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Whenever I board a plane, I cross my fingers, hoping for a good seatmate—someone who’s friendly (but not too friendly), who’s respectful of my space, and who showered that morning. In The Dead Girl in 2A by author Carter Wilson, one man boards a plane, and his seatmate changes his life forever.
The story begins on a flight from Boston to Denver. Jake Buchanan can’t shake the feeling that he knows the woman seated next to him. The two of them try to come up with any possible connection, but they can’t find a single one. Yet as Clara Stowe makes one final revelation before they part—that she’s flying to Colorado to kill herself—Jake feels that he needs to do something. And when his business trip takes a troubling turn, he discovers that their connection is deep and decades old—to a time that they were both meant to forget.
The Dead Girl in 2A is a dark drama about desperate people—about Clara, a recluse who’s decided that killing herself is the right thing to do, and about Jake, whose life is falling apart around him. And readers will feel the pain and the grief that both characters feel as they board the plane.
Both adopted at a young age, neither remembers life before they met their adoptive parents. Both were desperate enough to be pulled into a shady clinical trial to restore their memories and their sense of purpose. But then their meeting sparks something deeper in them, and it leads to quick bursts of memories that start to return, one glimpse at a time.
Their journey to remember the past is a difficult one—one that comes drenched in blood. Jake and Clara soon realize that the past that they’ve forgotten is dark and violent and mysterious, and after they part, Jake meets another woman who helps him race to piece the memories together.
What follows is dark and suspenseful and occasionally thrilling, but it also feels a little far-fetched. The revelations aren’t especially shocking, the characters’ motivations seem weak and underdeveloped, and, because of that, the overall read isn’t entirely satisfying.
The troubled characters in The Dead Girl in 2A—and the mystery surrounding them—will pull readers into the story. But while it’s an intriguing adventure, it doesn’t all come together in a way that’s gripping and surprising and gratifying. It’s not a bad way to pass the time on your next vacation, but it isn’t the kind of book that you’ll pass on to your friends.
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