Thank you to Random Things Tours for inviting me on to this blog tour for Hostage by Clare Mackintosh. This review forms my honest opinion.
Blurb
Save hundreds of lives. Or save your child? You’re on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney. It’s a landmark journey, and the world is watching. Shortly after take-off, you receive a chilling anonymous note.
There are people on this plane intent on bringing it down – and you’re the key to their plan.
You’d never help them, even if your life depended on it. But they have your daughter . . . So now you have to choose.
DO YOU SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES? OR THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST?
Review
This is the second ‘dilemma’ thriller I’ve read recently, and as much as I enjoyed the first, there was never any point at any point during reading which made question my choice. My child. Hostage, meanwhile really sold the alternative, with Clare Mackintosh introducing a plane full of varied, realistic characters who made me flip back and forth to the point that I had to remind myself this was fictional and I didn’t have to actually make the choice!
I found Hostage to be a very addictive read – one I would fall into easily each time I sat down to read and would be keen to get back to. Fast paced with plenty going on, there wasn’t a moment I felt bored. Had life not been so busy, this is one I could easily have read in one greedy gulp.
The main characters of Mina, Adam and their daughter Sophia form the family unit at the centre of the story. I have to admit to finding Adam in particular very annoying and had a constant desire to want to shake some sense into him. For me, his reasoning for his behaviour in the early part of the story didn’t really make sense to me – but then do people always act in a rational or logical way? As always when reading fiction, things may niggle me but I’m always willing to suspend belief.
I’ve been sat writing this review for a while now – and everything I want to say gives something away….so while I love reading books with a vague but tantalising premise – reviewing them is quite another. Basic notes are that I would highly recommend. Hostage is ridiculously easy to devour, making for a great holiday read – although probably best if you’re not actually getting onto a flight!
Emma R. 