Big Water was a short yet intense read. From the very first page itself, the mood of the novel was set and reading Christina’s Point of View in a desperate struggle for survival was surreal. The novel didn’t beautify or exaggerate any relationship/romance between Christina and Daniel and that’s one of the things I loved about the book. The scene of the shipwreck was written beautifully, giving the reader the ability to understand the desperation and helplessness of the passengers of the boat without handling it insensitively.

It isn't often we get shipwreck stories set in the Great Lakes. I was, to say the least, intrigued. BUt I was also a bit disappointed. I don't know that this book has the necessary impact. I wanted it to be visceral: desperation, loss, fear, hope. We're told what they feel, we don't feel it with them.

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a review!

Big Water follows the story of two lone survivors who find themselves adrift after a shipwreck. It's based on historical truth, and I really liked the glimpse into a vibrant story I hadn't heard about before.

Our narrator, Christina, told the story with great detail and feeling. I thought the author did a good job of tackling such an unbearable tragedy and showing it honestly through the eyes of a teen. We find out in the course of the book that Christina is trying to understand the death of her twin brother, Jonathan. I thought that it as an interesting choice to frame the shipwreck through the lens of her brother's death. This had the benefit of taking the present part of the story (which could easily have become incomprehensibly grim) and distilling it into a grief that's more readily accessible.

However, I also found the amount of flashbacks to be distracting, and ultimately a bit stale. I think it might be because--though this particular story is definitely unique--the story of the perfect brother who died and the grieving parents isn't, particularly. I didn't really feel an emotional connection to Jonathan or Christina's life she left behind, because most of the characters in it felt fairly standard. I think this narrative device could have worked harder.

Similarly, there were two hooks--Why is Christina so guilty? and What is Daniel's secret?--that didn't really pan out satisfyingly. Christina's guilt is understandable but the reason isn't necessarily a revelation. Daniel's secret is interesting, but once it's out it's repeated several times, with nothing really coming out of it in the end--at least not at the point the story stops. Again, I felt these were two missed opportunities to propel the story deeper.

That said, I did read through in a rush, and enjoyed learning about this historical event. Overall, a really interesting story!

Also that cover is GORG.

I'll start by saying this would have been much better as a short story. I'm a little surprised that a book with such an intense storyline ended up being so slow-paced. This was already a very short book, and even then it could have improved if made shorter. The writing itself was solid. Wonderful descriptions and an easy flow. But it kept losing me every time the story cut away to Christina's dead twin. They felt like add-ins that weren't very exciting to read. They made sense and helped us understand her character, but it really killed the pace. The insta-love relationship that inevitably forms is ... lacklustre and led to an abrupt disappointing ending.

2.5/5

I enjoyed this quick-read based on the real-life wreck of the steamship Asia on Georgian Bay. The story begins in the middle of the storm and follows the fate of the only survivors—two teenagers—over the course of the following three days adrift on Lake Huron.

The Ontario setting and first-person present tense point of view will make this especially appealing to my reluctant readers who sometimes shy away from historical fiction. I will definitely add this to my classroom library when it releases March 6!

I found this book to be quiet boring. However, it is a really quick read and I really liked the writting.

Big Water is a fictional account of the real-life story of the only two survivors of the sinking of the SS Asia in 1882. This is a really good story. It tells of a young 17 year old named Christina McBurney who is so upset at her twin brother's death of consumption, runs away and boards The Asia, to go somewhere new. Luckily her cousin works on the Asia so she knows someone.

The sea is so turbulent that she is lucky to get on the last boat with her cousin, the Captain and a few other people and a young man named Daniel.

What follows is a harrowing journey of being lost at sea and watching everyone die in the lifeboat except for Daniel and herself.

What follows is their journey and where it leads them to. Along this journey Christina learns that what she thought was true may not be and she grows up a lot. I loved this story and I am sure a lot of people will like it as well. I gave this book 4**** stars.

I was given an ARC copy of Big Water by Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to read Big Water because it is a fictional tale on a real life event, the sinking of the SS Asia on a Great Lake in 1882. I spent the first 18 years of life growing up in Michigan so I was immediately drawn to a story that relates to one of the Great Lakes and a story of survival when a steamboat sinks in its freezing waters.

I must say, the writing in this story was phenomenal. Everything was described so beautifully, and I felt more connected to the murky depths of the lake than I ever have before. You are shown how truly deadly these "lakes" can be considering their size, depth, and temperature.

With that being said though, the story itself was lacking. There was not a lot of dialogue, but when there was it was mostly in past events which confused me sometimes as to whether what I was reading was taking place before or after the sinking. Most of the story was inner monologue also of the main character, Christina, trying to survive and wondering why she survived and why events in her life before the sinking had to happen. Honestly, it got old quick. I began skimming parts in her past to get back to the present because her past didn't seem to actually affect what was happening to her in the present.

I also thought this was a shorter less detailed retelling of Life of Pi. I saw a lot of similarities and couldn't get past that to actually be immersed in this story. In the end, not a lot actually happened in this story. Nothing gripped me enough or made me want to care about these characters. But I am giving 3 stars because the writing was still beautiful.

Like the water, this book was choppy. I'm sorry for the pun.

This is incredibly fast-paced and does very little to set up the story before the disaster occurs, which is perfect for anyone looking for a disaster book. However, the details that were included didn't compel me to finish the book.

Unfortunately this book was not my cup of tea even though I adore historical fiction. I tried several times to pick it up but in the end I had to DNF. The overall atmosphere was lacking for me and I just couldn't get into it. I do hope to pick it up and try again in the future but for now. 2 stars.

Book Review
Title: Big Water
Author: Andrea Curtis
Genre: Retelling/Historical/Survival
Rating: ****
Review: So, all I know about Big Water is that it is a fictional account of the real-life story of the only two survivors of the sinking of the SS Asia in 1882, that is it! So, knowing virtual nothing about the novel I was excited to get into it especially as it is less than 150 pages long. The opening chapter of Big Water was great, we meet Christina McBurney as she runs away from home after the death of her twin brother Jonathan aboard the ship her cousin works on; The Asia. During a storm the ship seems to be in trouble listing all over the place, but Christina is one of only a few apart from the crew who don’t seem to be panicked despite the terrifying weather conditions.
However, as we approach the ¼ mark in the novel as I suspected the boat does sink and Christina manages to make into a lifeboat with her cousin Peter, but they are still being hammered by huge waves. Several lifeboats including the one Christina is in tip over several times, but Peter provides her with an anchor in the form of a rope but when she is tossed into the water again despite holding her on her clothes are dragging her down and the young crew member who she had a run in with earlier is the one that guides her back to the boat when she can’t get there herself. As their boat is hit by several waves some of the survivors that originally boarded are lost to the great expanse.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the storm dies down but that isn’t the end of the troubles for the passengers that escaped the Asia as they begin to realise the helplessness of their situation. Christina does her best with Daniel to try and keep as many of the rescued awake and talking as they can as shock and hypothermia can set in at any moment and with one already suspected dead they are trying to conjure up any measure of hope that they can but there isn’t much they can do with no oars and not a fully conscious sailor between the group. So far, I was quite enjoying the story not because of the writing style or the characters but because it is based on a real-life event that I know nothing about.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel one by one the rescued passengers begin to die and this includes Christina’s cousin Peter until only her and Daniel are left in the boat. Since they have been drifting along over what they believe to be around 12 hours Daniel assumes they should hit land soon otherwise they will die from exposure or hypothermia very soon. To keep themselves alert and awake Daniel and Christina talk to each other about their lives and they do have some common ground and they both lost a sibling to consumption and they both have quite unpleasant home lives although for very different reasons. Daniel and Christina are aimlessly floating around in a boat full of corpses, but they think they have made it to land but have stuck themselves on some rocks which they need to get free of otherwise they will damage the boat. As they pair try to work together to free the boat, but Daniel ends up passing out whether from exhaustion or injury I don’t know although exhaustion is more likely as they have been keeping each other awake for more than 12 hours.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Christina has to take charge with Daniel unconscious and she begins paddling with boat towards what she thinks is land and in her head space she begins to reminisce on the time she spent with her brother before he died and it wasn’t that great but he was with her and she truly believed that he would survive and fight through it the way he always had. As the paddle around a patch of land looking for signs of life and find none Christina takes a risk and leaves the boat to look for people and possibly food and water but finds mothing of use. Together she and Daniel decide that if they are correct about where they are then they need to get the bodies out of the boat as they need to be a lot lighter to make paddling easier, but they don’t want to just dump the bodies, but they might not have a choice in their weakened states.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel Daniel and Christina work together sleeping in shifts looking for the essentials to survive but they also lay the bodies of the ship mates to rest as they can take them no further on their journey and we also get to know more about our characters. I wasn’t thrilled with Daniel’s slight amnesia as his head injury didn’t seem that bad and it kind of felt like a cheap way to draw the novel out, but I was rolling with it. After getting to safety on an island to prevent being caught up in any further storms the pair discover a barrel which is a marker that traders come through the area and Daniel believes they are as good as rescued and kisses Christina several times over the next few hours although Christina knows that nothing can really progress between them. However, no one arrives for a day or two until Daniel spots what he believes to be a ship heading towards them and they are determined to flag it down no matter what the cost.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, the pair are rescued and returned to humanity, but they now must cope with this traumatic event and try and return to some sort of normal life which may be really hard for the time they are living in. Overall, I really liked the story as it was a more realistic and gritty version of the Life of Pi but with Indians in a different context. A pretty good book!

While the synopsis of this book intrigued me, I found myself pushing myself to read it. I unfortunately did not feel connected to any of the characters and found the majority of the book sluggish. It lacked that spark I look for in books, that excitement that leaves you hanging on every word.

A quick read but packing a punch. It's 1882 and Seventeen-year-old Christina, after the death of her twin brother, can't face life as it now is and runs away to board the SS Asia. She always runs when life gets hard, but little does she know she is about to meet the biggest challenge her life will ever know. The ship hits rough waters and sinks leaving young Christina and another passenger, Duncan, the only 2 survivors. Christina must find strength she didn't know she had to survive. The loss of life made this disaster, in terms of loss of life from the sinking of a single vessel, the eighth-worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes. Very well written loved the storyline, (based on fact) and loved the characters.

This novel feels quite old fashioned in its language, which I would usually repel from, however, in this case it adds to the feel of the plot. Quite short at only 130 pages, this novella sweeps you off your feet and into a fast paced world.

Upon reading the summary for this book, I immediately thought of both Titanic and Salt to the Sea, and considering how much I love both of those stories, I knew I would love this one too. It astounds me that I haven’t seen it around much anywhere and that more people don’t know about it, and I suspect that this is because it takes place in Canada, and sometimes we fall off the radar. We start off with Christina on the Asia, immediately prior to the ship’s wrecking. Now, I don’t know much about what passenger ships look like, having never been on one myself (and certainly not one from 1882), but the description of the ship and Christina’s surroundings seemed very realistic. I found it a bit funny that there were cows and horses on the ship’s main deck though. I did have to go back and reread the first few pages, because it wasn’t immediately obvious to me that they were in a storm. I wasn’t expecting the story to jump right into the wreck and instead was expecting a little bit of build-up at least.

Pretty quickly we find our characters on the lifeboat though, and try not to get too attached to Peter because spoiler alert, he is not the other survivor of the wreckage. At first, I didn’t quite make the connection between Daniel on the lifeboat and Daniel on the ship, and I think this is because when reading the section in which Christina witnesses Daniel’s argument with another man, you don’t realise that this is an introduction and not just something she happens to notice. I did find myself wishing that the book included a picture of the ship, and/or of Lake Huron/Georgian Bay - not being familiar with the Great Lakes, when I think bay I think of a small body of water, not a huge one that is more like a sea, really. But that’s just my own naivety I suppose. I found the scenes in the lifeboat to be quite realistic as well, and I’ve read a ton of Titanic fiction that takes place in lifeboats, so I was impressed. It did go a bit slow at times when the two characters were still paddling to nowhere trying to find land - but it’s not as if there’s a way, in a book based on a true story, to make that terribly exciting. I found it really well written when both Christina and Daniel were experiencing the mental effects of the wreck, the cold, and the trauma their bodies were sustaining. It’s not as if one can remain alert and entirely clear-headed in these kinds of environments. One of the best things I though the book did though was illustrate the pain and grief that Christina was going through in the loss of her brother. It kept her conscious, and I suspect that in some way, Daniel reminded her of her brother and that was partially how she was able to keep him alive.

The best section of the book was definitely when they were finally rescued by the indigenous couple. I felt a huge sigh of relief when their struggles were finally over. Even though they were referred to as Indians in the text, I really appreciated in the Author’s Note at the end when she explains why she used that language, and how it has evolved into non-usage in modern day. In fact the whole Author’s Note I appreciated, because it really illustrated the effort the author took in her research to make the story as accurate as possible. I wish the story didn’t end on such an ambiguous note though. I know that it might be a bit too far to expect Christina and Daniel to get married, but I don’t want to believe that they can experience what they went through and not have an eternal intimate connection. It reminded me of the quote from Harry Potter where you can’t knock out a troll together and not end up being friends. Even if their life paths would take them in different directions, I do wish we would have gotten a peek at what happened to them next. There is a quote at end though that I really loved, where Christina rises above her trauma to face her future. It might change in the final copy when it’s published, but I really hope it doesn’t, because it’s a beautiful ending to a beautiful story:

“But I know now that I am large. I contain big water, big sky. For I have held a person in my arms as he died, found solace in the wind and sky, scared away wild animals with laughter. I have watched kindness and determination and grief exist at the same time in the same face. Maybe I will forge my own path, like Daniel said. Become a scientist or a teacher. Or maybe I’ll marry a farmer and live a quiet life in a quiet town and have babies and grandbabies, make jam in the summer and pickles in the fall. Maybe I’ll travel the ocean, or maybe I’ll never set another foot on a boat. I might never again hold someone’s hand and face the unknown together, frightened and defiant and alive. Or I might. I just might.”

Also, the cover art for this book is STUNNING. I am in love.

When Christina's twin brother dies, she runs away and boards the steamship Asia. While on the Great Lakes, a storm topples the boat, leaving Christina scrambling in the water. With a dozen others, Christina finds shelter on a lifeboat, only to have it turn over and over in the water. By the end of the night, only Christina and one other are alive.

Based on a true story, this was an interesting look at a little known disaster. Christina was a strong and dynamic character, one I found myself rooting for. I think the writing style is well suited towards young adults, particularly those who want a little adventure and romance. Highly recommended.

Thank you for the advanced copy. I was really looking forward to reading this book but found it to be a let down. The writing didn't flow and the characters didn't feel three dimensional. Given the exciting premise, it felt flat. I really didn't enjoy the writing style which made it a chore to read.

Most people know where the Great Lakes are, that straddle the Canadian and American border. On a map they look odd, and even though, if you compare them with the size of the nearby states and provinces, you can see that they are huge, you really can’t realize how large they really are. Most people are more familiar with the lakes they visit in their cities, those man made things that have paddle boats on them, and people fish in them, and they are not threatening at all.

And yes, most of us know about the song, <a href=“http://www.gordonlightfoot.com/WreckoftheEdmundFitzgerald.shtml” target=“_blank”> The Edmand Fitzgerald</a> which is written about a ship wreck on one of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior. Just the way that people know this song, there is a great ship wreck that happened on Lake Huron, where all but two people died. That is what this story is written about. The author read the newspaper accounts of the rescue, helped by First Nations people, and wondered if there was more to the story.

I love the concept of this, which is why I chose to read this book. But, as I have mentioned in other books, I had “journey” books, and this felt very much like this. We were trying to journey from the wreck, to dry land. And it took almost the whole book to get there. And it wasn’t clear what everyone was dying of. I assume it was hypothermia, but that doesn’t explain why Christina and Daniel were able to survive, other than they were young and healthy?

I found myself getting bored of Christina saying she was hungry, and tired. And perhaps that is what being on a life boat is like, but if you are trying to fill in a story, I just wish there was another way to do so.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I received an e ARC of this book. Thank you to Orca Book and NetGalley for allowing me to read Big Water. All opinions and thoughts are my own and do not represent the publisher or author.

Overall this was a fast paced and easy read. I enjoyed reading the characters of Christina and Daniel and the plot that the author created based on the real life event. Historical fiction is always a favourite of mine to read, because it is based in truth. I finished this book in about an hour and half, it was a lot shorter than I expected, but still a good read. The only issue I had was that the ending was very abrupt and left a few unanswered questions. I would recommend this if you enjoy easy reads, historical fiction and small amount of romance as well.

I'm a little conflicted. On one hand, the story went by fairly quickly, but the chapters felt long (there were only 14 chapters). While I appreciated and sympathized with the characters, I couldn't connect with them. Overall, I liked it, but it didn't pull at my heart or evoke any emotions from me.