Two Second Review
★★★☆☆ // 3 s t a r s
In this most basic sense, Luck of the Titanic is about a Val, a stowaway aboard the R.M.S. Titanic, who is attempting to convince her twin brother into joining a circus in America with her. The book takes on key historical themes—for example, the Chinese Exclusion Act—and is an emotional ride with an ending you may have seen coming, but hit different anyway.
The Book
Trigger Warnings: racism, sexual assault, death
Release Date: May 4, 2021
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA, Historical Fiction, Asian Lit
Series?: no
Page Count: 384
Premise:
Valora Luck has two things: a ticket for the biggest and most luxurious ocean liner in the world, and a dream of leaving England behind and making a life for herself as a circus performer in New York. Much to her surprise, though, she's turned away at the gangway; apparently, Chinese people aren't allowed into America.
But Val has to get on that ship. Her twin brother, Jamie, who has spent two long years at sea, is on board, as is an influential circus owner. Thankfully, there's not much a trained acrobat like Val can't overcome when she puts her mind to it.
As a stowaway, Val should keep her head down and stay out of sight. But the clock is ticking and she has just seven days as the ship makes its way across the Atlantic to find Jamie, audition for the circus owner, and convince him to help get them both into America.
Then one night, the unthinkable happens, and suddenly Val's dreams of a new life are crushed under the weight of the only thing that matters: survival.
Review
I think the first thing I must do is give props to the incredible atmosphere the book created. While the descriptions at the beginning had me reeling in confusion, the writing style let me enjoy it anyway.
Okay, so there's Valora Luck, our kickass MC, who said "I'm an annoying MC but I'm not going to be annoying about it" and somehow made herself endearing? She was just too relatable and we love her "bubby-cubby". Also, I adore almost nothing more than family in YA books—Val and Jamie's relationship gave me life and that's not even counting Jamie's whole squad.
I'm making a separate paragraph to talk about April. This is my official proposal to her, please and thanks. My text spamming about that fashionista queer QUEEN was too extra, but she gave me life and she helped this rating more than a little.
The bad, I guess? While literally nothing was wrong about this book, per se, something about it just made me feel slightly disconnected. I can't come up with a good reason to be completely honest, but just know that it was good and written well, I just didn't enjoy it as much as most people did and as much as I wished to.
But the ENDING! It was expected, everyone expected it. But it was definitely greatly upsetting. I'm an emotionless lizard but I'm positive many people brought the waterworks with this one, and I did almost cry, so there is that.
❝ There are moments to be strong, but there are also moment to be
weak. And in those moments of rest, we find strength anew and
challenge ourselves to grow bigger than we ever thought possible. ❞
Overall, the book was good. It felt flat at times but the ending and the characters (especially April), made it pretty damn worth it. So if you'd like a cry-worthy read, Luck of the Titanic is calling your name.
Tropes…
— dead parents
— historical retelling (ish)
(honestly, the tropes were pretty minimal here)
Read…If You Liked…
We Are Not Free by Traci Chee (utter magnificence and you should read it anyway)
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (yk you wanted to read ab circuses after Val and her whole thing, don't deny)
Watch…If You Liked…
Titanic (bc duh?)
ADD LUCK OF THE TITANIC TO YOUR GOODREADS SHELF
I loved the author's other book 'under a painted sky' and I agree on terms of this book feeling incredibly flat at times :/