Written by Sowmya Gopi
Lisa Lutz is back with a thriller and wow! The Passenger revolves around a woman who sheds identities and travels across the country in an attempt to outrun her past. From the very first page we see Tanya convincing the readers that she didn’t kill her husband, after finding his lifeless body lying on the floor. Instead of calling 911, she packs a bag, clears out a bank account, and takes off. And thus is the beginning of this captivating tale. Our protagonist, Tanya is always on the run and changes her name faster than anyone even changes clothes. She drives, rides trains, or buses to many different places, only staying long enough to get by.
The book is brilliantly crafted and the characters are what bring the tale to life. The characters here are going about life in a way that is so different that probably any of us, and yet it feels so relatable. From a psychological point, this is actually fascinating. The story is told through Tanya’s voice and the reader would feel like they’re reading her diary. The book has a lot of identity swaps, but we stay in first person throughout the whole story. It doesn’t matter what she is called, the fact is that she is NOT who she says she is. The author doesn’t reveal why until very late in the book and the whole time you keep wondering how “bad” she could really be. Apart from wondering, what is it that our protagonist is running away from, you would find yourself thinking, how hard it would be to just disappear?
There are other characters in the book that become very significant to the story line with each page that you turn and influence many of the outcomes that will unfold.
This book is about deception, lies, and deceit and once you start with it, you’ll thoroughly enjoy reading it till the very last page.
Have you read The Passenger? Or will you be checking it out? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Tanya DuBois doesn’t exist. At least not after an accident leaves her husband dead and thrusts her into the uncomfortably familiar position of Suspect No. 1. She has only one choice: Run.
As “Tanya” watches her life recede in the rearview mirror, we realize she was never real to begin with. And neither is Amelia Keen, Debra Maze, Emma Lark, Sonia Lubovich, or a girl called only Jo. Or almost any of the things she tells us about herself, her past or where she is going next. She is “Amelia” when she meets Blue, another woman with a life she’d rather not discuss, and thinks she’s found a kindred spirit. But their pasts and futures clash as the body count rises around them.
Shedding identities like snakeskins, it becomes impossible for the people in Tanya’s life – and even herself – to know exactly who they’re dealing with. It’s only as she comes closer to facing her past that she can start to piece together the truth about not only who she was but who she can still be. THE PASSENGER inverts the traditional thriller, bypassing whodunit for the larger mysteries of who are you, and what is forgivable, and what is not?
