Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

As she did with the ill-fated Donner party in The Hunger (2018), Katsu puts a supernatural spin on a famous historical tragedy: this time, the sinking of sister ships Titanic (1912) and Britannic (1916). Irish maid Annie Hebbley has the bad luck to be on both ships for their doomed voyages. In 1912, she's a starry-eyed eighteen-year-old who, having fled her family in Ireland, hopes to make a fresh start aboard the luxury liner. But tragedy soon strikes when a young serving boy dies suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving his mistress, the young, pregnant Maddie Astor, devastated and convinced that there is some sort of supernatural malfeasance afoot. Annie is distracted by her own powerful feelings for Mark Fletcher, a handsome passenger, and his infant daughter. Four years later, after she signs up for a tour of duty as a nurse aboard the hospital ship Britannic during World War I, Annie is shocked when Mark is brought on board as a patient and her feelings for him resurface. A slow-burning but satisfying and eerie yarn.--Kristine Huntley Copyright 2020 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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Painstakingly researched and meticulously plotted, Katsu’s latest (after 2018’s The Hunger) infuses a pair of significant shipwrecks with the supernatural. In 1912, docile and dutiful Annie Hebbley, suddenly eager to escape her confined life in a small Northern Ireland town, finds work as a stewardess on the Titanic, where she becomes entwined with a wealthy couple and their new baby and develops strange compulsions as mysterious occurrences, including disappearances and an attempted suicide, plague the ship. In 1916, having survived the Titanic’s sinking only to spend the last four years in an asylum, Annie again finds relief through work, this time as a nurse on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Britannic, which has been refitted as a wartime hospital ship. Though readers will be aware of the inevitable tragedies awaiting, Katsu successfully injects suspense into both time lines, spinning a darkly captivating tale of hauntings, possessions, secrets, and class through a multitude of perspectives, as readers slowly come to understand the truth of Annie’s often odd behavior. The historically predetermined ending may keep readers from connecting emotionally to the narrative, but Katsu’s artful writing and calculated pacing keep the pages turning. This is an impressive, horror-tinged trip back in time. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management. (Mar.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Demons both literal and figurative torment a Titanic stewardess in this supernatural-tinged suspense novel.After scandal causes 18-year-old Annie Hebbley to flee her family's home in Northern Ireland, she decamps to Southampton, England, and takes a job aboard the Titanic. The ship contains every imaginable luxury, but when an otherworldly voice nearly lures the Astors' young servant over the railing, Annie and several others become convinced that the vessel also harbors evil spirits. Four years later, in 1916, Annie is at Morninggate Asylum, convalescing from a head injury sustained in the Titanic's sinking, when she receives a letter from fellow former White Star Line employee Violet Jessop. Now a nurse, Violet is about to set sail on the Britannica hospital ship that is the Titanic's twinand she wants Annie to join her. Annie has misgivings, but her doctor strongly endorses the plan, so despite having no medical training, she signs on. The hope is that the experience will help Annie heal; instead, it unearths painful memories that provide shocking clarity regarding what actually transpired during the Titanic's fateful crossing. Atmospheric prose and exquisite attention to detail distinguish Katsu's follow-up to The Hunger (2018). Regrettably, though, while crosscuts between the voyages add tension and a kaleidoscopic narrative adds color and depth, the book ultimately founders beneath the weight of glacial pacing, paltry plotting, and sketchily conceived paranormal elements.Carefully researched and meticulously crafted historical fiction fused with ho-hum horror. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Continuing her critically acclaimed formula of melding well-researched and compelling character-focused historical fiction with occult horror, Katsu (The Hunger) takes on a pair of catastrophic moments in history: the sinking of the Titanic and the fate of its equally doomed sister ship, the Britannic. Switching among multiple points of view, the story centers on Irish maid Annie and moves back and forth between her time on both ships in 1912 and 1916. Annie has a troubled past and is clearly an unreliable narrator, but readers will be drawn to her as she tries to be "a good girl." Something evil, however, and not entirely human, has joined the passengers aboard the great ocean liners and is out to cause mortal harm, but to whom and why? In the 1912 storyline, readers meet the rich and famous aboard the ill-fated ship, learning their darkest secrets. In the 1916 time line, Annie, who has survived the Titanic and is serving as a nurse on the Britannic, must come to terms with her part in the tragedies. VERDICT A riveting, seductively menacing tale of love, loss, and betrayal set amid the glamour of the Titanic, filled with seances, sea witches, and second chances. Hand to fans of Dacre Stoker, J.D. Barker's Dracul, or Lauren Owen's The Quick.