Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Violin prodigy Etta Spencer had big plans for her future, but a tragedy has put her once-bright career at risk. Closely tied to her musical skill, however, is a mysterious power she doesn’t even know she has. When her two talents collide during a stressful performance, Etta is drawn back hundreds of years through time.
I had a reading slump for a long while before reading this book because of school and exams. While this isn’t a book I would recommend to get out of a slump, it was still a great story with a unique concept.
Time traveling isn’t always my type, but Bracken did an amazing job on developing her world and explaining how events happened. In addition, she addressed racism and I enjoyed that it wasn’t something dumped randomly into the story, but made sense. Etta, the other protagonist, was from an era of time where people of color are definitely treated more fairly than the time Nicholas came from and was outraged when he was treated in a certain way. It shows how much time and effort she put into exploring this concept, as well as time traveling.
Speaking of the characters, I was able to create that “special attachment” with them in order to actually get into the book. I loved how each character was represented in a unique realistic way that made them likable. I enjoyed reading about Etta’s fearless and honest personality, which surprises me because this is just the usual “strong female character” we often see in YA novels.
The writing itself was very descriptive. In fact, a little too descriptive. It became one of those books where the an author would spend a full paragraph writing about grass (I’m not all too sure if this actually happened but…). I would find myself skimming a lot because of all the descriptions that don’t necessarily do anything to the plot or the characters.
It did take a while to get caught up in the plot and such which is why I don’t recommend this book to those trying to get out of a reading slump. I would say it was about halfway before things started picking up and interesting me. However, I believe that this book laid a good foundation for the plot, time traveling concept and character development and the next book may have that thrill that readers are looking for. By the end of this book, I can definitely say that I am looking forward to what will be happening next.
4/5 boats