Title: Distant Waves
Author: Suzanne Weyn
Release Date: 1st March 2010
Publisher: Scholastic
When her eldest sister
is drawn into the exciting whirlwind of high society, Jane seizes her chance to
escape her small town existence – but leaves her three younger sisters behind.
When they are brought
back together by the tides of fate, the five girls find themselves on board the
most amazing ship of their time. A ship they have been warned about. A ship
called Titanic...
Jane’s mum is a spirit medium which is how Jane and her
sisters end up living in Spirit Vale. But a chance meeting with Nikola Tesla in
her childhood means that Jane craves adventure and, when given the opportunity,
she leaves her family behind to interview Tesla in the big city. One thing
leads to another and completely by chance, Jane and her sisters find themselves
on an adventure that will take them to dock of the most impressive ship the
world has ever seen...Titanic.
I felt a bit like this was one of those books where the
blurb reveals far too much about the ending of the book and is a bit misleading.
The first half of the book (which was very well written and really interesting) doesn't really have anything to do with the Titanic. I understand that the
beginning of the book sets up the character relationships for the end of the
book ( I have been reading long enough to know that this is how a good book
works!) but I just felt like I was waiting for the book to get going with what
the blurb had promised. For me, the Titanic element was the ‘hook’ and
actually, after reading the book, I feel like that the story has so much more
to offer that it didn't need the Titanic to be such a big advertisement.
Having said that, when the Titanic does make an appearance
at the end of the book, it was definitely worth waiting for. Suzanne Weyn
really captures the despair and panic felt by the passengers and the horror of
what happened and be warned, not all the characters make it out safely. It is
such a dramatic event in the book and is quite emotional.
The author’s choice to combine real life characters and
events with fictional ones is really well done and very interesting. Her
Author’s Note, ‘What’s real in Distant Waves?’ provided the much needed
distinctions between her story and the real one and, for me, this made the
story even more fascinating. The tale is very detailed and in some places I
found myself having to re-read passages so that I knew which character was
doing what at that time – there is just so much going on!
Overall, if you are interested in history or the supernatural
than I would suggest this is a good read for you. The book wasn’t what I
expected and this did affect my enjoyment of it but there are elements of the
story which are really good, the characters and plot are detailed and the
Author’s Note was fantastic.
3.5/5 Don’t read the blurb before you read the book!
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