The Ferryman by Justin Cronin is an emotional science fiction ride. The Novel feels like two stories in one. The world-building is well thought out and creatively developed. I love how dreams work in the story and how they are analyzed. The story goes places that I couldn’t predict, it is a wild ride. The story at the beginning reminded me a lot of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the way it was set up then the novel shifts and it reminded me of a couple of films, none that I could list because it would give the twist away. I think this story works better not knowing too much going in. This novel joins Recursion and Dark Matter both by Blake Crotch in stories that I had no idea where they were going. The pace was sometimes a bit too slow. The story is a bit long and has far too many endings than needed. The climax was pretty exciting and brought an emotional impact to the story. The story is complex but at its heart, it is a very simple idea of love, loss, and hope. This is my first Justin Cronin novel I have been recommended the Passage trilogy by more than a few people. I was given The Ferryman from Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine to read and review. The Ferryman was published on May 2, 2023

Plot Summary: Proctor was brought to his parents on a ferry from an island called Nursery. No one on the island is born. He was 16 when delivered to his parents. He now works as a Ferryman that delivers people who fall below 10% in either physical or mental decline. These people are brought to the island of Nursery to get reprogrammed. Proctor gets to be the director of the organization and is in charge of getting people peacefully to the ferry. The day he gets assigned a new partner is the day he has to bring his father to the ferry. He is coherent until he is about to arrive on the ferry where his father starts talking in what he thinks is gibberish but it seems to unlock something in Proctor who starts dreaming which is believed to be impossible.

What I Liked: I found the world-building to be clever especially when all is revealed and we see how truly thought out everything was. I liked how dreams worked in the story and how they worked. The ending and how mind-blowing it all is. I liked that I guessed a little bit of the twist but there are so many layers to the twist that it would be hard to guess all, and it kept me intrigued. The heart in this story is big and it made me emotional. I loved how much psychology played a role in the story by way of dream analysis.

What I Disliked: Some slow moments drag down this good book. I thought the story could have been tighter dropping about 60 pages for this 538-page book. The ending was way too drawn out. This book has more endings than Return of the King, it could have dropped 2 of them and I would have been fine.

Recommendation and Rating: The Ferryman is a solid read with an interesting story. I will recommend this book. What I liked was a lot more than I disliked. I will read another Justin Cronin novel. I rated The Ferryman by Justin Cronin 4 out of 5 stars.