"The Last Flight"

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Pages: 269 Genre: thriller

Rating: 3.5 Stars

While I did have some issues with this book, I generally found it to be incredibly effective at generating an emotional response. I was stressed, I was relieved, and I just really felt for the characters. The Last Flight isn't my favorite book of all time, but I did enjoy the experience of reading it.

The Last Flight follows the stories of two women who are running from their lives: Claire Cook, the wife of an abusive politician, and Eva James, a mysterious woman from California. After a chance meeting at an airport bar, the two switch flights to get a head start on their new lives. However, when the flight that used to be Claire's goes down, she's left with an entirely new life in an entirely new place. What will happen to Claire, and what is Eva hiding from?

My biggest issue with this book was the timeline at the beginning. Once the story found its groove, it followed Claire in the present and Eva in the past. However, at the very start, there were some weird choices made for Eva. I think she should've stuck to the parallel story and have us learn more about Eva as Claire does instead of giving us the biggest answers right at the start. The things that were surprising for Claire just weren't for me, and they could have been.

I did really enjoy Claire and Eva though. Claire could sometimes feel a bit preachy — what she was saying wasn't wrong, but the message overshadowed the plot sometimes. Eva was a very compelling character, though. Her moral ambiguity was interesting, and I wish it had been explored more narratively. Seeing her try to rationalize and understand all of her behavior was fun, and it certainly made for a worrying story. I did think Clark effectively made readers root for her, despite her flaws.

One thing that probably made the book lose a whole star for me was the clear lack of understanding of Google Docs. So much of Claire's success or failure is determined by her not being seen on a shared Google Doc, but it tells you everyone who is on a document (even if you're on one account on two devices). Maybe I'm just painfully familiar with Google Docs, but this felt like such an obvious oversight that I couldn't really focus on everything else with her.

The Last Flight had some really sweet moments, too. They were a bit stereotypical in their delivery, but I'm not going to say it wasn't effective for me. Maybe I'm just a sap, but I liked it.

If you're into thrillers and are interested in books with feminist themes, you should give this one a go. Don't go into it expecting the next great piece of American Literature, but let yourself have fun with it.