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desiree930 's review for:
Unspeakable
by Caroline Pignat
This is a strong 3-Star rating in my book. This is saying a lot considering the fact that I nearly DNF’d this book on page 35. I just wasn’t feeling the romance at all and there were some truly melodramatic moments between Ellie and Jim that felt very forced. However, I’m really glad I finished this book, if not simply for the fact that it is based on a real historical event.
What I liked:
1. Fictional story set during a real event. Ruta Sepetys does this really well in Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Grey. I don’t think it’s as effective here, but I still feel like I learned about an event of which I was previously unaware. It’s obvious not only in the text but in the notes from the author that she did a lot of research about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, as well as a couple of other things I won’t mention because it reveals plot points/twists.
I liked the chapters that talked about Ellie’s life aboard the ship as a stewardess. And the passages describing the boat sinking are done pretty well.
What I didn’t like:
1. Characters. Other than Ellie I don’t think any other the characters is particularly developed. We do learn a bit about Jim through his journal entries, but most of that is seen through Ellie’s eyes and she misinterprets pretty much everything. Steele is a more interesting character to me, but even then, we still don’t know much about him. None of the other side characters had any depth either.
2. Subplots. I like subplots in books, but none of these were very well-developed. There isn’t much description or complexity. Weeks and months pass in the course of one sentence, and I never felt any real emotion while reading these really heavy things. It just seems very surface level.
3. Romance. The tag line on this book is, “Can love survive the greatest tragedy?” That would imply to me that this is an epic love story. However, Ellie and Jim spend hardly any time together on the page. They meet when she helps treat a burn he got. Then they meet a couple of times on the decks at night. Then it cuts to four months later, two days before the shipwreck. We don’t really get to see any of the foundation of their relationship. It just felt very lukewarm to me. Plus, this book suffers from the ‘miscommunication as a plot device’ trope. If one of them (really, him, but she’s got her secrets too) would just TALK to the other one, it would solve a whole lot of heartache. But that can’t happen, because then we wouldn’t have a story. I didn’t feel any chemistry between them whatsoever.
Funny enough, I really enjoyed her interactions with Steele. There was much more of a textual foundation for a relationship between the two of them. Plus, he helps her recover something she never thought she’d find again. I won’t say what because spoilers. I thought it was funny because the author felt the need for Ellie to denounce any hint of romance between them, and it felt like she was trying to convince herself and the reader that it really was Jim she loved.
4. Predictable.
Absolutely nothing about the book surprised me. There are several reveals that were obvious to anyone paying attention. I knew what Jim’s secret was from the beginning. Same with Ellie’s. As soon as I realized that her Aunt also had a secret I knew what that was too...the fact that I saw the entire book unfolding from a mile away just made it fall flat for me on several occasions.
5. Anachronistic language: There are phrases throughout this book that sound strange to hear in a book set in 1914. Below are two examples.
Pg. 167 “How dare you play me like that.” I don’t know the history of the term ‘play’ as it refers to deceit, but this sentence sounds very modern.
Pg. 176 “...I was drowning, still, in survivor’s guilt.” Survivor’s guilt is a relatively recent term. It was coined in the 1960’s, about 50 years after the time period of this novel. Again, it just felt out of place here.
Despite the fact that I have a lot of things under the ‘didn’t like’ category, I did enjoy some of the historical parts of this quite a bit, and am happy overall that I finished this book.
What I liked:
1. Fictional story set during a real event. Ruta Sepetys does this really well in Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Grey. I don’t think it’s as effective here, but I still feel like I learned about an event of which I was previously unaware. It’s obvious not only in the text but in the notes from the author that she did a lot of research about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, as well as a couple of other things I won’t mention because it reveals plot points/twists.
I liked the chapters that talked about Ellie’s life aboard the ship as a stewardess. And the passages describing the boat sinking are done pretty well.
What I didn’t like:
1. Characters. Other than Ellie I don’t think any other the characters is particularly developed. We do learn a bit about Jim through his journal entries, but most of that is seen through Ellie’s eyes and she misinterprets pretty much everything. Steele is a more interesting character to me, but even then, we still don’t know much about him. None of the other side characters had any depth either.
2. Subplots. I like subplots in books, but none of these were very well-developed. There isn’t much description or complexity. Weeks and months pass in the course of one sentence, and I never felt any real emotion while reading these really heavy things. It just seems very surface level.
3. Romance. The tag line on this book is, “Can love survive the greatest tragedy?” That would imply to me that this is an epic love story. However, Ellie and Jim spend hardly any time together on the page. They meet when she helps treat a burn he got. Then they meet a couple of times on the decks at night. Then it cuts to four months later, two days before the shipwreck. We don’t really get to see any of the foundation of their relationship. It just felt very lukewarm to me. Plus, this book suffers from the ‘miscommunication as a plot device’ trope. If one of them (really, him, but she’s got her secrets too) would just TALK to the other one, it would solve a whole lot of heartache. But that can’t happen, because then we wouldn’t have a story. I didn’t feel any chemistry between them whatsoever.
Funny enough, I really enjoyed her interactions with Steele. There was much more of a textual foundation for a relationship between the two of them. Plus, he helps her recover something she never thought she’d find again. I won’t say what because spoilers. I thought it was funny because the author felt the need for Ellie to denounce any hint of romance between them, and it felt like she was trying to convince herself and the reader that it really was Jim she loved.
4. Predictable.
Absolutely nothing about the book surprised me. There are several reveals that were obvious to anyone paying attention. I knew what Jim’s secret was from the beginning. Same with Ellie’s. As soon as I realized that her Aunt also had a secret I knew what that was too...the fact that I saw the entire book unfolding from a mile away just made it fall flat for me on several occasions.
5. Anachronistic language: There are phrases throughout this book that sound strange to hear in a book set in 1914. Below are two examples.
Pg. 167 “How dare you play me like that.” I don’t know the history of the term ‘play’ as it refers to deceit, but this sentence sounds very modern.
Pg. 176 “...I was drowning, still, in survivor’s guilt.” Survivor’s guilt is a relatively recent term. It was coined in the 1960’s, about 50 years after the time period of this novel. Again, it just felt out of place here.
Despite the fact that I have a lot of things under the ‘didn’t like’ category, I did enjoy some of the historical parts of this quite a bit, and am happy overall that I finished this book.