Reviews

Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

trappunzle's review

Snooze fest 

ember_is_gay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

 A lot of twists and reveals; some predictable and some not (for me at least) which kept it very exciting and sometimes I didn’t want to put it down. The not knowing who could be trusted on the flight as of the terrorists was slowly revealed, not knowing who was who, not knowing how many terrorists there were. 

 

I do feel as though the parts with the dad and kid were in the way of the story for me and just pushed through those to get back the scenes on the plane 

 

I did really like the chapters where we got to know a bit of the background for each of the terrorists; embarrassingly it took me a while to realise that that was what those chapters were, but once I did realise I went back to re-read them with that in mind. 

 

Mina being a baddie b and flying the plane. Also fuck that old guy who assaulted her and stole her dreams. 

 

The little twist at the end was everything and I had to sit for a moment after and process. 

saturnxaliax's review

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

remia1996's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

lindsayaunderwood's review against another edition

3.0

Solid thriller.

krystibarrak's review

4.0

If you received a note on a plane saying you could either help this anonymous person hijack the plane or you could save your daughter’s life; what would you do? That’s exactly the predicament flight attendant Mina finds herself on the first ever direct flight from London to Sydney. Sophia is back at home with her dad so she has to be safe, right? Adam wouldn’t let anything happen to her. But is it in his control? Hostage is a multi-perspective book centering around Mina on the plane, Adam back at home and some of the passengers on the plane. Who’s responsible for the hijacking and why are they doing it? Why are Mina and Adam separated? So many questions with just 20 hours for Mina to figure it out.

Hostage was a pretty great read for me. There were so many secrets everyone was keeping and even though I love mysteries/thrillers too many secrets kept from the reader makes it hard to keep my interest. Mackintosh beautifully handles each secret, twist and turn without giving too much away but also keeping you wanting to read more. I was SHOOK at the ending and for the last 150+ pages, I had to read it in one sitting. So many things I wasn’t expecting and twists that I didn’t even think were going to be twists. Overall I toggle between a 3.5-4⭐️. Mainly because at some points there were some undertones I wasn’t very fond of.. but Mackintosh eventually strays away from it.

ashleymarie_b's review

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

ignited_redqueen75's review against another edition

5.0

I enjoyed this, it was a slow start but I enjoyed all the different POV's even though this is something that usually annoys me but Clare Mackintosh did a great job in keeping me invested in this story and keeping me guessing. I mean with everyone's point of view I'd have a prediction that was completely wrong, lol and that to me makes a good mystery/thriller. I loved the characters and that ending I didn't not expect that.

saraheb311's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

lmrajt's review

emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

For the first 90% of this book, it was a 3-star. Solid suspense novel, totally riveting, interesting premise (similar to Falling, I thought). But almost at the end there was a lot twist that SHOCKED ME - truly, standing ovation to the author, and then ANOTHER ONE in the last page or twos. Well done.