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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
Nothing wrong with it. I just wasn’t enjoying it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is one of my all-time favorite novels.
I have no idea how Allan Wolf was able to breathe life into the iceberg that struck the Titanic, but he did it.
Phenomenally.
But he didn't just write about the iceberg.
Oh, no.
Wolf also wrote about the captain, the shipbuilder, a handful of immigrants, John Jacob Astor, even the Unsinkable Molly Brown. He wrote about so many people, so breathtakingly beautifully, that I couldn't put it down.
Sure, there were a few historical errors (Wolf admits it at the end), but that didn't even matter to me: and I'm a Titanic fanatic.
Please read this.
I have no idea how Allan Wolf was able to breathe life into the iceberg that struck the Titanic, but he did it.
Phenomenally.
But he didn't just write about the iceberg.
Oh, no.
Wolf also wrote about the captain, the shipbuilder, a handful of immigrants, John Jacob Astor, even the Unsinkable Molly Brown. He wrote about so many people, so breathtakingly beautifully, that I couldn't put it down.
Sure, there were a few historical errors (Wolf admits it at the end), but that didn't even matter to me: and I'm a Titanic fanatic.
Please read this.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Classism
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Kidnapping
It is a heavy subject to read (of course! It’s a maritime disaster!) …the author beautifully gives these people a hopefully true to life voice in weaving together life aboard the titanic. Wolf paints a vicid picture of every piece of life that was aboard the ship of dreams and what it was like to be aboard the Titanic back in 1912
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Xenophobia
I'm going to say now and easily that this is the THE BEST book I've ever read. I mean ever. and I read a lot. this book has everything. it has the absolute best characters I've ever read about. they are complex, lovable, realistic, relatable and all connected. the story itself is one everyone knows so the foreshadowing and fresh twists make it so refreshing and give you a new perspective on the titanic story. the writing is beyond anything I've read before. it's not written in prose, but in freehand poetry with different and interesting formatting, based on what character is speaking. the intricate connections between characters and the dread of knowing what will happen to them makes this the most emotionally moving and powerful book I've ever read. if I was to recommend one book and one book only, it would be this one.
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I've read the Donner Party book by the same author, and I think I liked this one more; it was really easy to get lost in, and I really connected with and rooted for most of the characters. I was a bit worried about there being so many characters, but it actually ended up working pretty well, even if I did often forget their names or become a little confused. It seems like a lot of people weren't a fan of the iceberg being a character, but I enjoyed that aspect because it added a unique, almost fantastical element to the story (although I can understand how it is off-putting in a story about a horrific, very real tragedy). I also really enjoyed the rat, controversial as it apparently was. My favorite characters to read about were Jamilia, Frankie, and George: they had very interesting stories that I couldn't help but want to hear more about. Also, I loved how Edmond was a part of the Salvation Army and would repeatedly reference it. It was such a cute, childish quirk that made you unable to not root for him. Overall, this book did a really great job of establishing relationships between the people and the readers, which made it all the more tragic when many of them passed. This also helped me fully realize the grief of the disaster in a way that I hadn't before. I hope to see Wolf release another historical book in this style.
This book was absolutely fantastic and quite unique. Wolf tells the story of the voyage and subsequent sinking of the TITANIC by way of poetry. Using a dozen or so different voices of real people who sailed on the ship, Wolf weaves together fiction and history to create an utterly compelling tale. Now, I've seen all the Titanic movies and read various other books on the subject - it's always been something that has fascinated me. So I wasn't expecting to feel anything new or different when reading this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. I felt like I was hearing the story for the first time all over again. Wolf's poetic form for his novel truly moved me. It was a fresh look at a story that we have all heard so many times. To be honest, it takes a little time to get used to Wolf's poetic voice, as it does with any poet, really. Most of his poems don't really read like traditional poems. They read much more like prose, and it's best to just read those as if they weren't poems, I'm sad to say. If you try too hard to read them like "poems" (in the traditional sense) they come off stiff and awkward. There are other voices, especially that of the Iceberg (yes... the Iceberg has a voice in Wolf's novel - a rather beautiful and haunting one, I might add) that are eloquently poetic. Then there are those poems in the middle that confused me and bothered me the most. There were some that slightly read like poems but slightly read like prose. They had somewhat of a rhyme scheme...sometimes...and then the rhyme scheme vanished and came back again four lines later. They were still beautiful and intriguing, but their structure completely confused me. But in the end, no one really cares about the exact structure of a poem. That's the beauty of being a poet - you can do whatever you want with your poem. There are no limitations; there are no rules. And Wolf definitely breaks any rules about poetry people might have, but in a fantastic way. This is definitely worth a read.
A very interesting way of doing a novel in verse and in looking at the Titanic. 20 different POV's including the ship's rat. The end notes were particularly fascinating as well as the Undertaker.