SYNOPSIS:
Someone, or something, is haunting the ship. Between mysterious disappearances and sudden deaths, the guests of the Titanic have found themselves suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone from the moment they set sail. Several of them, including maid Annie Hebley, guest Mark Fletcher, and millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, are convinced there's something sinister--almost otherworldy--afoot. But before they can locate the source of the danger, as the world knows, disaster strikes. Years later, Annie, having survived that fateful night, has attempted to put her life back together. Working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, newly refitted as a hospital ship, she happens across an unconscious Mark, now a soldier fighting in World War I. At first, Annie is thrilled and relieved to learn that he too survived the sinking, but soon, Mark's presence awakens deep-buried feelings and secrets, forcing her to reckon with the demons of her past--as they both discover that the terror may not yet be over. Brilliantly combining the supernatural with the height of historical disaster, The Deep is an exploration of love and destiny, desire and innocence, and, above all, a quest to understand how our choices can lead us inexorably toward our doom. It's not often I find a book that's catered 110% to me: historical horror? Check. Romance? Check. Queer characters? Check. THE TITANIC? Check. ((I played Mrs. Widener in a college production of the musical, and this post will forever be one of my favorite things. I LOVE THE RMS CARPATHIA SO MUCH)) Add in that it's written by the same person who wrote one of my favorite historical horror novels ever, The Hunger? Cue me checking the website every day to see if preorders were available yet. It's a beautiful, heartbreaking read, and I loved every minute of it (even when I was mock-yelling at Alma Katsu on Twitter because WHYYYYYYY) This is also one of those books that I can't wait to reread, so that I can spot little hints and foreshadowings and then cry even more. Quotes/Lines: ((spoilers below!)) -- 'Someone once told her that the stars were merely sewing pins, holding the black sky up so that it did not come down on the world and suffocate it.' -- 'She is our only daughter and, despite her frailty, her weaknesses, despite anything she may have done, we love her dearly.' I trust you about as far as I can throw you, Mr. Hebbley. -- 'I shall never forget the last time I saw you, jumping into those dark, icy waters. We thought you had lost your mind, made senseless by the terrible shock of it all. But only you had seen the baby tumble into the water. Only you knew that there wasn't a moment to waste. Annie Hebbley is the bravest girl I have ever known, I thought that night.' Annie. <3 And then to never see the baby again, oh man. No wonder she's hidden herself away. -- 'What they say in the newspapers is true: this is surely the war to end all wars, for we could never surpass its horrors.' *cries* -- Violet Jessop!!!! *Titanic history nerd freakout* -- 'Gotten used to being surrounded, once again, by strange voices and smells and sights, even if she still felt them like a film of cobweb against her skin.' -- "You're coming to us with no nursing experience, Miss Hebbley. In just a few days' time, we'll be in a war zone taking on fresh patients. You have a lot to learn and there's not a moment to spare." Man. :( -- 'Her most important job, Annie quickly sees, is to listen when they want to talk. ... It's nice to be on the other side for a change, the one helping instead of the one being helped.' Sweetheart. <3 -- 'He's not as young as many of the infantrymen, maybe in his early thirties.' Owwwwwwwww. -- 'This is all her fault. Was there something she'd missed when she'd been talking to him before? She can't help but feel she should have known he was about to try to take his life. Should have felt it, sensed the will to live slipping away from him like a visceral loss, like a change in air pressure.' *gives Annie all the hugs and cookies* -- "So, tell me, how was your first day?" Not great timing there, Charlie. -- I *love* time skips in novels, going back and forth in a certain character's life. One of these days I've got to try my hand at it. -- 'The Catholics on staff had been warned to keep their religious insignia out of sight for the duration of the voyage.' Huh. That's something that had never occurred to me. -- Aw, bless, Annie loves this ship so much. -- 'The baby felt comfortable--almost familiar--in Annie's arms, even though she had little experience with infants, having been the baby of the family herself.' ...I'm going to be sobbing uncontrollably by the end of this book, aren't I -- I'm getting the feeling that Dai and Les have something going on, or at least Dai wishes they did? I may just be wishful thinking because hiiiiiiiii constant grabbyhands at representation. -- 'Waves like blue wolves. He could see their white fangs. Were the wolves singing? No, there was a woman who controlled the wolves, a witch of the depths, and it was her song. ... The rail was there and no one was looking and the metal felt cold in his hand when he began to climb.' How does she write something so gorgeous and so creepy at the same time I AM COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF ENVY -- "Look, I know. I heard it, too. It's all right. You're safe now." Dai, you have now moved into my Favorite Character space (Annie is a veryvery close second; she just started getting a little creepy as soon as Mark came into the picture so I'm waiting to see how that turns out) -- "That's enough, Teddy. You should know better than to speak out of turn." *prepares laser eyes* -- Oh yes, such an unconscionable oversight to have only two thousand bottles of wine on board for a week's trip. *boots Lady Duff-Gordon into third class and moves Dai and Les into her quarters* -- 'The other advantage to cocaine is that it is not thought to be addictive, as is laudanum. Better to err on the side of caution.' Oh nooooo, please be okay, Caroline. -- Lillian? **curious** -- 'Sometimes it made her want to cry, this playacting. As if she could still be protected. As if the sickness and hte horror hadn't touched them both.' I deeply need to give Caroline a hug. -- Ondine, that's a beautiful name. And something sea-related, if I'm remembering right. -- 'And then there was the baby. No matter how much help she received, she couldn't avoid the fact that motherhood simply wore her out.' Yep. Hugs. -- 'Caroline had been drawn to her (Lillian) immediately, had envied the intensity of her and of Mark's passion for her. Had wanted--no, needed--to be part of that in some small way.' Are we actually heading for an OT3 (however tragic) in a historical novel that I'm not writing because I will just cry tears of happiness forever. -- Ohhhhh noooo, Teddy! (and man, I keep forgetting that Madeleine Astor was only 18) -- 'Besides, Eliza and this Anne Hebbley looked nothing alike. And yet there was something about the stewardess that unsettled him. Made him feel sad and...guilty. Terribly guilty. A guilt he was unable to escape. He thought he'd made his peace with that. Had served three months at Coldbath Prison for what was, he insisted to this day, an honest miscalculation.' What kind of 'honest miscalculation' did you have with a 13-year old?! Keeping an eye on you, Stead. -- 'She'd rather wait on patients than pernickety rich passengers.' Some things change, but retail remains constant. (that guy going on and on about quail or duck eggs, chicken only if absolutely no other option? I was so proud of her for not whapping him on the head with her tray) -- I need to look up dubheasa. (and I love Annie comforting the poor man who was having a panic attack) -- 'And this time, he belongs to no one else. He is alone. He is hers.' Uh, Annie, sweetie, the creepiness is coming back by the truckload. -- 'It was as though the sea were conspiring in this funeral for the dead boy by conjuring up the fog to hide him from prying eyes. Cossetting him in the softest blanket of cloud for his last journey.' -- 'Rather than comfort her, she watched as his bearded face grew red with fury, the kind that always seemed to be boiling just below the surface of his skin. ... That was the last family picnic with Auntie Riona and Granny Aisling, and Annie wasn't allowed to visit her grandmother ever again.' I knew Annie's dad was a dick. -- 'Mrs. Astor came unaccompanied to our meeting, insisted on coming without her husband. (Note: no evidence of husband's permission. Follow up with him separately?) UGHHHH. Also, Example #381340329 of why when people start talking about 'being born in the wrong decade' I side-eye. -- 'She'd wanted to be there, but John Jacob--Jack, as he liked to be called--had put his foot down. 'You're emotional enough about it...the last thing we need is for you to faint and a servant's funeral.' Time to get the Baseball Bat of Justice ready. -- "It's not like he was your child," Jack said under his breath. And swing -- I really hope the 'g*psy curse' thing doesn't play more of a role than this. Occultism was the big fad, yeah, but... -- "I know you feel bad about Teddy," Jack said. "I quite adore seeing your sensitive side. But you must try to put it out of your mind. All t his melancholy can't be good for the baby." She rolled her eyes. As if he knew what was best for the baby.' Attagirl!! -- 'How he'd gone undercover to purchase a 'hired' girl--a girl of only thirteen, no less--and taken her to a boardinghouse for the night, all in the name of 'research'. His goal had been to expose the ease with which the sex trade was conducted right under everyone's noses, right there in civilized England.' UM. -- 'The kind of people who would call for his public execution if they ever found out the desire he harbored in secret" I KNEW IT. Dai <3 -- 'He made you want whole, impossible worlds. As if wanting Les Williams wasn't impossible enough.' MY HEART -- 'The tale (girl who wore the ribbon around her neck) had always chilled Annie- its taunting nature, the embedded warning, and yet she could never decide what its warning meant. Was it that girls were fragile--fragile as a simple-knotted bow--and must be protected at all costs? Or was it that the only way they may prove their story true was to die for it?' Well damned if that's not a throatpunch of a line -- 'The factory where Lillian spent all her daylight hours burned to the ground, killing nearly every one of the women she worked with.' I understood that reference (couldn't have been the Triangle Shirtwaist, wrong location, but I wonder if this was based on it. Either that or there was a similar incident there because Let The Corporations Regulate Themselves never freaking works) -- 'No, please God. You've just reunited us. Don't take him away from me now. I've been a good girl. It's time for my reward.' Were you by any chance named after Annie Wilkes? STOP. -- 'There was a coldness in Caroline's voice. She had become a different person-- not the vivacious, chatty one who'd boarded the ship two days ago.' Well, given the potential PPD and the definite use of cocaine... -- 'She was fine. Perfectly fine. That left only one alternative.' Annie, whatever you are thinking, quit thinking it. -- 'Maddie's attention was riveted on the pale wraith in the gray uniform making her way through the crowd. That searching empty face with hungry eyes was like something in a mausoleum frieze.' ...that is a disturbing-as-hell mental image and I love how eerie this is. -- 'Even when he hated a con, it still felt good in the moment, to be in it with Les. To be on the same side.' <3 <3 <3 -- "I've barely been married a year and I can't say I recommend it." a) I can understand, given that your wife is on drugs without ever intending to be, but b) he is a stranger; quit complaining about your wife to a stranger. -- "Why don't you have a reflection? Don't you think that's odd?" Does she really not, or is Maddie so paranoid and panicky that she's imagining it? I love the "what's the actual truth" aspect so much but when I actually get the answer it's probably going to break me. -- 'Surely he wouldn't ask for a change (of nurse) if he knew he'd be losing her.' ...what did you do? -- Also quit with anything else but telling him that his kid is alive -- Oh Caroline, honey. She's trying so hard and just doesn't know what her 'medicine' is doing. -- 'The silver watch had been so beautiful, so touching--exactly what he would like to be able to give Dai one day, when he won his first big match in America, perhaps--that he couldn't help but lift it.' Awwwwwwwwwww ((I know, yes, don't steal, but awwwwwww)) -- 'To marry for love sounded incredibly wild and rebellious. She wasn't entirely sure she approved--she'd made her bed, hadn't she?--but it was fun watching someone else try.' I officially adore you, Maddie. -- "Yes, poor little boy. But he was just a servant," Mabel blurted. Cone of shame time, Mabel. -- The fact that Annie reminds Stead of Eliza and Mark of Lillian... -- Dai and Les are breaking my heart they're both trying to protect and help each other in completely opposite ways and please let them have the time to sort this out -- "Who are you conning, Les? Am I just another mark?" sweetie -- 'She's gone and gotten herself pregnant.' Now that's a neat trick... -- 'While he slept, she gently strapped his arms down to the bed so that he could not protest or push her away.' Okay, so there's going too far, going WAY too far, and then wherever the heck you're at right now. -- Oh thank goodness, at least she told him about Ondine surviving. -- 'I dove into the water after her. I helped save the baby.' Did Caroline drown naturally, or did she have help? Because...yeah. -- 'It was more powder than she was supposed to take in one dose, but she gulped it down anyway. A little more now and then, what difference did it make?' :( -- "I'm going to try to patch things up with Caroline. We're going to America to start a new life together--and I'm going to give it a proper go." *cries* -- "You can't pin this on Dai. He was trying to get me to do the right thing. He's a good man. Too good to be friends with the likes of me." These two had BETTER make it I stg -- Annie dammit they told you to stay out -- 'If I were married to Mark, this would be room. My things. My baby. My life.' Yeah. She's gonna kill Caroline. -- 'Caroline had been making Ondine sick. On purpose.' God I want to go into this book and protect Caroline from Annie so bad I know what's coming and noooooo -- "But half the seats are empty." "And we need a couple of your men to row." She wanted to tell him to save his breath; she knew what was needed and would make sure that it got done. Nothing mattered except that she survived. Honor didn't matter, nor chivalry. The story would be written by the survivors, in any case. Stories always were.' I...there are not sufficient words for how intensely I dislike you -- 'Dai would be looking for him for all the good it would do; no one was going to give him the key and even that great sweet lummox would not be able to tear that metal door off its hinges.' YES HE WILL DAMMIT -- MADELEINE omfg I love you so muuuuuuuuch -- "Me, I'm on one of those lifeboats if I have to dress in me grandmother's Sunday best." Understandable. (the reason why I'm pissed at Lady Duff-Gordon and not Les is because of course you'd want to save your own life or the lives of your loved ones. But she made sure that a lifeboat went down half-full. Do your best to get a spot, absolutely, but don't kill dozens (hundreds? I have to look up how many those boats held) to do it. -- "It's going to be hard, but you're going to be fine. I can't see all of the future, but I can see that. You have to be tough for your baby and your husband. They're both depending on you. Now, get into this lifeboat." I love you Les please live -- 'He felt a jostle beside him and there was Dai.' AHHHH <3 -- "Never doubt that I chose you." HEY WAIT NO HELP ;__________; -- 'She turned away, resigned to taking her seat, when a miracle occurred.' Terry Pratchett's quote from Interesting Times comes to mind here: "Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been fate. People are always a little confused about this, as they are in the case of miracles. When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that's a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events--the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there--that must also be a miracle. Just because it's not nice doesn't mean it's not miraculous." -- "Hang on to Ondine, Mrs. Fletcher, and I'll keep you afloat." She would save them both. No matter what Caroline had done, it didn't mean she deserved to die.' Ohhhh thank goodness. At least poor Caroline's last memory isn't going to be Annie killing her and making off with the baby. -- "The mother is a lost cause. That's damned irresponsible of her. They could all drown." I don't see you jumping in to help, jackass. -- "Hold onto the side," another woman said. "You shall be safe enough." Again, I don't see you volunteering to take turns. -- 'Caroline--sweet Caroline. She says she will help me. Help us. She has asked Mark and me both to move into her home. I will have better care there. And though it is unusual--crazy, even--I am tempted to accept. ... We are both in love with each other and in love with her. It is a wonderful thing.' I'm gonna go live in an alternate universe where everybody lived and they raised Ondine together in an adorable triad thanks -- OMFG THIS JUST GOT WILD -- 'Ever since Ondine had arrived. ... He'd always loved the dark, complex winding of her thoughts, but now they seemed always to tremble at the edge of an abyss.' The idea of trying to make it through PPD before it was acknowledged... -- 'Only then would he tell Lillian about his plan. He didn't want to get her hopes up, not when she had been so black of late.' TWIST THE KNIFE WHY DON'T YOU -- This BOOK. I'm just floored. Also, I think this may have replaced Turn of the Screw for my favorite "unreliable narrator" story and that's a damn hard thing to do.
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A WORLD WITH A BLUER SUNMy reviews are set up a little like live-tweets: I write down lines I like/impressions as I read, and then transcribe. Reviews will contain spoilers, but I'll give a warning before they start. Archives
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