Unfortunately I am giving The Last Passenger a 2 star review.

First of all I found The Last Passenger initially confusing, but quickly gripping. The premise is shocking; our main character goes to sleep on a cruise ship with a thousand+ passengers and crew and wakes up and her boyfriend - and most of the other passengers - are gone. Let's just say as someone who loves cruising and has a cruise booked for a few months time for my 15th wedding anniversary, I can only imagine the horror and panic of this situation. And let me assure you, it gets worse. It gets a lot worse.

I can't explain any more without spoilers, so all I will say is that this is a well written, original, gripping story, that unfortunately to me, ruins itself entirely in the final few chapters, leaving me feeling frustrated and like I wasted my time on reading it. It's a twisty thriller that ramps up in intensity and I'm sure loads of people will love, but I just can't get over the ending and the way it left me feeling. Perhaps the strength of my opposition to it is a testament to a book well-written in its own way. If I didn't care so much, it wouldn't have bothered me. But still, it's cheap, it's unnecessary and it leaves me feeling icky. I can't move past it. Remove the final page and this would have had five stars.

I'm curious to know if anyone else feels the same way!

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC.

Exciting thriller onboard an ocean liner 'ghost ship' in the mighty Atlantic. A compelling rollercoaster ride, which is frightening, immersive and provides such vivid impressions. Very entertaining story, highly recommended. Could have done without the last couple of paragraphs and possibly added something better to finish it off.

Many thanks to NetGalley UK, the publisher and the author for the ARC.

It's impossible to write a review of The Last Passenger without giving spoilers, so I will have to be brief. The cover you see here is not the final version - this book is published on 11 May.

It was one of those novels that made me stay up at night, so keen was I to finish it.

Imagine stepping onto a luxury ocean liner, particularly if you're a woman who's no stranger to poverty, with a father who gambled and embezzled, condenmning his family to years of shame and hardship. But imagine waking up the following day and finding you're the only person on the ship. The other passengers, including your partner, and all the crew have mysteriously disappeared, and the ship is sailing itself.

What transpired was a surprise, as I hadn't read the description too closely, and the story becomes a gripping battle for survival . Top marks to Will Dean for a thrilling if sometimes disquieting read.

I'm so glad I read this shortly after coming home from a cruise. If I'd read it before, I might not have got on the ship! The book is deliciously horrific, delightfully macabre and gratifyingly harrowing. Some things were predictable, others very much a surprise (or shock!)

As you might guess, main character Caz is not entirely alone on the ship, but who is friend and who is foe? Who is manipulating the situation and who is genuine? There are little clues, but the big reveal towards the end is a jaw dropper. The very final chapter however, is an amusing and somewhat predictable homage to many horror films and novels. I loved it, and laughed out loud because it made the book end on a light note.

The main theme of the book is a critical extrapolation of the way certain things are done in our modern society and the harm these can do to individuals. I wish I could say more but can't without giving major spoilers away. Suffice to say it's highly entertaining, engrossing and definitely worth a read.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advance e-copy.

Extremely hard to review this without giving away any major spoilers.
This book does have something extremely damming to say about an aspect of modern life that most of us are glued to
The book was quite slow going and tended to be a bit repetitive. Would possibly have worked better as a novella.
Caz and her new boyfriend Peter book to go on a transatlantic crossing to New York. All's well until everyone apart from Caz disappears. I wasn't keen on any of the characters, including Caz. There were a number of contradictions in the plot. There were also some things that were just not possible. You have to suspend your belief far too much. For this reason the ending was obvious to me from the beginning so that took the edge off.
The lack of any consent and money solves everything is probably all too common but didn't sit well
Shame as other books by this author I have loved especially Last Thing To Burn which I have recommended to so many people

Caroline, or Caz, is on the trip of a lifetime with her new partner Pete. A 5 day cross Atlantic trip to New York on the amazing RMS Atlantica ocean liner. She’s left her little sister running their café back home so is looking forward to a well earned rest being looked after in luxury.

That’s until she wakes up the next day and finds she is the only person on the ship! No other passengers, no staff and no crew on an ocean liner that’s still travelling full speed ahead! Not even a note from her partner explaining why he has left her alone. What could possibly have happened to everyone? And why her?

Wow, what another incredible, intensely suspenseful book from Will Dean. I’ve loved his other recent standalone thrillers and this really is just as powerful and good. The writing style is so clever keeping you guessing what’s going to happen next but tying your thoughts up in knots giving those wonderful surprises as you flip the pages. Just when you think you’ve worked it out, Will Dean’s genius throws in another twist. Brilliant.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Caz Ripley and her boyfriend Pete have boarded the Atlantica, a luxury ocean liner, and are embarking on a 5 day cruise to New York. On waking the following morning Caz finds herself alone in her cabin; there's not sign of Pete. Soon Caz discovers that it's not just her cabin which is empty, the whole ship is empty - no Pete, no other passengers, no crew, no captain.

A fantastic read - gripping from the start and then that ending! This needs to be a film or a series on a streaming service - it's brilliant!

Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder & Stoughton and Will Dean for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Flipping heck, this book should come with a warning; firstly about getting on a ship, and secondly that your nerves will be seriously jangled when reading this!

It's difficult to review the plot as that gives too much away. Trust me, though, this is an incredibly tense and thrilling book.

It's not only entertaining but will make you question morality too. I asked myself lots of times if I would've made the same choices and assessed other characters' actions.

Will Dean has surpassed himself with this book. I'll be thinking about it for quite some time to come.

After First Born and The Last Thing To Burn, my expectations were stratospheric; I wanted a real thriller with the same level of character and connection I had with the previous books I'd read but I found myself painfully disappointed.
For the record, I think Will Dean is an excellent writer and storyteller but, for me, this wasn't a story I wanted to read nor did I care for the telling of it. It's a premise better suited to science fiction novels and old episodes of The Twilight Zone, and I can see the attraction in trying to bring it into the modern day real world. Some elements did resonate in a 'Black Mirror', despair for modern day society kind of way and, as someone who works with teenagers, I can see the dark sense of foreboding encapsulated in this novel. For me, it was fairly predictable with most of the twists visible from a mile off. There's very little I can say without giving away spoilers but I will say that it's testament to Will Dean's skills as a writer that he's managed to create something at all engaging with this premise. The ending was the most disappointing and predictable part of the book, I was relieved to finish it.
I'm sure there is an audience for this novel, I'm sure that younger readers will enjoy this far more than I, but it was just too far-fetched and frustrating for me.

MY best book of 2023 so far - this was unsettling and you really didn't know who you could trust throughout...who was really telling the truth and who was working on the ship that you maybe didn't know about. I couldn't put this down and have already started to talk to my colleagues and customers about what a great thriller this was with a twist.

Wow what a book !!! Completely different from anything I have ever read before .A whole luxury cruise ship of passengers and crew disappear overnight except for 4 seemingly random passengers but why and how? This story is everything ,gripping ,twisty,full of secrets and lies scary with lifr threatening challenges and so much more .Compleyely loved this book it deserves 10 stars and the ending was mind blowing .Many Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

This book is not for the faint-hearted and certainly not recommended if you are about to holiday on a cruise. This is the first book I have read by Will Dean and I was completely hooked from the start as this thriller had me on the edge of my seat throughout with the drama, tense and unpredictable events.
Boarding the ocean Liner RMS Atlantica is meant to offer a trip of luxury to its passengers but very quickly the voyage turns into a nightmare as all the passengers and crew disappear except for four. They are put through absolute torture and terror having to endure no food, water, light heating and much more. Their personal lives are exposed leaving them even more vulnerable as they get to know each other. I really hope this story reached many readers as the plot is so clever and intriguing.
My thanks to Net Galley and the publishers Hodder & Stoughton for this fabulous ARC .

This is the third book I read from this author and although I’ve loved the first two ones, giving both five star,
I have to confess I had mixed feeling about this book. It’s as the previous ones, brilliantly written, fast paced and had very interesting characters. But some points of the story were very hard to believe and the end didn’t fulfil my expectations as a reader. Still it has a very engaging plot and an absolutely controversial subject. Definitely worth reading.

The Last Passenger by Will Dean

This is a compelling book with the same sparkling writing style of Dean’s other books. Although it’s put me off booking a trip on an ocean liner any time soon! A unique premise that will have you guessing all the way.
The chance of a lifetime? Or the nightmare of the century?

Left alone on an ocean liner is not what Caz expected after waking up in the morning to a deserted ship. Pete’s disappeared without waking her. Where are the passengers? Then I got to thinking, did these missing passengers disappear voluntarily or were they forced? Leaving “four starved puppets” in the middle of the Atlantic to survive the most horrendous circumstances seemed so cruel to me. How easy is it to rally nearly 1,000 people without waking Caz, Smith, Daniel and Frannie?

At about the 37% mark another question scuttled by. What is it about these four that has caused them to be excluded? This is what kept me reading, realising that at some point this was going to turn into the most horrifying contest for survival where rivalry becomes centre stage. Caz refuses to go into the casino but then gambles away a priceless opportunity. As each go through a monologue of thoughts and conversations—how their lives have in some cases been lived selfishly—it’s not only a test of wits and bravery, but a righting of wrongs. But when Frannie sees a shadow in the corner of the room, you have to ask yourself, who else is on the ship? Who is pulling their strings and why?

The ending was nothing I’d ever imagined. I took me completely by surprise. I’m still stunned. All I can say is WOW! What a fabulous read.

This is going to be a tricky one to review because so much of what I could say about it would be spoilery. It's not at all what I thought it would be though. The little snippet that was on NetGalley combined with the title made me think that it was about a woman on an ocean liner who wakes up to discover that she is the sole occupant, and it would be about her trying to deal with that, having to control the ship, as well as working out what happened to everyone. It's not that at all which I was rather disappointed by.

You're thrown into the story pretty much straight away. All the passengers have disappeared by chapter 2. Despite this, it was slow to start and very little information was given about what had happened which made it frustrating. I had my suspicions from the start about the survival rate. Caz' constant harping on about her past, and her personal situation was quite irritating. I thought she was all right at first but she soon became annoying. There was lots of repetition about Caz, the situation, various aspects of the ship, and so it all got to be rather monotonous.

The plot started it off okay but it gradually became ridiculous and got more outlandish by the minute. The entire thing was very creepy and seemed fairly sadistic. It made me very uncomfortable to read it. I continued with it because I wanted to know what had happened, and to get some sort of reasonable explanation for the whole thing. I was really glad to finish it but I could not wait to remove the book from my tablet, I just wanted to get shut of it asap. I didn't enjoy it at all but it seemed to be well written so I thought I’d be generous and give it 3 stars. But the ending changed all that. I can’t decide if it’s a lazy ending or not, but it was aggravating and reduced my rating to 2 stars.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy to review.

This book is great if you are willing to suspend disbelief.

Pacy and suspenseful. I liked it a lot but found the protagonist to be a little off.

Caz and Pete are crossing from Southampton to New York on a luxury ship. When Caz wakes up on the first morning, Pete has gone. But his absence turns out to be the least of her worries. Caz discovers she has become the last passenger on board. An interesting but hopefully unlikely premise that made important points about a modern mode of entertainment. (I won't elaborate to avoid spoilers.) I did spot the clues so the denouement wasn't a total shock. However, it was an exciting, well-written story. I read the whole thing on a transatlantic flight. Glad I wasn't on an ocean liner like Caz.

With thanks to netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to review this book.

It might have taken a few chapters for me to get into this books, but once I started to enjoy this book, it was a amazing read.

The last passenger is a fast paced book, that is part x-files and part the Hunger Games.

Will Dean delivers a great read.

Twisty, turny, claustrophobic, terrifying. Well done that man Will Dean, he’s churned out another corker that made my stomach churn throughout. And not just because of the seasickness!

This book kept me up late as I felt the need to finish it. I had started to feel for the main characters by that time. The plot moved along quite fast with a few twists. I can't really say much without accidently giving away a few major plot lines. I enjoyed reading this book, but wasn't keen on the ending.