Drowning is the latest thriller by former flight attendant, now best selling author T.J Newman and focuses on downed flight 1421 which crashes into the Pacific Ocean six minutes after takeoff. While attempting an emergency evacuation the plane begins to gain water and the engine explodes causing the plane to sink more than 200 feet below surface with 12 trapped passengers, including Will Kent and his 11 yr old daughter Shannon. With oxygen limited to mere hours and the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning, survival depends on Chris Kent, Shannon’s mother and Will’s estranged wife, and her team of Elite rescue divers to come to their aid before it is too late.

What I liked about the book:
-multiple 3rd person POVs, the rescue team, the trapped passengers
-strong female characters in traditionally male dominated fields
-backstories of the characters
-some interesting facts about behind the scenes activity of flight attendants and pilots
-attention to detail of the parts involved in a ‘not in your manual’ rescue operation
-the sense of impending doom and dread
-claustrophobic, trapped sensation of the passengers

What I disliked about the book:
-became too technical at times, I was overwhelmed with all the technical jargon
-Chris and Will’s personalities seemed at times like irritating know it alls, but take charge personalities would be needed in that dire situation
-wanted more info about why the crash occurred, I would have like some sabotage aspect to it for added suspense

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

My final takeaway: I would recommend this suspense book for fans of rescue and disaster novels, who enjoy a realistic and technical read. Furthermore, readers who want an immersive, claustrophobic experience of a desperate and time sensitive rescue will appreciate this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada Avid Reader Press for this eARC.

[arc review]
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Drowning releases May 30, 2023

A suspenseful, action packed, adrenaline inducing, emotional read. (I cried. Multiple times)
The ultimate fight for survival.
I <i>need</i> to see this adapted to the big screens.

Flight 1421, departing from Honolulu, crashed into the water just 6 minutes and 37 seconds after take off. With the engine catching on fire just 2 minutes into the flight, things escalate at the speed of light.

Out of 99 souls, how many will make it out alive to tell the tale? And how many others will band together and sacrifice themselves to rescue them?

A true three dimensional read. We get the perspectives from each moving part — the surviving passengers trapped in the sunken plane, the rescue team, and a loved one of two of the passengers.
The ingenuity here was thought provoking. I loved the idea of having to think of the sunken plane, no longer as a plane, but instead a submarine!
The events are not cookie cutter, and there’s no written manual that they could have trained for to guide them through this exact scenario.

Chris, a civilian contractor on a Navy ship, just so happened to be at the right place at the right time. Seeing two parents on opposing ends fighting for one common thread was just amazing, coupled with a family healing from grief in the most unconventional yet touching circumstances.
I truly was not expecting to be brought to tears picking up this suspenseful thriller, but the pull of emotion these characters evoked was everything. <u>This</u> is why I love to read. To feel. To be totally immersed. To be on the edge of my seat the entire time, heart-pumping, holding my breath, not able to predict what would happen next.

I already know this will be a top 10, maybe even top 5 read of the year.

✈️ Six minutes after take off, a plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean 🌊 … get ready for the wildest ride of your LIFE in “Drowning” by TJ Newman!!!!

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Just imagine: your flight takes off and within a few minutes in the air the engine explodes and all navigation fails!! The flight containing 99 passengers drops into the Pacific Ocean and starts to S I N K 200 feet beneath the ocean’s surface 🤯!! Furthermore, the plane miraculously rests on the edge of an underwater cliff! 12 passengers are trapped inside the sinking plane and the clock is ticking as their chances for survival count down. A rescue like this has never been attempted before … DO the remaining passengers even stand a chance??

B R A V O 👏. The research that went into this book is PHENOMENAL and FASCINATING! Every nitty gritty detail is outlined in a way that you can picture it in your head and feelings of dread, doom, paranoia and pure fear take over you while you are reading! It’s just crazy! I flew (no pun intended) through this book in one day because I was completely absorbed and committed to what was happening!

Thank you so much to Avid Reader Press, Simon and Schuster Canada, Netgalley and TJ Newman for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on May 30, 2023!

Will is accompanying his 11-year-old daughter, Shannon to camp, despite her insisting she could fly there on her own. But it's a good thing her dad is there, because 2 minutes into the flight, one of the engine explodes, forcing the plane to ditch (land on water). And less than 10 minutes after the plane got into the air in Hawaii, it is sitting at the bottom of the ocean, with a dozen live passengers...
I loved this! The writing was great, I loved how every scene, focused on one part on the action or one character or set of characters (it's told in multiple 3rd person POVs), rolls naturally into the next one. It grabbed be from the very first line. This is an action packed, page turner. I'm very claustrophobic, enough that reading this made me feel trapped. And just when you think things couldn't get any worse (really, what could be worse than being caught in a plane at the bottom of the ocean?), they do. This would make an incredible action movie. I would definitely watch and I definitely recommend the read. I laughed (I know this makes me seem like a horrible person, but the dialogues were amazingly witty), I cried, I hyperventilated... what more can I ask for?
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Although the cover design would suggest that this is a sequel to the author's first book, Falling, it is not, that's my only quibble with it. Will and his daughter Shannon are flying to San Francisco so Shannon can attend a camp. They are minutes into the flight when the engine fails and the plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean, at first it is floating on the surface and a number of passengers are able to get off, Will holds Shannon back, he doesn't want her to get crushed in the melee of people. He then realizes that the fuel floating on the surface is going to ignite, the doors are closed and not long after the plane sinks to the bottom of the ocean with 12 souls still on board. The action in this book is non stop, as many other reviewers have mentioned, it is a compulsive read and I was hard pressed to put it down. The chapters fly by as you wonder if anyone will make it out. The Coast Guard gets involved and they all in an underwater welding crew, which just so happens to include Chris, the wife (they are separated) of Will and mother of Shannon. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Avid Reader Press for the ARC.

Set in the murky waters more two hundred feet below the surface, New York Times bestselling author T. J. Newman’s latest novel, Drowning, is a propulsive and hair-raising thriller.

Just six-minutes after departing Honolulu for San Francisco, one engine bursts into flames, causing utter terror aboard Flight 1421. Among those on the plane are pilot Kit, her flight crew, Will, and his young daughter Shannon.

Some passengers escape above water, and the rest become trapped inside a sinking vessel, which happens to be hanging off a cliff. And so ensues an extraordinary rescue mission. Chance would have it that leading the operation is a woman named Chris, an expert diver, and Will’s soon to be ex-wife.

Will a second chance at life bring them together again? With time, and oxygen, running out, Newman had me racing to the finish line to find out.

The imaginative narrative, industrial diving and marine-related terminology, women working in male dominated industries, and familial plot tie-in were all intelligent of Newman.

Like her debut, Falling, once T.J. Newman has you in her clutch, she’s got you until the end. I’m looking forward to listening to this on audio, and I’m thrilled to hear of Newman’s ongoing success with the forthcoming adaptation of Drowning.

What a... ride doesn't seem to be the right word. Nail-biter. That's better. I loved this book as much as I loved Falling, TJ Newman's first novel. She knows how to ratchet up the suspense and keep me turning pages to find out what happens next. I should've been asleep an hour ago, but instead I had to find out what happened to a group of plane crash survivors trapped in the submerged fuselage of their ditched aircraft. There were some flashbacks from one of the passengers and one of the rescue crew that served to let me catch my breath, but the rest was non-stop action.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves books about daring rescue attempts & group dynamics. It was like a disaster movie brought to the page, in the best possible way.

I tried to read this book slowly, to savor it and enjoy it for a little longer. But, I couldn't. Much like Fallen, which was read as quickly as possible, I could not put this book down.
If anything, Newman has upped the ante with this book. More intense scenes. More attachment to characters. You can't put it down because you have to know what comes next. How will this problem be solved?
This is one of the better books I have read this year and highly recommend reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an eARC of Drowning. This was good not as good as Falling for me. I really did not enjoy all of the plane terminology used in the book as I keep having to remember or look it up but as it went on I got more comfortable with it. The book was a good read and it started very strong right from the start to the end. It was quiet believable as well.

4.5 Stars. T. J. Newman had ten years of experience as an airline attendant before writing the best seller Falling, a riveting airline thriller. With Drowning, she has proven that she can maintain the suspense and tension in this edge-of-your-seat, gripping, exciting airline story. With this propulsive, high-octane, explosive plot, she has carved her way to the top of the airline thriller category with plenty of human drama. She has done intensive research, interviewed airline technicians and search and rescue experts, and put this knowledge into a believable if farfetched story. I found some of the technical and mechanical aspects of airlines and search and rescue methods and equipment hard to visualize, but this didn't detract from my dread for the characters and anxiety about who, if any, can survive in an unprecedented, seemingly impossible rescue attempt.

The flight is only 6 minutes out of Honolulu en route to California when the engines and navigation equipment fail. The airliner, with 99 on board, crashes into the Pacific. It comes to rest on an unstable edge of an underwater cliff. Twelve people are still trapped inside the aircraft while it sinks two-hundred feet beneath the surface. An elite rescue team rushes to save any survivors. Many passengers and crew leave the plane, but most perish in the churning ocean or burn from spilled fuel, setting fire to waters surrounding the plane, despite brave rescue efforts.

The people trapped inside the plane must contend with water flooding its interior and rapidly diminishing oxygen supply. The water is waist-deep, and it is getting worse. Hypothermia is a threat. The rescue team is astounded to learn that people are still alive inside the plane. There has never been a rescue attempt of this kind. Several plans have been devised, but there is much disagreement about whether these ideas could work or worsen the situation.

Chris Kent Has joined the rescue crew. She runs a welding and diving business, mainly working on underwater repairs on large sea vessels. She strongly believes the plans drawn up by those in controlling rescue efforts will endanger the lives of the survivors. She is sure she has a better method for rescuing those trapped below, but her ideas are ignored. She learns to her horror that her soon-to-be ex-husband, Will Kent and their 11-year-old daughter Shannon are in the underwater plane. On the plane, the people are terrified but display an outer calm and a spirit of cooperation, except for one man who is rude and obnoxious. A memorable story that I hope I can forget before I board a plane.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the much-appreciated ARC of this action thriller. Publication date is set for May 30. Recommended.