THE OPPOSITE OF HERE

After a charming fellow cruise passenger disappears, Natalie can’t help trying to figure out where he went—and why he vanished.

The cruise was supposed to be a treat for Natalie, whose boyfriend recently died in an accident. Armed with new underwear and her three best friends, she’s willing to try to have a good time and is surprised at the instant chemistry she feels when she meets a new guy. But this is no easy cruise romance. When Natalie leaves for a minute to change into her swimsuit, returns to find him gone, and rumors that a passenger went overboard start circulating, it seems that something darker is afoot. Questions around the mysterious disappearance propel readers forward, and the vast yet claustrophobic cruise ship serves as a clever stage for the Hitchcock-inspired drama. The plot loses its course, though, as Altebrando (The Possible, 2017, etc.) tries to create meaning across a host of topics: grief, betrayal, friendships, sexual assault, and racial identity, to name a few. The last of these feels especially slapdash and ineffective—while Natalie and other primary characters are white, the third best friend is biracial (white and black) and saddled with identity issues, apropos of nothing. Readers who love stories with a twist will sail right through this one and, in the absence of a more compelling or memorable protagonist, keep moving.

Too many vaporous threads set this breezy cruise thriller adrift