LitPick Review
Mallory's story begins on the day she dies. Soon after her first kiss, the steamship on which she is traveling goes up in flames, and, because of her old, waterlogged life jacket, she drowns. She's not the only one to die in the accident; the lifeboats are rusted to the deck, the water hoses rotten, and the lifejackets useless, so many of her friends and neighbors, as well as her little sister, die that day in New York City. Mallory is a silent, incorporeal observer to the aftermath of the accident, unable to move on into whatever comes next for spirits who leave this world. This is not normal historical fiction--it's told from the perspective of a ghost.
Opinion:
The aftermath of the accident, when everyone is trying to assign the blame to someone, anyone, is very interesting. It's a look at the way justice worked in 1904, and it's not particularly different from the way it seems to work today. TK Welsh's style, however, isn't as good as it could have been. This could have been a beautifully dark, tragic story; instead it's just an interesting one. The characters, too, are a little disappointing; none of them really jump off the page. Still, this is a gripping story that will surely keep reader's attention. It's worth reading, but it probably won't be anyone's absolute favorite book ever.
