The Passenger by Lisa Lutz

My thanks to Philippa at Titan Books for my copy of The Passenger. Hugely grateful as always 😊

About the book (via 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?

 
My thoughts:

I had The Passenger on my TBR shelves for a couple of weeks, and lately I’ve been feeling neglectful of my books, so I asked my husband to choose a book for me out of my immediate paperback TBR, and this is what he chose.

I was really glad once I started, because I literally flew through the first one hundred pages which is a decent chunk to get read when I’m starting a book.

We meet Tanya at the beginning, where she is fleeing from her home where her husband is lying dead on the floor. By running, she essentially makes herself the prime suspect in her husbands death investigation.

Initially, we don’t find out why Tanya runs, but as you get into the book it becomes clear that all is not what it seems with Tanya Dubois. What follows is a tense cross-country cat and mouse chase between Tanya, her past and her present.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Passenger. It was exactly what I needed pace-wise, as I felt like I was stuck in a reviewing rut. The week I read this, I was knocked for six by a stomach bug so this book was a saviour in that it kept my brain occupied and off the sickness for a while!

My only (tiny) issue with The Passenger was that it began to feel a bit samey after a while. In that the identity swapping and events following on from the swaps were all a bit similar at times. That being said, I still really enjoyed reading it. It was pretty fast moving, which kept me turning the pages long into the night and when everything is resolved it made more sense!

I gave The Passenger 4⭐️ on Goodreads. A highly enjoyable, pacy read! The Passenger is out now, and you can purchase a copy by clicking the link below!

The Passenger

Happy Reading! 😊