The Last Cruise: A Novel
Written by Kate Christensen
Narrated by Rob Shapiro
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Kate Christensen
KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of seven novels, most recently The Last Cruise. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico.
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Reviews for The Last Cruise
43 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warning: Do not, I repeat, do not read this book on a cruise.
However if you’re not planning to be on a cruise, this is a great read.
The story takes place on the final voyage of the Queen Isabella, a 1950s ocean liner, from Long Beach to Hawaii and back. It’s meant to be a return to luxury cruising - no internet, no one under the age of 16, and instead fine dining, cocktails, and a string quartet.
The story unfolds from three perspectives.
Christine, a former journalist now farmer, is on board with her friend Valerie, who’s writing an expose about hidden workers like the crew members of the ship.
Miriam is a member of the Sabra Quartet, who are from Israel and who have been performing together since 1975. The owners of the cruise line are their friends and benefactors.
Mick is the sous chef, a last minute substitute, working in the galley as things get tense among the crew, whose contracts are being canceled after the cruise ends. And so they’re going on strike.
I loved how the author brought us into the lives of these different characters. And she cleverly takes away the internet and their access to the outside world to bring the focus on to this microcosm on board.
An entertaining thoughtful read. One that makes me think twice about going on a cruise. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/53.5
Very WTF ending
Guess the ship capsizes and they all die? - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this book a lot, which kind of surprised me since some of the other reviews were less than flattering. I thought the characters were well-developed, and the different viewpoints of the narrators were interesting - particularly the inner workings of the kitchen, the preparation of food on the cruise and the hierarchy among the chefs and supporting staff. It would seem that the author must have some kind of personal knowledge about all of this, as the information was quite precise. Much of the activity on the ship, once it was stranded in the ocean, seemed mundane. But the ending! It is up to the reader to decide what happened - I generally don't like endings like this, but the way I imagined the ultimate outcome of this story was satisfying to me.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nothing like a perfect storm of events building toward disaster. The culmination leaves one hanging, free to choose one's on ending. Strange.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The things that happen in this book are so, so mundane. I kept waiting for something to happen. Eventually something did, but it was that the ship ran out of power. It was stranded in the middle of the ocean.
The only reason I finished this book is because it was a lazy Sunday and I was being very lazy and didn't look for another book to read.
This was five hours of my life I will never get back.
Extra star given for author's time.
Thanks to Doubleday Books and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oh, what a book! Is it romance, is it a mystery, is it a thriller or is it it all three? Yes YES and YES
I really enjoyed this book and I encourage everyone who wants to be entertained to pick this bad boy up.
My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for this advanced readers copy.