A review by adelita18
Unsinkable by Jenni L. Walsh

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Unsinkable alternates between the quasi-fictionalized story of Violet Jessop (1912-1920s) and Daphne Chaundanson (1940s). At first, the stories seem to be stand alone novellas that just happen to alternate chapters. I felt the stories of Violet and Daphne should have either been Parts 1 and 2 with the unsinkable theme uniting them in an anthology of sorts or have been standalone stories. It wasn't until about 85% way through the story that Jenni Walsh drops the unification bomb on the reader that it makes sense. Before that point, I found Daphne's story to be much more riveting, engaging, and compelling. Violet's story was interesting but, pardon the sea pun, seemed more adrift. While Violet Jessop did spend a great deal of her childhood in Argentina, the random sprinkling of Spanish exclamations at times seemed forced and out of place. I also found her self-pitying self-denials for her family's sake to be off putting at times as it's written (and was narrated in the audiobook) as a bit whiny.  

The last 15% of the story flew by and was quite lovely. I appreciated how Jenni Walsh dovetailed the unsinkable women's stories together, however, I just wish it hadn't taken such a long walk to get there.