Author: Colin Bateman
Publication date: July 19th 2007
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Apocalyptic
Cover rating: 2/5
Content rating: 4.5/5
Buy: Amazon US, Amazon UK, The Book Depository
Description:
Everyone said the original Titanic was unsinkable. We all know how that story ended. The new Titanic is also supposedly unsinkable. But there are worse things than drowning as Jimmy Armstrong quickly finds out. Stowing away wasn't one of his better ideas but having to work his passage and put up with spoilt girl Claire is enough to make anyone want to jump overboard...That is until he finds out about a mysterious, incurable disease rapidly infecting the population, Suddenly being at sea seems the safest place to be!
My thoughts:
Titanic 2020 was so much better than I expected it to be! It doesn't seem to have gathered any attention at all which I think is a huge shame. It was published in 2007 but could totally fit right in with the dystopian/apocalypse trend in Young Adult fiction right now.
This book follows Jimmy, a teenage boy from Belfast. A new Titanic has just been built- it's the size of a city and incredibly exclusive. Before the ship is due to set sail, Jimmy wanders is and explores it. He accidenitally falls asleep and when he wakes up discovers that the ship has left Belfast! He decides to stay hidden long enough that it will be impossible for them to just turn back and bring him home. Jimmy- who has only ever had bad luck in his short life- turns out to be very lucky indeed as a mysterious virus swoops the world just after the Titanic sets sail so he's in the safest place after all.
Jimmy gets into trouble, becomes best friends with the owner's daughter Claire and discovers some fairly scary stuff onboard the ship. What follows was incredibly captivating and it made me laugh out loud several times. The writing style in this book is incredibly fun! It's very sarcastic and blunt and Jimmy, while incredibly cheeky, is very easy to like, with his no-nonsense attitude towards everything.
I liked that this book showed that you should never underestimate the abilities of younger people and that sometimes they can even do things better than adults. Jimmy and Claire's adventures had me drawn in from the very first page to the very last. I really, really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anybody.
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