Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee

Young Adult. Historical Fiction. 

Rating: 3.5/5

Started: 10 March 2022

Finished: 12 March 2022

Summary:    

    To be reunited with her twin brother, and to ask for the opportunity to perform as an acrobat with a circus in America, Valoria sneaks aboard the Titanic as it's about to leave for its maiden voyage. While aboard, Valoria spends half her time masquerading as a rich white widow, wearing a mourning veil to hide the fact that she's Chinese, and the other half of her time trying to convince her brother to come to America with her. 

    It's said that eight Chinese men boarded the Titanic, and six survived the crash. That's a large percentage--75 percent, which is much higher than the general survival rate--but it still means that not everyone made it to land.

Thoughts:

    This book was extremely average. The writing was good, and it felt very competent due to the accurate details of the event of the Titanic. But the characters and the plot were just bland. They weren't bad--I was genuinely interested in reading the book; the premise of a young Chinese girl pretending to be a rich old lady and also auditioning to be an acrobat was a cool idea, and not one that I've seen before. But there was no oomph. The main character was a generic, projectable YA protagonist, and her personality kind of annoyed me. Maybe it's just that I've grown out of find projectable characters relatable, but Valoria felt two dimensional, as well as pushy without having the kind of badass-ness required to pull that kind of attitude off.     

    My other big problem with the book was that there were only two moments in the entire book where I felt a strong emotion: One was a character coming out as lesbian, and the other was a surprising death at the very end of the book. While I'm happy there was a gay character, my emotion there is kind of a cop-out because the author didn't do anything other than make the character announce that she wasn't into men (though I, for the record, had guessed that she was queer from the first scene she was in). The death at the end was a surprising twist, but not one that was particularly exciting or happy. I never got all that attached to the characters, which made it hard for me to be happy for their successes. I did care enough to get stressed when Valoria and Jamie were walking on railings and I wasn't sure if they would fall, but that isn't actually saying much, because that'll stress me out regardless of the characters. 

    I didn't regret reading this book; it was interesting enough, I feel like I learned more about Chinese culture, and the writing was solidly good. But it wasn't anything special. I don't think I'll be reading any more books by Lee. 

Words: 

    Chiggers (n) a tiny mite whose parasitic larvae live on or under the skin of warm-blooded animals, where they cause irritation and dermatitis and sometimes transmit scrub typhus

    Impudent (adj) not showing due respect for another person

    Tatting (n) a kind of knotted lace made by hand