Drowning by TJ Newman review + characters: A disaster thriller
Drowning by T.J. Newman summary:
Flight attendant turned New York Times bestselling author T. J. Newman—whose first book Falling was an instant #1 national bestseller and the biggest thriller debut of 2021—returns for her second book, an edge-of-your-seat thriller about a commercial jetliner that crashes into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom with passengers trapped inside, and the extraordinary rescue operation to save them.
Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside.
More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.
Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.
There’s not much time.
There’s even less air.
With devastating emotional power and heart-stopping suspense, Drowning is an unforgettable thriller about a family’s desperate fight to save themselves and the people trapped with them—against impossible odds.
Drowning characters.
Our main character is Will, an engineer who designs offshore oil rigs, as well as Chris, an industrial diver and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife, plus their daughter Shannon. We have a supporting cast of characters, too, from passengers to airline crew to the people involved in the survivor rescue. Here is the list of all main, supporting and minor characters:
Will Kent (Passenger)
Chris Kent
Shannon Kent (Passenger)
Annie Kent
Officer Kit Callahan (Captain)
Captain Miller (Co-pilot)
Molly Hernandez (Flight crew)
Kaholo Kapule (Flight crew)
Andy Matthews (Passenger)
Ryan Wang (Passenger)
Ruth Belkin (Passenger)
Ira Belkin (Passenger)
Maia Taylor (Passenger)
Jasmine Harris (Passenger)
Bernadette Kowalski (Passenger)
Colleen Bennett (Flight crew)
Ed (Flight crew)
Peter Feeny (Industrial diver)
Noah Murphy (Industrial diver)
Sayid Raval (Industrial diver)
Jackie “Fitz” Fitzgibbons (Commander)
Steve Milton (Second in command)
Danny Rogers (Petty Officer Third Class)
Mikey Tanner (Dive Officer Supervisor)
Runt (Diver)
Brandon Caputo (Lead Navy Diver)
Patricia Larson (Navy Fleet Master Chief)
Andrea Harris (Diver)
Drowning by T.J. Newman book review.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4/5
If you didn’t get the memo, don’t read this if you’re about to fly or while you’re on a plane, especially if you’re a nervous flier. Yikes!
Drowning by TJ Newman is a wild adrenaline-fuelled ride. This is a book about one of the most unfathomable aviation disasters that our imaginative flight attendant-turned-author TJ Newman could conjure up in the most savage depths of her imagination, where Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Then during the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors to survive—but then, the plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside with a limited supply of oxygen.
This book is extra. Just when you think you think nothing more can go wrong, something else adds to the layer of deathly and death-defying circumstances. It reads exactly like a classic Hollywood disaster movie, so no wonder it drew a bidding war for the movie rights from names such as Nicole Kidman, Steven Spielberg, Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Bros.
What Newman did well here that made it better than your standard disaster thriller novel/movie trope is the layer of humanity and character development she crafts with the characters. Despite being plot-driven, there was some element of character development done well, with some poignant moments.
When I found myself skim-reading and glazing over, I realised it was due to the technical jargon that an average layperson wouldn’t understand. I also caught a few moments where Newman made an artistic choice to tell rather than show in a bit of a convenient info dump.
Some people will think it’s a little bit too much. But if you’re all for suspending disbelief and embracing the disaster procedural thrills, you’ll enjoy it, which I certainly did.
My thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster and author T.J Newman for the opportunity to read this work, which was published on the 30th of May, 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
View my Drowning book review on GoodReads.
If you enjoyed reading Drowning, you may also enjoy reading:
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Dark comedic psychological thriller)
The Good Doctor by Jessica Payne (Medical thriller)
Yellowface by R.F Khuang (Dark satirical thriller)
