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A review by hopebrockway
Titanic #1: Unsinkable by Gordon Korman
3.0
I remember loving this trilogy in middle school. And, after remembering its existence at 11 pm one night, I decided I would reread it and see what happens. I'm not quite sure why I have this obsession with rereading books I loved in middle school--when my tastes were very different--but here I am.
Let me start by saying that I completely understand why I was a bit obsessed with this series. It focuses on the Titanic, which I was fascinated by. It also has quite a bit of action for a short book. We get chase scenes, investigative sub-plots (about Jack the Ripper of all people??), people in disguise, and orphans (whose stories I consistently love). My 12-year-old self loved all of this.
I'm not quite sure I loved it this time around. It was quite a bit different than I remembered but, considering I hadn't revisited this since I was roughly 12, it's understandable. I remembered it being a bit . . . more? But again, I haven't read it in years. I vaguely remembered some things but, generally, I went in blind.
I have a few critiques. The first is the number of POVs. There are four, which I found a bit unnecessary. And I kind of get it, you want to try to see all the populations on the Titanic. Four POVs allow you to do that. But I still felt that at least two of the POVs were unnecessary. They added almost nothing to the plot and I was a bit annoyed that the POVs switched all the time. But, from what I remember, as the story progresses the four POVs become a bit more important. Still, though, I think we could have done some condensing.
Another critique was the length. I kind of feel like the trilogy could have been condensed into one book instead of stringing it out over three. Again, I haven't read the other two in years and I have no intention of revisiting them so I may be entirely incorrect.
All in all, it was fun revisiting the story and I kind of had excellent taste in middle school, if I do say so myself. I can probably trace my love of the Titanic back to this story. I would recommend this book to those adventure-loving people who are significantly younger than me.
Let me start by saying that I completely understand why I was a bit obsessed with this series. It focuses on the Titanic, which I was fascinated by. It also has quite a bit of action for a short book. We get chase scenes, investigative sub-plots (about Jack the Ripper of all people??), people in disguise, and orphans (whose stories I consistently love). My 12-year-old self loved all of this.
I'm not quite sure I loved it this time around. It was quite a bit different than I remembered but, considering I hadn't revisited this since I was roughly 12, it's understandable. I remembered it being a bit . . . more? But again, I haven't read it in years. I vaguely remembered some things but, generally, I went in blind.
I have a few critiques. The first is the number of POVs. There are four, which I found a bit unnecessary. And I kind of get it, you want to try to see all the populations on the Titanic. Four POVs allow you to do that. But I still felt that at least two of the POVs were unnecessary. They added almost nothing to the plot and I was a bit annoyed that the POVs switched all the time. But, from what I remember, as the story progresses the four POVs become a bit more important. Still, though, I think we could have done some condensing.
Another critique was the length. I kind of feel like the trilogy could have been condensed into one book instead of stringing it out over three. Again, I haven't read the other two in years and I have no intention of revisiting them so I may be entirely incorrect.
All in all, it was fun revisiting the story and I kind of had excellent taste in middle school, if I do say so myself. I can probably trace my love of the Titanic back to this story. I would recommend this book to those adventure-loving people who are significantly younger than me.