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A review by afreen7
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
3.0
Rating: 3.5
When you take another person’s life, it changes you. It doesn't just change how you look at the world or how you see yourself. It alters you to the core, your DNA. All the things I had once believed about myself, about my inherent decency-I didn’t have the same foothold on them as I once had.
This book went full throttle from the very first sentence that I read. It was so fast paced that I was even willing to ignore flaws, factual errors and the utter incredulousness of the whole scenario that the protagonist had gotten herself into.
Our protagonist—let’s call her Jane Doe for now—has baggage even before the novel begins and the accidental death of her husband sends her fleeing from her current life, which seems almost paranoid at first but then the story begins to unravel in the form of letters and flashbacks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this book. Despite its flaws (the deceptively easy looking break-ins and identity thefts, and Jane Doe’s ability of going undetected for so long) the book was un-put-downable and I didn’t mind ignoring them for the sake of finding out what happened next. And Lutz provided interesting titbits of information on human behavior which was actually interesting to read.
The characters-some of them I liked but some of them I couldn’t understand at all. Jane Doe was almost sociopathic, a little selfish, resourceful, has a weird but self-justified moral compass, and seriously questionable taste in men. On the one hand she has no problem accepting an invite home from the very glib and suspicious Dominic but utterly destroyed this other guy she meets on the run, at a bar, who acted exactly the same. Other than that I enjoyed her characterization mostly.
And combine her with Blue and we have a whacked out version of ‘Thelma and Louise’. Together they were enigmatic, again weird but I still couldn’t stop reading. They are two sides of the same coin. Jane Doe has the same evil streak inside her that Blue is able to show on the surface.
And after everything is done we get the entire picture…which was half predictable and half shocking and not enough. But there were some gaps to the story.
Don’t get me started on Ryan who doesn’t fully accept his mistake and blames Nora when he clearly was at fault. I didn’t get him at all.
And is it really that easy stealing and assuming a different identity and killing people without consequence?
But the good thing is that the story keeps you engaged. You don’t notice anything amiss while you’re literally being dragged around the country at breakneck speeds by a sociopath.
When you take another person’s life, it changes you. It doesn't just change how you look at the world or how you see yourself. It alters you to the core, your DNA. All the things I had once believed about myself, about my inherent decency-I didn’t have the same foothold on them as I once had.
This book went full throttle from the very first sentence that I read. It was so fast paced that I was even willing to ignore flaws, factual errors and the utter incredulousness of the whole scenario that the protagonist had gotten herself into.
Our protagonist—let’s call her Jane Doe for now—has baggage even before the novel begins and the accidental death of her husband sends her fleeing from her current life, which seems almost paranoid at first but then the story begins to unravel in the form of letters and flashbacks.
I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this book. Despite its flaws (the deceptively easy looking break-ins and identity thefts, and Jane Doe’s ability of going undetected for so long) the book was un-put-downable and I didn’t mind ignoring them for the sake of finding out what happened next. And Lutz provided interesting titbits of information on human behavior which was actually interesting to read.
The characters-some of them I liked but some of them I couldn’t understand at all. Jane Doe was almost sociopathic, a little selfish, resourceful, has a weird but self-justified moral compass, and seriously questionable taste in men. On the one hand she has no problem accepting an invite home from the very glib and suspicious Dominic but utterly destroyed this other guy she meets on the run, at a bar, who acted exactly the same. Other than that I enjoyed her characterization mostly.
And combine her with Blue and we have a whacked out version of ‘Thelma and Louise’. Together they were enigmatic, again weird but I still couldn’t stop reading. They are two sides of the same coin. Jane Doe has the same evil streak inside her that Blue is able to show on the surface.
And after everything is done we get the entire picture…which was half predictable and half shocking and not enough. But there were some gaps to the story.
Spoiler
I am pretty sure that getting proven innocent for one murder and flirting with the police officer who discovered your actual first murder, is not going to entitle you to a get out of jail free card. Not to mention going on the run, being wanted for years, breaking and entering etc. etc. maybe when the officer happens to be Dominic.Don’t get me started on Ryan who doesn’t fully accept his mistake and blames Nora when he clearly was at fault. I didn’t get him at all.
And is it really that easy stealing and assuming a different identity and killing people without consequence?
But the good thing is that the story keeps you engaged. You don’t notice anything amiss while you’re literally being dragged around the country at breakneck speeds by a sociopath.