Have you read this book? If so, did you like it?

I first heard about this book on literary agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog. I’d made a mental note to read it since it dealt with a group of people trying to survive on a lifeboat after their ship explodes. There’s a lunchtime bookclub at my day job, and when they chose this book, I recalled that I wanted to read it, so I went ahead and downloaded it onto my Kindle.

Grace has recently gotten married. She’s a survivor and when her father ends his life due to financial strain, she’s determined to survive without taking on a job as a governess (unlike her sister). To avoid working, she plots and snags a rich man as her husband (Henry). She sets sail from Europe to America with Henry in 1914 and the boat suffers from an explosion when the story begins. She manages to get onto a lifeboat with 30 plus people and it’s a tight fit, the boat is not really big enough for all of them. They refuse to allow others on the boat. They even ignore a child drowning in the water, and they beat away those passengers who try to clamor onto their boat. These 30-plus people stay in this boat for about 21 days with little food or water. At one point, a group of birds drop right into the boat and they eat the raw birds. They also eat raw fish.

Grace writes in first person, giving an account about the events that happened on the boat each day as she remembered them. Several of the people die, and when it’s suggested by Hardie (a crewman from the exploded ship) that there are too many people in the boat to weather a storm, they draw lots to see who should sacrifice himself so that the others may live. At one point, it’s suggested that they eat some of the deceased members, but, they refuse to do so.

This book is extremely thought-provoking. It kinda reminded me of Lord of The Flies. It’s a survivor type book and you really feel the hunger of the characters. Over half of them die and one of the lifeboat passengers are murdered, landing a few of the passengers into prison. I don’t want to give spoilers but, it’s hard to talk about the depth of the book without giving away too much of the story.

I thought the book was kinda slow in the beginning but it got better later. I actually put it aside for a week or so to read something else. I then went back to it and really got into the story. It really moved, and as you felt the characters’ starvation, dehydration and will to survive, it makes you all the more anxious for these characters to get rescued.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it?

~Cecelia Dowdy~