Review: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Published January 5th 2016

passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever.

Oh my gosh, I loved this book so much! Everything about this book was perfect to me.
The writing was so amazing. I read Alex’s other book, The Darkest Minds, last year so I had a pretty good idea of her writing style but I felt like Passenger was a million times better than The Darkest Minds. I thought the main characters, Etta and Nicholas, were so well written and beautiful. And I love that Nicholas is a person of color. That to me, is one of the biggest reasons I will recommend Passenger to everyone. Literature, especially the Young Adult genre, is so lacking in representation of people of color and Passenger is a step in the right direction. And I absolutely fell in love with Nicholas. He such an amazing character and I thought him and Etta made such a great team.
I’m so insanely excited to see the growth and development of these two in the next book.
I loved the concept of Passenger. I don’t read a lot of books with time travel but Passenger is easily the best time travel book I’ve read.
Overall, I really loved this book. Even though it’s only January, I know Passenger is going to be one of my favorites from 2016. I enjoyed every aspect of this book and I can’t wait for the next installment.