An incredibly interesting storyline but I had some trouble getting into the story. I think the idea is very creative and I was immediately sold on it, Valora and Jamie are twins who are currently separated because Jamie is working onboard the Titanic. Valora is not even 18, she hasn’t seen her brother in a few years and she’s an orphan now. She thinks this will likely to her last chance to reconnect with Jamie because she doesn’t have an address to write to him to tell him that her employer has died and she has to move too.
She plans to board the Titanic, find Jamie, find the man from circus who is also onboard and approach him about their potential circus act.
Valora is hit with challenges everywhere she turns. First, she’s not allowed onboard. Secondly, she has trouble finding Jamie. Third, she has to pretend to be her old employer because the fact that she herself is Chinese would tell everybody onboard that she is not actually traveling first class, and she has to pretend to be a boy in order to be allowed into Jamie’s part of the trip. Man, that’s a lot, isn’t it?
And here’s three more incredibly rough details, Jamie might not be interested in doing the circus act, the Chinese Exclusion Act actually forbids them from entering the United States....and they are on the Titanic.
You know going in that every single thing she is dealing with is going to be hard and that even if she accomplished everything she wishes for, even somehow gets past the Chinese Exclusion Act, that she’s still on the Titanic and might die.
Incredibly interesting idea for a story and so heart breaking when you read the author’s note about Chinese people aboard the Titanic. We already know that everyone considered a second class citizen had a harder time making it out alive.
What did work for me was some of the wording within the book. I read a lot of historical fiction and I’ve never heard some of these terms before. I started thinking, well how many books have I read that were set in 1912? Or had a low in come British Chinese character in the lead? Maybe that’s it. But then a wealthy character, who was not Chinese and maybe not British used the same term. I even googled it to see if it was a popular term during this time before sharing my comment and I don’t think it was. So, I’m sorry but when the characters said “you’ve made my bladder gladder” , or “madder gladder” it just didn’t work for me.
Overall I liked the characters and the story just not always the wording.
She plans to board the Titanic, find Jamie, find the man from circus who is also onboard and approach him about their potential circus act.
Valora is hit with challenges everywhere she turns. First, she’s not allowed onboard. Secondly, she has trouble finding Jamie. Third, she has to pretend to be her old employer because the fact that she herself is Chinese would tell everybody onboard that she is not actually traveling first class, and she has to pretend to be a boy in order to be allowed into Jamie’s part of the trip. Man, that’s a lot, isn’t it?
And here’s three more incredibly rough details, Jamie might not be interested in doing the circus act, the Chinese Exclusion Act actually forbids them from entering the United States....and they are on the Titanic.
You know going in that every single thing she is dealing with is going to be hard and that even if she accomplished everything she wishes for, even somehow gets past the Chinese Exclusion Act, that she’s still on the Titanic and might die.
Incredibly interesting idea for a story and so heart breaking when you read the author’s note about Chinese people aboard the Titanic. We already know that everyone considered a second class citizen had a harder time making it out alive.
What did work for me was some of the wording within the book. I read a lot of historical fiction and I’ve never heard some of these terms before. I started thinking, well how many books have I read that were set in 1912? Or had a low in come British Chinese character in the lead? Maybe that’s it. But then a wealthy character, who was not Chinese and maybe not British used the same term. I even googled it to see if it was a popular term during this time before sharing my comment and I don’t think it was. So, I’m sorry but when the characters said “you’ve made my bladder gladder” , or “madder gladder” it just didn’t work for me.
Overall I liked the characters and the story just not always the wording.