Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Review: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20983362-passenger
Passenger
(Passenger #1)
by Alexandra Bracken
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Publication Date: January 5th 2016
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9781484715772
Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy | Time Travel
Source: Netgalley

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passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever. (Goodreads)
Passenger is the very first book I've had the pleasure of reading by Alexandra Bracken! I've had her Darkest Minds series on my to-be-read list for years, but for some insane reason, have not read them yet. After reading Passenger, I totally can't wait to! This story was super unique and it completely captivated me as I turned the pages!

The story is told from two different point of views; through Etta, whose life is changed one devastating night after she's forcibly pushed into a strange new world by a girl she doesn't know, and Nicholas, who has known about time travel almost his whole life, and wishes to have nothing more to do with it, or with the family that now controls it. These two characters made a really great team, and worked so well together, even though they each had their own secrets that they kept from each other. I was really rooting for these two throughout the whole story.

I love that as go through the pages, you can totally tell that Etta is a girl from the present, and Nicholas is a boy from the past. It was interesting seeing how they interacted with each other and reacted to each time period they jump into, as well as how they were treated during the specific time as well. With Nicholas being a dark skinned boy, and Etta being just a girl, things were definitely not always easy for the two. Nicholas was pretty awesome as a pirate too, and he was a legal one at that, and Etta proved to be a lot stronger than I first thought, and I really appreciated that.

The storyline for the book was very interesting. I've only read a handful of time travel books, and I always find them to be either very well written, or decidedly not, and this book was very well written. I loved the settings and people from each time period Etta and Nicholas jumped through. Bracken did a great job with descriptions; I could picture everything perfectly in my mind! And that ending... I'm not a huge fan of cliff-hanger endings, mostly because they leave me pining for the next book so desperately and I'm super impatient sometimes, but this ending, while a cliff-hanger, was not extremely dramatic, and I can live with that. (I'll still be impatiently waiting to get my hands on the next book though!)

Also, this book was massive, coming in at 496 pages, and I STILL managed to read the bulk of it in one day. It was very much engrossing!

Overall; I really enjoyed Passenger so much more than I expected to! I loved the characters and the storyline was unique and refreshing. I can't wait to get my hands on the second book, Wayferer, which should be released in 2017! I'm curious to see how this story is going to end. Check the book out for yourself, and I hope you love it!
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4 comments:

  1. Hi Christy! This is one of my most anticipated reads for 2016! I just love time travel! <3 Thank you for the amazing review!

    Precious @ Fragments of Life

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  2. Ahhh!! I cannot wait for this book at all! I love Alexandra Bracken, her Darkest Minds series was amazing. Glad to hear that you loved this book!!

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  3. Ahhh so happy to see all the love for this one. I'm definitely excited to read this book! I haven't read The Darkest Mind series yet either, but I have read Bracken's debut novel and loved it. She seems to be very good at writing unique and engrossing stories! I feel like time travel is something that is either done well or done horribly, so I'm even more excited to read it now that everyone is saying it's great. Thanks for the wonderful review!

    ~ Lefty @ The Left-Handed Book Lover

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  4. This book is on my TBR! Reading the review helps

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Thanks for stopping by! :)