Drowning by T.J. Newman
Flight attendant turned New York Times bestselling author T. J. Newman—whose first book Falling was an instant #1 national bestseller and the biggest thriller debut of 2021—returns for her second book, an edge-of-your-seat thriller about a commercial jetliner that crashes into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom with passengers trapped inside, and the extraordinary rescue operation to save them.
Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside.
More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.
Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.
There’s not much time.
There’s even less air.
With devastating emotional power and heart-stopping suspense, Drowning is an unforgettable thriller about a family’s desperate fight to save themselves and the people trapped with them—against impossible odds.
Review:
I listened to this one during a recent road trip and it was great!
The audiobook was narrated by Steven Weber and Laura Benanti – they are both excellent narrators, but I know them best from TV and movies. Steven Weber is probably best known for his portrayal of Brian Hackett in the 1990s TV show Wings. More recently he played the principal in the Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why. Laura Benanti starred on Broadway with Zachary Levi in She Loves Me. She’s also appeared in TV series like Supergirl,, Nashville, Life & Beth and the Gossip Girl reboot.
The book is definitely intense and the situation made me super uncomfortable. I remember going to Hawaii back in 2000 and at one point as we were over the Pacific Ocean on our way there, I got up to use the restroom and made the mistake of looking out the window and all I saw was blue water. It terrified me! When we were flying home, the plane made this sharp turn. I was sitting in the window seat and I looked down and all I saw was water. I seriously thought we were going down, so when the plane begins to malfunction during takeoff from the Honolulu airport, I was right there. It was terrifying. I’m terrified of crashing in the water. I don’t even want to go on a cruise. The thought of drowning or getting lost in the ocean is probably my worst fear. You’re so helpless. I need my feet planted firmly on the ground. That way I have some sense of control.
Anyway – back to the book.
I listened to this author’s first book, “Falling” when it released last year and I really liked the story. I may be in the minority here, but I felt like the first book had more action. That one was about a pilot who flies a plane full of passengers headed for New York from LA. He gets a call before takeoff that his wife and two kids are being held hostage and will be killed if he doesn’t crash the plan. Steven Weber also narrated that book and did a great job.
The reason I liked that book better was because this one felt somewhat claustrophobic – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’re talking about a group of people trapped in a plane that is sinking in the ocean. There’s not a whole lot they can do. The book flips between the passengers as they struggle to stay alive, and the rescue crew frantically trying to decide the best course of action to save them. Stakes are high and tensions run even higher when the estranged wife and mother of two of the passengers on the plane comes into play. She’s a very experienced underwater welder and she has an idea of how to save them, but of course the big, strong know-it-all Navy men are hesitant to listen to her.
While this is definitely a plot-driven novel, the author does a good job of connecting us with Will, Chris and Shannon – often flashing back to a time when they were a happy family and gives us a look at the tragedy that tore Chris and Will apart. What I would have liked was a little more on some of the passengers. I feel like that would have made me care about them a little more. There were a lot of players and I didn’t feel super connected with any of them – or at least not as much as I would have liked to.
That said, I really enjoyed the book and it made my 9-hour road trip fly by. If you like an edge of your seat, claustrophobic, fast-paced read check this one out, but only if you don’t plan on flying anytime soon.
