher Ballentine Books, and as always, Net Galley for an advance digital copy of THE FERRYMAN.

I didn't read Justin Cronin's PASSAGE series, but I really wanted to try his books, which are acclaimed and well received. I was happy when NetGalley and Ballentine granted me a wishlist copy of this one.

Unfortunately, THE FERRYMAN was not for me. I did finish the book, but from the beginning, I just wasn't sure about what I was reading. I found it all a touch inaccessible. I couldn't connect with INCEPTION (2010 film) either and that's what it reminds me of. If you liked that, you will probably like this!

Rating: 2.5 😴😴😴 / 5 dreams
Recommend? Yes, but it's a hard read
Finished: January 21 2023
Read this book if you like:
⌛️ INCEPTION (2010 film)
🙇‍♀️ Difficult reads