This was really good and fascinating! I highly recommend ( )

4 stars
I liked this book, it was interesting and thought-provoking. I really liked April, she was my favorite character as she was witty and semi-realistic. I liked her backstory as well.
I would like to read more of this author's works, as her writing was well-researched without being pretentious and felt real. ( )

A different Hardcover (May 4, 2021) ISBN 10: 1524740985 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1524740986

I found this to be a rather delightful, engrossing, and intriguing story. I've always been interested in the history and stories about the Titanic as a lot of people are, but this was a very interesting and different story spun with the Titanic coming from the fact that there were 6 Chinese survivors. The author imagined a sister of one of the Chinese men who survived the sinking of the Titanic and created this amazing story, which made me want to go research and learn more about the Titanic and everyone and the stories on it.
The characters come alive and have such great personalities too. Valora and Jamie Luck are twins, who are raised to be British Chinese acrobats and Valora has a ticket and sneaks onto the Titanic to find and meet up with Jamie. Jamie is with a group of Chinese men who are all working together shoveling coal and down in the 3rd class and with Valora's ticket she ends up in the first class. Valora wants to get Jamie to go with her to America and star as acrobats and Jamie has his own plans. Valora and Jamie meet and have relationships and friendships with a few others on the Titanic that are entertaining, important and also there's a little bit of swoony romance thrown in as well.
The ending of the story is, of course, one of the most intense things with everything that happens with the Titanic and each character and what happens with them. This is a very well-written and great historical fiction story that you should have on your radar to pick up to read and enjoy as soon as you can!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group for letting me read and review this amazing book. All opinions are my own. ( )

Stacey Lee was inspired to write this story by learning about six (out of an original eight) Chinese survivors, presumably serving as seamen, of the Titanic disaster. Not much is known about them, so she had relatively free reign to use her imagination to flesh out details set within the well-researched aspects of the tragedy.

The heroine of the story is Valora (“Val”) Luck, 17, whose twin brother Jamie was working as a coal fireman on the Titanic. Their parents had died, and Jamie was all Val had left; she wanted them to be together again.

On April 10, 1912 Val attempted to board the Titanic in Southampton, England as a passenger, but was prevented from doing so because the Chinese Exclusion Act forbad her to enter the US, which was the ship’s destination. Not one to be deterred, she used her skills as an acrobat to board the ship as a stowaway.

[The Chinese Exclusion Act was a US federal law signed by President Chester A. Arthur on May 6, 1882, prohibiting all immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years. The law excluded merchants, teachers, students, travelers, and diplomats. Passage of the law was preceded by growing anti-Chinese sentiment and anti-Chinese violence, as well as various policies targeting Chinese migrants. While the act was initially intended to last for 10 years, it was renewed and strengthened in 1892 and made permanent in 1902.

The law remained in force until the passage of the Magnuson Act in 1943, which repealed the exclusion and allowed 105 Chinese immigrants to enter the United States each year. Later laws abolished direct racial barriers.]

In the short time Val was on the ship from its departure until it hit an iceberg late in the night on April 14, she made some good female friends and formed a romantic attachment, but the main thrust of the plot was her filial love for her brother and their ties to each other as twins. Other plot threads included the racial and class prejudices of the era, as well as the inadequate safety preparations of the ship, which was, after all, supposed to be “unsinkable.” The available lifeboats on the ship could carry only half the passengers at best. [When the ship sank, many of the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%. ]

The main story ends with the ship’s sinking, although there is an Epilogue that takes place two weeks later.

Evaluation: There are so many good aspects to this story. Val is a wonderful character. She has been brought up to understand the world through Chinese folk sayings and astrological precepts, but lets experience and compassion guide her actions rather than superstition. She is strong, resourceful, bright, brave, and spunky. In her short time on the ship she matures into someone who knows she cannot dictate the dreams of someone else, no matter how important it seems to her. It is a lovely story that will stay in readers’ hearts. ( )