Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Twenty-four voices—of passengers, rats and even the iceberg—evoke the human tragedy of the ill-fated voyage. Titanic was a floating city, "the largest moving thing on the planet ever made by man." She sank quickly on the night of April 14-15, 1912, and only 712 of the 2,207 passengers survived. Wolf brings the history and, more importantly, the human scale of the event to life by giving voice to the players themselves—the captain, the lookout, the millionaire, the socialite and various workers and passengers representing all classes of society that floated to their doom. The undertaker, out of Halifax, is the first voice, penultimate voice and intermittent commentator, gathering floating clumps of corpses in "a dead man's sad regatta." The iceberg, the voice of the ages, floats with a primordial indifference... but with a plan. Rats have the last word, as they scurry off to "follow the future / follow the food." As he did in New Found Land: Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery (2004), Wolf draws on a prodigious amount of  research to fully realize each character; they are real people just telling their stories, all the more poignant because readers know their fates and recognize prophetic comments along the way. Extensive backmatter includes character notes, a Titanic miscellany and a large bibliography with books, websites and audio resources for the many readers who will want to know more. A lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination that reads like an oral history revved up by the drama of the event. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Twenty-four voices—of passengers, rats and even the iceberg—evoke the human tragedy of the ill-fated voyage. Titanic was a floating city, "the largest moving thing on the planet ever made by man." She sank quickly on the night of April 14-15, 1912, and only 712 of the 2,207 passengers survived. Wolf brings the history and, more importantly, the human scale of the event to life by giving voice to the players themselves—the captain, the lookout, the millionaire, the socialite and various workers and passengers representing all classes of society that floated to their doom. The undertaker, out of Halifax, is the first voice, penultimate voice and intermittent commentator, gathering floating clumps of corpses in "a dead man's sad regatta." The iceberg, the voice of the ages, floats with a primordial indifference... but with a plan. Rats have the last word, as they scurry off to "follow the future / follow the food." As he did in New Found Land: Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery (2004), Wolf draws on a prodigious amount of  research to fully realize each character; they are real people just telling their stories, all the more poignant because readers know their fates and recognize prophetic comments along the way. Extensive backmatter includes character notes, a Titanic miscellany and a large bibliography with books, websites and audio resources for the many readers who will want to know more. A lyrical, monumental work of fact and imagination that reads like an oral history revved up by the drama of the event. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Wolf (Zane's Trace) constructs a richly textured novel in verse that recreates the Titanic's ill-fated journey, predominantly through the voices of her passengers. The speakers include John Jacob Astor, ("the unsinkable-) Margaret Brown, Captain E.J. Smith, and little-known individuals whose stories Wolf draws from research and archival materials. A Lebanese refugee, traveling alone with her brother, finds first love; a tailor, accompanied by his two sons, anguishes over his broken marriage; and a gambler cons his way through the first-class passengers' pocketbooks. A ship rat speaks, as does the iceberg itself-a choice that could have become esoteric ("I am the ice. I have no need of wings./ I only need the hearts Titanic brings-)-but earns its place within a composite that includes colloquial speech, introspective interior monologues, and rhyming poetry. Throughout, sequences flash forward to an undertaker's handling of the bodies ("Bodies scattered for miles, in every direction./ Bodies as far as my indifferent eyes can see-), assuring that the ending is never in question. But Wolf's carefully crafted characters evolve as the voyage slides to its icy conclusion; readers may be surprised by the potency of the final impact. Ages 14-up. (Oct.)

Horn Book

Wolf's novel in verse gives voice, through first-person accounts, to a cross section of Titanic passengers and crew. Hovering over all is the omniscient "Iceberg," providing a menacing voiceover throughout the narrative. The themes of natural disaster, technology, social class, survival, and death all play out here. Explanatory character notes separate verifiable fact from fiction and address conflicting reports. Websites. Bib.

Starred Review ALA Booklist (Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

Starred Review With the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic disaster approaching, expect a new flood of works addressing the infamous disaster, though it's difficult to believe any will surpass this masterpiece. Using free-form poems from the points of view of two dozen travelers, Wolf has composed a multi-octave chorus of voices that is alternately metimes simultaneously irited, angry, frightened, and mournful. There is the crew ("But my Titanic, she is a graceful whale," says Captain E. J. Smith), the first-class elite ("The only ice I knew of / was in the gin and tonic that I lifted," says businessman Bruce Ismay), the third-class rabble ("We waited for someone to show us to our boats," says hopeful immigrant Olaus Abelseth), and, in two brilliant, audacious moves, a ship rat that seems to represent the desperate will to live ("follow the food") and the iceberg itself, a godlike monolith that acts as omniscient narrator and Greek chorus ("I am the ice. / I see tides ebb and flow. / I've watched civilizations come and go."). Wolf leaves no emotion unplumbed, no area of research uninvestigated, and his voices are so authentic they hurt. Nothing recommends this to a YA audience, in particular, but who cares? Everyone should read it. Outstanding, insightful back matter completes this landmark work.