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40x40

Ari Augustine (10 KP) rated The Deep in Books

May 4, 2020  
The Deep
The Deep
Alma Katsu | 2020 | History & Politics, Horror, Thriller
10
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Historical Fiction with a supernatural twist, I was drawn to The Deep like a moth to a flame. It's been awhile since I've read anything compelling enough to read in a single sitting, but Katsu deliveries such a horrific, heartpounding, and mind-spinning twist to a tale we're already so familiar with, that the story grips us from page one.

Annie Hebley is a nurse who survived the sinking of Titanic and has since confined herself to an mental institution. However, at the start of The Deep, she is hired to work on the Britannica to help the wounded WW1 soldiers. What I love about this story is how well it blends actual history in between these moments of atmospheric supernatural events. We meet characters who were once very much alive on a ship that actually existed. There's something eerie about tethering such a story in a historical way that connects to the reader, and this element of the story certainly spoke to me. But what I loved MOST was how unreliable Annie was as a character. Her point of view jumped between 1912 and 1916, blurring the lines of reality even further. Although the pacing wasn't always consistent, I love, love, LOVED Katsu's writing.

Overall, I'd recommend The Deep to anyone with a dash of patience, a dangerous curiosity for the supernatural, and, well, anyone who lives creepy stories rooted in history.
  
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Alison Pink (7 KP) rated The Shadow Queen in Books

Jan 15, 2018  
TS
The Shadow Queen
Rebecca Dean | 2012
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was so pleasantly surprised by this book! I'm not normally big on historical fiction unless it is about World War II, but this book was wonderful. I didn't even know who Wallis Simpson was to be honest. Sure, I'd heard of her, but didn't know much about her life at all. She is such a fascinating character with such a horrific, yet charmed life it was hard not to like her & feel for her with all that she went through.
The book is a mix of fiction & real life, so I don't know exactly what was true & what wasn't. But honestly it doesn't really matter. The story is so easy to lose yourself in & the characters are all so real (I know some of them are really real!) I found myself looking Wallis up on Wikipedia before I was even halfway through the novel, that is how fascinated I had become by her.
I really hope that Rebecca Dean writes another book about Simpson. The book ends before Prince Edward becomes her beau, but it is obvious that is where the whole thing is going. In fact, Edward is hardly even a character in the book. Sure he's in it, but most of it is as a pin up from a magazine or in girlhood fantasies of Wallis & Pamela. He doesn't become real until very late in the story. I would love to read more about their life together!!
Very well done Rebecca!!!