2 Stars
Last year I enjoyed „The Hunger” from Alma Katsu. So I was very excited when I saw that there is a new book from her coming up. Here she takes another true story and tells it in a slightly different way. Like in “The Hunger” she gives the story again a supernatural touch.
We follow the story about the sinking of the famous Titanic and her sister ship Britannic. There was a young woman who survived both tragedies: Viola Jessup. Katsu gives her a friend, Annie, who also survived the sinking of the Titanic and finds her way on board of the Britannic. The story jumps back and forth to 1912 where Annie is a maid in the First Class Deck and to 1916 when she works as a nurse on the Britannic during the war.
At first I was very keen to read about the tragic maiden voyage of the Titanic and its famous passengers. But soon the story gets muddleheaded. I was aware that at that time a lot of people were fascinated by paranormal things and séances were highly in fashion. The story is a bit creepy and the idea of a haunted ship is appealing. But unfortunately Katsu is more interested in the threesome relationship of some of her many characters. The Titanic is just the background to a love story gone bad.
In “The Hunger” Katsu managed to tell a well-known true story anew and spice it up with a supernatural touch. Here the ghosts take over the complete story but not in a good way. There was way too much drama about the weird love story(s) the characters had. I could not connect to any of the them. The story drags after an interesting start and is way too long. There are too many characters and too many stories which not all get told properly. There are still questions in my head which did not get an answer although the book is quite long.
I am sorry to say that I did not enjoy this book as I did “The Hunger”. The best about this book is the gorgeous cover.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
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