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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
Told in verse, the voices of the passengers and crew of the Titanic come to vivid life. Immigrants and millionaires board the Titanic with hopes and dreams and stories to tell. This is meticulously researched historical fiction is a must read for those fascinated with the story of this doomed ship. The author provides an extensive list of additional resources for those who are interested in learning more.
This was fantastic. I am not into the Titanic and the story behind it or the movie, simply because it's really sad. I'm not sure why I picked up this book, but it was a good decision. It's the story of all of these different people aboard the Titanic; their backstories, adventures on the ship, and reactions as it goes down. What makes this remarkable is that the stories are all told in poems. I greatly admire writers who are able to tell a coherent, continued story with poetry. Allan Wolf did a fantastic job, especially in creating unlikely characters like the iceberg and the ship rats. It is still a sad story and the foreshadowing is hard to read, in knowing what's going to happen to these people. The notes in the book tell the real life history of the people aboard the Titanic and what happened to them after it sank and that is interesting to read. Overall, I highly recommend this book. I laughed, I almost cried, and I felt the joy and fear of the characters.
It was a bit boring and nothing new. For instance, did you know there was rich and poor people on Titanic. All with individual hopes and dreams and goals and reasons for getting on Titanic. Yeah. Me too.
Plus, it was really weird how much personality they gave the iceberg
Plus, it was really weird how much personality they gave the iceberg
No doubt y'all have notice that: I like reading about really sad stuff. I'm what I like to call, a "Tragedy Scholar." Basically, if it was a historic tragedy, I'm all about it. And it's not because I'm morbid (though I kinda am), or that I enjoy the suffering of others. It's that these are things that I feel should be talked about, and learned from. Within every tragedy, there is an important lesson to be learned. Now that doesn't mean that I think that tragedy should happen to teach us lessons. Oh no. I just believe that there has to be something you can take out of any situtation, no matter how terrible, that can help you be a better person. There are many lessons we can take away from the sinking of the Titanic, and this book highlights many of them.
This is, by far, my favorite book about the Titanic. It is painfully obvious from the start, that this book was painstakingly researched by someone very passionate about the topic. Which always heightens a reading experience. This book goes into all the little details that so many people over look when it comes to telling this story, and it covers so many different experiences of the people aboard the ship. We hear from the filthy rich, the newly wealthy, the poor, the immigrants, the captain, the shipbuilder, the crew, the cooks, and even the undertaker that recovered all the bodies after the sinking. We get to understand how each of these people, from wildly different backgrounds, came to be involved in this one event. It really paints a beautiful picture of what humans do when put to the test. Sometimes they surprise us, and sometimes they disappoint us. But we learn what they're made of, either way.
This was also the second book I'd read about a historical tragedy, that was written in verse. I mentioned this in my review of Yellow Star, which you can check out here, that there are some emotions, and some pain, that can't be contained in typical sentence structure. It needs the freedom that verse can provide, in order to really convey all the emotion within a situation. Wolf also took some creative approaches to the way the verses were presented on the page at times, which really made everything that much more poignant.
This book really brings to light the classism that was rife at the time of the sinking. It shows how unfairly the poor, the old, and the foreign, were treated, and how it ultimately lead to many of their deaths. But it also shows the best of humanity in the wake of a crisis. Men sacrificing their lifevests to women and children. Crew men putting themselves in danger to save one another. The rich rowing their lifeboats back to the sinking to help rescue the drowning and freezing. It teaches us how to be better people. That's the lesson we can take away from this tragedy.
This is, by far, my favorite book about the Titanic. It is painfully obvious from the start, that this book was painstakingly researched by someone very passionate about the topic. Which always heightens a reading experience. This book goes into all the little details that so many people over look when it comes to telling this story, and it covers so many different experiences of the people aboard the ship. We hear from the filthy rich, the newly wealthy, the poor, the immigrants, the captain, the shipbuilder, the crew, the cooks, and even the undertaker that recovered all the bodies after the sinking. We get to understand how each of these people, from wildly different backgrounds, came to be involved in this one event. It really paints a beautiful picture of what humans do when put to the test. Sometimes they surprise us, and sometimes they disappoint us. But we learn what they're made of, either way.
This was also the second book I'd read about a historical tragedy, that was written in verse. I mentioned this in my review of Yellow Star, which you can check out here, that there are some emotions, and some pain, that can't be contained in typical sentence structure. It needs the freedom that verse can provide, in order to really convey all the emotion within a situation. Wolf also took some creative approaches to the way the verses were presented on the page at times, which really made everything that much more poignant.
This book really brings to light the classism that was rife at the time of the sinking. It shows how unfairly the poor, the old, and the foreign, were treated, and how it ultimately lead to many of their deaths. But it also shows the best of humanity in the wake of a crisis. Men sacrificing their lifevests to women and children. Crew men putting themselves in danger to save one another. The rich rowing their lifeboats back to the sinking to help rescue the drowning and freezing. It teaches us how to be better people. That's the lesson we can take away from this tragedy.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don't usually read novels in verse. My favorite poems are almost always very short, so the idea of reading a 500-page poem does not appeal to me. I can't tell if I didn't enjoy the format of this book, or if I didn't enjoy the book. I think it's the latter case since this didn't really read like a poem but rather like a book where every sentence was printed on a separate line.
My biggest issue with this book was that most of the characters were very flat. This isn't a small book by any means, but it holds a massive cast of characters so none of them got very much page-time. When the Titanic was sinking I didn't feel as sad as I ought to have felt. I was sad because it's a horrible tragedy and a lot of people died, but I didn't feel emotionally connected enough to any single character to care about them personally.
With that being said, there were some things that I enjoyed. There were some plot lines that were really interesting. I'd read an entire book about Jamilla's journey! Unfortunately the interesting plots were often displaced by the other plots and were never fully developed. Also, some of the writing was really nice! There was a lot of meh writing, but there were some beautiful lines thrown in here and there.
My favorite thing by far, however, was the appendix. I had no idea that each character was a real person! It was fascinating to read about their lives and to learn how much effort and research went into this book. I added a full star just because of that appendix. I learned so much about the Titanic through it and I gained more appreciation for how the author created this book.
I wouldn't say that you should rush out and read this book, but this isn't a bad book. Honestly, it's worth the read just because the cover is so beautiful. If you like books written in verse you might enjoy this a lot more than me.
My biggest issue with this book was that most of the characters were very flat. This isn't a small book by any means, but it holds a massive cast of characters so none of them got very much page-time. When the Titanic was sinking I didn't feel as sad as I ought to have felt. I was sad because it's a horrible tragedy and a lot of people died, but I didn't feel emotionally connected enough to any single character to care about them personally.
With that being said, there were some things that I enjoyed. There were some plot lines that were really interesting. I'd read an entire book about Jamilla's journey! Unfortunately the interesting plots were often displaced by the other plots and were never fully developed. Also, some of the writing was really nice! There was a lot of meh writing, but there were some beautiful lines thrown in here and there.
My favorite thing by far, however, was the appendix. I had no idea that each character was a real person! It was fascinating to read about their lives and to learn how much effort and research went into this book. I added a full star just because of that appendix. I learned so much about the Titanic through it and I gained more appreciation for how the author created this book.
I wouldn't say that you should rush out and read this book, but this isn't a bad book. Honestly, it's worth the read just because the cover is so beautiful. If you like books written in verse you might enjoy this a lot more than me.
I think my problem with this book was the number of stories Wolf tried to encompass. It was difficult to feel engrossed in any of them because there were so many...and they were so short. I'm also not a huge fan of inanimate objects (the iceberg) that have thoughts/feelings but then talk about not having thoughts/feelings...it just doesn't work for me. The last fifty pages or so were great but for the most part the whole book dragged for me.
Even though you know what will happen, after reading about the endearing characters (like Frankie) it’s heartbreaking. It makes you scream at E.J Smith and The Spark (I forget his real name) and I just really hate that other ship. I was slightly disappointed that George lived and some other innocent soul like Phillip died. I’m not trying to be negative. It’s just George is a annoying, crafty, abdominal human being.