This flight will take them somewhere they never expected to goJack Buchanan knows the woman sitting next to him on his business flight to Denver―he just can’t figure out how he knows her. Clara Stowe isn’t in Jake’s line of work and didn’t go to college with him. They have nearly nothing in common apart from a deep and shared certainty that they’ve met before. As their airplane conversation … conversation deepens, both struggle to figure out what circumstances could have possibly brought them together. Then, in a revelation that sends Jake reeling, Clara admits she’s traveling to the Colorado mountains to kill herself, and she disappears into the crowded airport immediately after landing.
The Dead Girl in 2A is the story of what happens to Jake and Clara after they get off that plane, and the manipulative figure who has brought them together decades after they first met. Intensely creepy, beautifully written, and full of Carter Wilson’s signature whom-can-you-trust paranoia, this is a psychological thriller unlike any you’ve read before.
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A fantastic storyline and I never saw that ending coming. I do however feel that it could have been executed a little better. When the twists came they were swept over rather than explained in detail like the author was rushing to finish the book.
This book had its ups and downs, but I feel The Dead Girl in 2A by Carter Wilson is definitely a book worth picking up this summer!
Jake Buchanan feels like he might somehow know the woman sitting next to him on his flight to Denver, he just isn’t sure how. Clara, the woman sitting in 2A, feels she knows Jake as well. As the two get to talking, they both agree they seem familiar, but they’re not sure how. As more of their story unfolds on the plane, Jake reveals he’s to write an obscure man’s memoir, and Clara is there to kill herself.
As they exit the plane, each to their separate locations, Jake follows Clara into the crowded terminal, feeling helpless, but wanting to stop her. What transpires after they get off that plane and the manipulative figure that brought them together, decades after the two meet is what makes this a twisted book. While neither Jake nor Clara can come up with the link between them, it certainly is there!
While I was expecting more of a psychological thriller, what I got was more science fiction, fantasy. If you’re into that kind of style, you’re really going to be pleasantly surprised by this book. So, having recently read Blake Crouch’s new book Recursion, I found myself enjoying this book more than I expected!
The beginning of this book drew me in with some decent writing and plot development, and while there were a couple of twists, I wasn’t blown away by them. I think more than anything, the plot is what really made this book better than it seemed. Having gone from psychological thriller to science fiction, it kept my attention and left me wanting to know how it would end.
I will say, one of the negatives of this book was the ending. I’m not going to ruin it for others, but you will eventually become aware of the subplot, and then the ending feels like it was folded up too neatly. While I was expecting a possible mind blowing twist at the end, it was rather flat and predictable.
Overall, The Dead Girl in 2A by Carter Wilson is definitely not what I was expecting from the summary of the book. That being said, it was a nice surprise from the other thrillers I’ve read lately. While it was a decent read, there weren’t many major twists or a mind-blowing ending I was hoping for. I think it shouldn’t be missed this summer, because it really isn’t like other books!
Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Carter Wilson for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
Check out my full review here: https://bit.ly/2SKY93g
The Dead Girl in 2A by Carter Wilson is a really different kind of psychological suspense. What do you recall from your childhood? Ever meet someone who just feels familiar? Read this book now and reconsider your past. Spooky-good storyline. You need to read this; you really do! Fantastic twisted suspense that will keep you hooked from start to finish.
/ 5
Carter Wilson does it again with The Dead Girl in 2A! Even though it took a bit to hold my attention, once I was in, I was IN.
What it’s about: Jake Buchannan and Clara Stowe meet on an airplane bound for Denver in seats 2A and 2B and swear they’ve met before but can’t figure out where. After a slightly uncomfortable conversation, they realize they really don’t have much in common besides the feeling they have met before. They are going to go their separate ways when Clara drops the bombshell that she is ultimately flying to the mountains to kill herself. What happens next is the story of what happens after they step off the airplane, and how someone from their pasts come back to haunt them.
Wilson definitely went delving into the complications of memory with The Dead Girl in 2A, and it was really quite interesting. There was also a bit of a science fiction feel to this book, especially when you get towards the end. I wasn’t really expecting that, but I really enjoyed it. I’ve never read a book that focuses as much on memory as this novel did, so it was nice to read something different.
There were a couple parts that ended up getting a bit gory, but nothing too crazy. And in true Carter Wilson fashion, he manages to make you cringe while at the same time fascinating you. I was honestly hoping I would love this one a bit more, but I still really enjoyed it. There are some journal entries that I really liked, and the short chapters made the book go by quickly. This was one of the most interesting thrillers that I have read in awhile and while it might be considered a little unconventional in the thriller department, that’s what made it even better to me.
Song/s the book brought to mind: A mix of You Found Me by Kelly Clarkson & Yesterday by David Guetta featuring Bebe Rexha.
Final Thought: If you are looking for a book that speaks to human suffering and memory loss, I would definitely pick up The Dead Girl in 2A. I kept my review short for this one because I think the book is better that way, and I don’t want to spoil anything! Although I do think it starts out slowly, it does pick up and ends up being worth it in the end. I really liked the ending, and of course I can’t wait to see what comes out of Wilson’s imagination next!
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
This book wasn’t what I expected and in the beginning it had me wondering where this was going but it didn’t take me long to be hooked. The characters are nicely developed and you feel with the two main characters. Hoping for the best but afraid it isn’t going to end well. The story itself is not far fetched and gets you thinking about test that are performed in real life. Some with government approval under the cover of medical research others testing the maximum endurance of the human body for military purpose. This is not exactly a fast moving mystery but more an analyzing of human feelings under the influence of specific drugs and hypnoses with a mystery completing the story. Well worth the time spend reading it.
Oh my – well I certainly didn’t expect THAT!!!
Some of the things I have come to count on with Carter Wilson’s books is a unique story line, good characterizations, lots of action and surprises (most of which are unpredictable) and a high degree of intensity. His newest book, The Dead Girl in 2A offers all that and more! This one is a bit on the dark side with a creepy factor that admittedly got under my skin and sort of scared me. Towards the end, I wanted to keep flipping pages to learn the truth (with the characters), but I admit I was frightened as I turned each page. Glad I finished this one in the light of morning rather than at night – I’m still a bit shaken!!
An excellent read!!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read a copy of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
Carter Wilson writes seriously freaky weird books – and I mean that in the best possible way…
This was yet another example of his devilishly clever mind playing with the concepts of good and evil, memory and secrets. He bats them about like a cat toying with a mouse, demonstrating a single-minded intent to disrupt the reader’s preconceptions every step of the way. He couples that with an innocent “who, me?!” face as he teases out cosmic truths and self-realizations, all the while whisking his characters from side to side along seemingly random but ingeniously devised paths until you’re left with a battered, dizzy, reeling sense that nothing will ever look quite the same… It’s an incredibly intricate, involved, brilliant manner of storytelling that I find remarkably compelling and highly entertaining.
The back and forth narration really made this one pop for me. I don’t always love it as a narrative style; it often feels to me like the author is trying to have the best of all worlds, shuffling perspective to force first person action into a third person omniscience and avoid having to resolve plot issue that would not otherwise make sense. Not so AT ALL here. Wilson uses the back-and-forth as another form of toying with the reader, and it works perfectly. Couple that with a spot-on use of backstory revelation, foreshadowing, and a steady tension building, and the result is a fantastic tale that feels supernatural, leaving everything on the table as a possibility, right up until the Big Reveals lead you down the true path. It’s a helluva story and I loved every minute of it!
Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy. The book releases in the U.S. on July 2, 2019.
Check out my review – http://www.premeditatedfiction.com/book-review-the-dead-girl-in-2a-by-carter-wilson/
Fast-paced page-turner! Loved it!
Initially I found it hard to believe that two adults would agree to take pills and read an odd little book everyday to improve or retrieve lost memories. Then the more the story progressed and it was clear how this loss of memory had affected them I got it. Intricate story with a great ending