Review: The Flight Attendant

The renowned novel “The Flight Attendant” by the bestselling Armenian American author, Chris Bohjalian, starts with a killer hangover scene. The narrator describes Cassie’s internal dilemma as she tries to remember what happened the night before. Cassie is an alcoholic and party animal, a flight attendant who lives a glamorous and spontaneous life. During her layover in Dubai, after a drunken night, she wakes up, terrified, beside her hookup, who has had his throat cut open. Is Cassie framed for the murder, or has she committed the crime herself?

This novel marks Bohjalian’s 20th literary piece. He’s mastered thriller mechanics, seamlessly transitioning from Cassie’s private paranoia to the complexities of spycraft and mercenaries to the lurid character she turns out to be.

He’s stacked the story with twists, ranging from early hints to unexpected surprises. The frantic ending is a fireworks display of redemption, disclosure, and good old-fashioned gunplay.

Sometimes, the novel’s speedy narrative can be a fault. The murderer’s perspective scenes are relatively underdrawn, and for all the globetrotting the characters experience, from New York to Dubai to Rome, there’s little vivid scenery to take in.

As a thriller genre writer, Chris Bohjalian’s doozy writing style makes the plot intriguing. The author describes every aspect of the novel, the characters and the scenes in great detail, allowing the reader to paint a picture and correctly visualize the novel in their minds. “She gazed one last time at the palms and the fountains and the long line of town cars with their bulletproof glass windows and started toward the airline’s less opulent accommodations. She sighed. She had made her choice—just one more bad choice in a life riddled with them—and there was no turning back,” Bohjalian writes.

Rated bestseller by various journals and news outlets, “The Flight Attendant” is prominent for its mystery and suspenseful events. According to The Washington Post, the novel is “Filled with turbulence and sudden plunges in altitude, ‘The Flight Attendant’ is a very rare thriller whose penultimate chapter makes the reader think, ‘I didn’t see that coming.’ The novel — Bohjalian’s 20th — is also enhanced by his deftness in sketching out vivid characters and locales and by his obvious research into the realities of airline work.”

The novel doesn’t only shed light on the ruthless characters but also conveys the main character’s internal conflict and personal sadness as well. Chris Bohjalian lets Cassie endure torment due to her addiction to antics. “She liked herself best when she was tipsy,” he writes. “Her eyes looked a little more wanton and her lips a little more inviting when she was just starting to leave the sadness of sobriety behind.”

I highly recommend Chris Bohjalian’s novel, “The Flight Attendant,” just like all of his bestselling novels, especially for readers who love books of the thriller genre. This book is the ultimate airplane novel– not because it is stated in its title– but because the plot is highly entertaining and suspenseful as you take off with Cassie’s glamorous yet turbulent story.