On a Cold Dark Sea

by Elizabeth Blackwell

[readingwithwrin]

On A Cold Dark sea follows three different women from different social classes. We have Esme who is a newly-wed wealthy American woman who is unhappy. Charlotte Digby who is a con artist looking for a new life in America. Anna Halversson who is a Swedish young woman who is in love with someone she cannot have and is going to America for a better life.

"To lose my sweet, darling boy with no warning, and not even have a body to bury... it ruined me."


This book is told in three parts. Part one is right before the Titanic and what happened, part two is mostly what lead to them all being on the Titanic, and part three is several years after the Titanic.

Along with the three different time periods we also have three different pov's that switch every so often.

While this pov switch is a little confusing at times, after a little while it's easy to tell who is who. Charlotte does seem to be the main pov we see the most from, but she is also my favorite personally. Her life both before and after the Titanic was so fascinating to me. Even though things didn't turn out like she had wanted them to, she was still able to make a great life for herself.

"No, I didn't tell anyone I'd met you. Hardly anyone I work with knows I was on the Titanic, to this day."

I never really cared for Esme much and could have done without her part of the story. She was just your typical rich girl who was unhappy in her marriage already and was willing to do anything to get a little thrill.

Anna is the other character I really loved. She was from a small farming community who didn't have much and didn't seem to be able to be with the person she truly loved. But she was okay with that in a way, or at least she knew she would be given enough time. She was sent to America for a better life and a chance for success that she wasn't going to get in her hometown.



"I'm met men from Sweden and Norway and Finland who came here with nothing, and now they're living in big houses and driving new cars. America changes your thinking, Anna. It makes you believe anything is possible."

Overall I really enjoy this story. It was fun to get back into Titanic fiction and to see so many different walks of life all in one place, with little to no interaction happening between them until a tragedy happened. I also really liked how for a change we get to see how everyone was connected after, and that they were still dealing with what happened that night.



I'm interested to see if any of Blackwell's other books are in this same time period and have multi pov's done really well.



"All those inquiries and awful stories in the paper... they could never explain what it was really like, could they? Having to make decisions of life and death when you're freezing and knackered and afraid you're about to die. Things happen so quickly, and you haven't time to think. And later, when you're called to account for what you've done, how can you possibly make anyone else understand?"