"What good is an honor when greed eats away at its foundations"
― Sophia ―

 

Hello peeps! Welcome back to another book review! This time, for the book that i thought being adapted to the movie with same title starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence (but of course i discover it's not, after i watched the movie. The movie was fun tho, but it's not adapted from this book). Alexandra Bracken has been the author that got hype by the Darkest Mind series (a dystopia, that i haven't read, i know.. always late to the game but i had it in my shelf, so i will read it eventually). Enough with the chit-chat, let's dive in!

Synopsis

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.

I had to include this goodreads synopsis part in this since it's so cool! And it's actually what's this book is all about! The story start with Epilogue of our male character : Nicholas, who lost his brother while they are adventuring in some temple in some year in other to fulfill their granddad's wish. Move to the present time, where our female main character : Etta, lost her mentor in the night of her debut as violin prodigy, and accidentally (or forced by the help of a girl) to find a passage that made her travel to another place in another year.

Her discovery about time traveling, and the mystery of her mom's riddle for the device that Ironwood leader (Nicholas Granddad) claimed has been stolen by her mom, and force Etta to find it although she didn't know anything about that, even the passage ability that she posses. Nicholas become the one that accompany her in her travel to ensure Etta will bring the device to Ironwood and not using it to other things instead.

My Review

 I always had a thing (or two) with books with time traveling (or traveling to other dimension too) and this trope always has special space in my heart. I like the concept of the traveling not by device, but by some "door" that actually a "time hole" that created in the stretch of time, (which is a fun theory, like a wormhole or close enough) and each passage in each year lead to another year in another place.

Maybe i should explain it in easy way, for example we go from a passage (let's call it door) in New York in 2017, it can lead to Cambodia in 1515 which is another country in different year, which also has another passage that lead to Paris in 1944. How fun is that?

Apart from that, like i said, i always love when the timeline setting in old era like Victorian Era, because how strict (yet lovely) the manner is hold in there. I know some of you would say, no! it's better this era with the feminism going on. But i really like how women should not go alone with a guy without someone accompany her (kind of super treated like a lady) and Nicholas just one of the gentlemen that i really love.

"I realize this may sound foolish to you, but i have my pride, Etta. I've bleed and sweat and given myself to the making of my life. I could not bear being a burden to you. I want the whole of you and would never give the less of me."
― Nicholas ―

Nicholas also become the character that i think got a big role, who live in 1800s, and a black person, how people treated her, and how he reacts to them just made me realize that even a man can feel the burden to born different, specially not just because of his skin color, but also because he's a bastard. 

 

My Verdict

 It's a So-So (read my rating system here if you don't get what it means) for me. I did like the concept, but i didn't feel the rush to keep reading it (in fact i fell asleep almost after reading 3 pages of it. I blame my slump for it) i find Etta is not such an inspiring woman for me, yet (probably because i love strong woman character). But i really expect something more in the next book.

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