Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Passengers

I've been reading so many romance novels over the last few years that I forgot what it was like to read a truly thrilling book. The pacing of this book is masterful. It starts off quite slow, then it speeds up toward the end, but not so fast that we're left with a rushed and incomplete ending, which I guess I've come to expect, unfortunately. When a big climactic moment happened, I was surprised to see there were still about two hours left in the audiobook! I really appreciated that closure.

Aside from pace, I am also always a huge fan of ensembles, which is part of what initially sustained my attention. I was like damn, how many hostages are there? Lol.

More to the content of the novel, I liked how each character was flawed in a very human way, and yet the protagonist (who, despite all the other characters, I'd say is Libby) was still always someone you could route for. This was a skillful balance to maintain.

I also have a soft spot for anti-establishment narratives lol. As one of the characters states at some point, the real villains turn out to be people, not AI.

Spoiler

Going back to Alex, while I'm under the spoilers cut, I do feel somewhat vindicated for never trusting "Jude" after hearing from his perspective early in the book. I'm impressed with that subtle characterization. There was something stalkerish and frenzied about his way of speaking. I mean, the biggest red flag was def him getting a semi in the middle of a hostage situation lol. I took that as revealing something stunted or disturbed about him, anyway. Still, as the book went on, I started to think I'd been reading too much into it, given that Libby stayed willing to save Jude over the others. Such a hopeless romantic move for an otherwise fairly logical character.

My only critique of the book is how characters of color are treated. I will say more under the cut, but ofc it will include major spoilers.

Spoiler

There was one minor detail toward the end that rubbed me the wrong way. When Alex revealed that his company's work had been given to "the Indians," I thought that was a bit... stereotypical? Why could this Indian company not have been given a name? Why must the entire (enormous) population of India be to blame and not just the company that chose to use stolen work and ultimately spark a global privacy & transportation crisis? Again, I recognize that this was an incredible small detail, coming from the antagonist no less, but at the same time, we are meant to sympathize with Alex somewhat, right? Like, we're meant to agree that that initial situation that led to the rise of level 5 vehicles was fucked and unethical. I just take these tiny details as significant considering popular sentiments regarding immigrants in the UK, to say nothing of their unique historical relationship with India.

I might've written this off as simply revealing Alex's own biases and flaws, but POC in this book are pretty much all murdered or painted as villains. It seems like the narrative of the book leans sympathetic toward POC, with only unlikeable characters being outright racist, the POC still die unjust deaths. It's like, I get that the novel is meant to be representative of the ugly parts of reality, including the disproportionate victimization of POC, but idk if that's enough justification for using characters of color as mere plot devices or backstory, not when that's the plight of ALL of them.

Anyway, I think the book is an interesting exploration of how AI could be weaponized by both powerful people and vigilantes. It's a cautionary tale about being too trusting of technology with regard to the collection and sharing of private data.

Content Warnings

ksuazo94's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The Passengers was a great deep dive into surveillance, survival, privacy, rebellion, change vs tradition, groupthink, mob mentality, capitalism, artificial intelligence and and much, much more. Despite my interest in tech thriller/horror content, this was my first experience with reading a modern day dystopian focused entirely around our technological advancement. It's far too close for comfort but that dose of realism made it much more terrifying. The social media aspect to this story was awfully true to life. The general public are so far removed from the matter in question that they become desensitised to the trauma they are witnessing. I could see this genuinely happening in modern day society. Don’t let the length of this book deter you from picking it up as it was engaging and fast-paced throughout. I thoroughly recommend if the themes I mentioned interest you and you enjoy sci-fi literature.

Content Warnings