Book Review: Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
The best thing about Titanic stories? You know what’s going to happen. The worst thing about Titanic stories? You know what’s going to happen. Even still, this book was super enjoyable even if the ending was a little expected. Check out my review for Luck of the Titanic below!
Book Information
Valora Luck hasn’t seen her twin brother, Jamie, in two years. They used to be so close and would often perform acts in public for money that they dreamed of doing in the circus. Now, her mistress has died, and she has a ticket onto the Titanic, the very same ship where Jamie is working. Val sees it as fate and must overcome many challenges to get to Jamie and convince him to go to America with her to join the circus. That proves more difficult than she would have ever imagined as the Titanic makes its doomed journey across the Atlantic.
Review | Heidi Dischler
So, I read this book purely based on the reason that it’s set on the Titanic. I am a huge Titanic nerd and I love hearing stories and reading stories about the ship even though the ending for the vessel never changes. The story here, though, wasn’t as mature as I wanted it to be. The characters seemed a little childish in my opinion even though this is a YA novel. While I didn’t dislike this novel, Val especially was a little hard for me to like sometimes. The author definitely developed her character well in that aspect. However, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the things that happened in the novel seemed a little hard to swallow and unbelievable.
I loved all of the side characters and the eventual character arcs that you get to see throughout the novel. The story was well paced and went by pretty quickly in my opinion. I really liked how the author played with the idea of different perspectives and how someone’s perspective on a certain event can be completely different from another person’s.
Spoilers ahead.
So, this had to be in the review because, I mean, that ending though. Don’t read any further if you don’t want the whole entire novel to be spoiled!
I cannot believe that Val was the one who ended up dying. It really blew my mind, but at the same time, it didn’t. I don’t even know if that makes sense, but when I looked back at the novel, I can definitely see that it was coming. It didn’t hit with the emotional impact that I often seek out in a novel, but that’s okay. The book was too lighthearted to really have that emotional impact for me anyway.
Overall, I loved being on the Titanic with Val and her friends and brother. I loved the atmosphere of the book and the characters. I will never, and I mean never, pass up a chance to read more about the Titanic.
Source: Personal copy