BookBrowse Reviews Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee

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A British Chinese teen on the Titanic tries to convince her brother to join the circus of their childhood dreams.

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This young adult novel by Stacey Lee follows 17-year-old Valora Luck, a British Chinese girl who is desperate to find Jamie, the twin brother she hasn't seen in years, aboard the Titanic. When Valora is turned away due to not having the requisite papers, she smuggles herself onto the boat and hides away in the first-class quarters, disguised as her former employer, the now-deceased Mrs. Sloan. Valora's reason for all this? To persuade Jamie to join her in pursuing their childhood dream of becoming acrobats and to convince one of the owners of the Ringling Brothers Circus, who is on board, to hire them. However, Jamie, stuck in third class with the other Chinese passengers, has different ideas — and then disaster strikes as the "unsinkable" ship hits an iceberg, and Valora and her brother must fight to survive.

Upon turning the first page of this rich historical novel, I was at once immersed in Lee's lush prose. The author's descriptions are vibrant: The lavishness of the first-class cabins and smoking rooms versus the cramped and dingy third-class cabins that Valora's brother and his friends are relegated to shows the stark monetary divide upon the ship, which is reflected in wider society at the time. But, of course, this divide does not exist in a vacuum, and the racism faced by the Chinese population of both the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 1900s is clearly linked to it. Lee illustrates this through the difference in treatment that Valora receives when she is the mysterious, veiled Mrs. Sloan in first class, compared to when she is dressed as a male sailor to blend in with her brother in third class. In first class, she is treated like the rich, white passengers around her, albeit with the Chinese Exclusion Act looming as she moves towards her destination in the States, whereas in third class, racist slurs are hurled her way and she is left with the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel at mealtime.

However, it is not all doom-and-gloom aboard Lee's version of the Titanic, and her characters make the story a joy to read. Valora and Jamie's family have frequently pointed out that they fall into the category of sought-after "dragon-phoenix" twins (one male and one female); Valora uses the belief that this is an extremely lucky pairing to try to convince Jamie to go along with her plan, as she truly believes they have a bright future ahead of them, but only if they work together. Among the third-class Chinese passengers are Wink and Olly, who are full of mischief, and Drummer, whose energy lights up the lower decks of the ship. In first class as Mrs. Sloan, Valora meets a young and upcoming fashion designer, April Hart, as well as a character named Charlotte Fine and her unruly poodle.

Though the hijinks resulting from the twin's acrobatic skills and Valora's mysterious identity, as well as sparks of newfound romance between Valora and her brother's best friend, certainly make for an entertaining and lively read, there is, of course, the impending disaster to reckon with. Lee weaves it into the story with suggestions of superstitions, particularly those related to Chinese culture, such as the fear of the number four (sì) due to its pronunciation in Cantonese being close to the pronunciation of the word for "death" (sǐ). And just as things are looking good on Valora's horizon and the reader is lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that perhaps, in this retelling, history might be changed, the ship hits that pivotal iceberg and the characters' lives are thrown into danger. Though the conclusion feels lackluster compared to the parts leading up to it, with some threads left untied, this book is one that will play on in your mind long after you turn the final page.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in June 2021, and has been updated for the October 2022 edition. Click here to go to this issue.