Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

     I'm just going to start this review off by saying that the cover of this book is what immediately drew me to it. I saw it in the store and thought it was absolutely gorgeous. The colors and the city inside the bottle, in addition to the beautiful title font were just so aesthetically pleasing. Then I read the summary and learned that it was about time travel. Consider me sold.

     Do you know how rare it is to find a good young adult novel about time travel? Very rare. I can only think of a couple young adult books that have time travel in them off the top of my head, and even in those the time traveling is a very small part of the story. Passenger is mostly about time traveling and it is done so vividly and magnificently. I've never read anything quite like it.

     The main characters Etta ad Nicholas were amazing and had such great chemistry and really balanced each other out well. I loved that Etta was a musician and for all intents and purposes Nicholas was a pirate, albeit a very well mannered, well educated, and well groomed pirate. I did feel like their relationship development was a little rushed but, for the purposes of telling the story I understand it. I really loved that they were an interracial couple as I haven't read or heard of many books with such couples, and feel like it needs to be represented more. Cyrus Ironwood is the perfectly terrible dastardly villain and I can't wait for him to be defeated.

     This book was not afraid to address issues of not only racism but, sexism as well. I loved that Etta firmly stood up for her beliefs and didn't tolerate racism. One of my favorite parts of the book was when another person on the ship made a racist comment about Nicholas and Etta slapped the person right across the face. She was also appalled when Sophia was telling her that despite her being the most direct Ironwood heir, she would not ever lead the family due to he simple fact that she is a girl. She was excited ven restricted from traveling past a certain future time period (post-women's equality) because of this. For this reason, I have hope that Sophia will rise and use that leadership status to do the right thing and make positive changes.

     It was interesting that there was a tool, the astrolabe, that created passages for travelers to go through, rather than passages already existing and just being there or a machine being used to transport travelers. I also found it fascinating that the passages were opened by playing certain notes of music. There were just so many intricate details and so much thought put into the methods of time travel in this book. Passenger takes the characters through several different locations in various periods throughout history and it was so cool getting to see each and every one. I can only imagine where and when the characters will travel to in the next book.

     Passenger moved along at a quick pace and was a great kickoff to what I'm sure will be an epic adventure. Although there were some parts that were slightly predictable, this was an excellent read and the cliffhanger at the end left me dying to know what happens next. I can't wait to see what kinds of trouble Etta and Nicholas get into in Wayfarer.

Rating: 4/5 stars