A review by echo_finished_cake
Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee
1.0
It pains me to give such a low rating on a book from my favorite genre. However, now that I have finished this book, I am trying hard to think of anything good about it. The result: not much at all, unfortunately.
Where to begin in regards to all my dislikes about it? I suppose I'll start with the main character and narrator, Valora Luck. I strongly disliked this character. She spent 95% of the book lying, cheating and being deceitful to get her way, not seeming to care who she hurt, even if it was people she was actually getting close with. I could not get behind/root for her. In fact, I almost hated her. But I also wonder if the author intentionally made her unlikable, but after reading the Author's Notes, I doubt it. As the author writes in her notes at the end, she really wanted to share the stories of the few Chinese passengers that were on the actual Titanic, which I think is a noble purpose for writing this book. However, she did not write this main character, who is part Chinese, part English in a good light.
The only good thing I have to say about the character of Valora Luck is how noble and selfless the sacrifice she made at the end was. Otherwise, I strongly disliked her.
I did like how the author describes the experiences of the other Chinese on the boat and how they all banded together to become a little makeshift family. That was sweet.
I also didn't understand the purpose of some of the flashbacks Valora had towards the end of the story. Of course, by that part of the story, I didn't much care why. Often times during reading this, I was quite bored with the story. I felt it wasn't progressing very well through the plot. Why? Because I thought this book read extremely dense, much like "Island of the Blue Dolphins". It was hard to read, hard to care and easy to get off track with what was happening in any given part. There wasn't enough emotion described in each event that happened in the story; not enough characterization in an emotional sense of any of the characters, really. In this aspect, this book was not my cup of tea.
The only reason I finished it was because I paid money to read it, which I want refunded more than anything as this book was a pain and labor to read.
Where to begin in regards to all my dislikes about it? I suppose I'll start with the main character and narrator, Valora Luck. I strongly disliked this character. She spent 95% of the book lying, cheating and being deceitful to get her way, not seeming to care who she hurt, even if it was people she was actually getting close with. I could not get behind/root for her. In fact, I almost hated her. But I also wonder if the author intentionally made her unlikable, but after reading the Author's Notes, I doubt it. As the author writes in her notes at the end, she really wanted to share the stories of the few Chinese passengers that were on the actual Titanic, which I think is a noble purpose for writing this book. However, she did not write this main character, who is part Chinese, part English in a good light.
The only good thing I have to say about the character of Valora Luck is how noble and selfless the sacrifice she made at the end was. Otherwise, I strongly disliked her.
I did like how the author describes the experiences of the other Chinese on the boat and how they all banded together to become a little makeshift family. That was sweet.
I also didn't understand the purpose of some of the flashbacks Valora had towards the end of the story. Of course, by that part of the story, I didn't much care why. Often times during reading this, I was quite bored with the story. I felt it wasn't progressing very well through the plot. Why? Because I thought this book read extremely dense, much like "Island of the Blue Dolphins". It was hard to read, hard to care and easy to get off track with what was happening in any given part. There wasn't enough emotion described in each event that happened in the story; not enough characterization in an emotional sense of any of the characters, really. In this aspect, this book was not my cup of tea.
The only reason I finished it was because I paid money to read it, which I want refunded more than anything as this book was a pain and labor to read.