Unspeakable by C. Pignat

Abstract

Pignat, Caroline. Unspeakable. Toronto: Razorbill, 2014. Print.

Ellie Ryan is an eighteen-year-old girl who has suffered an insurmountable number of personal tragedies that have taught her the importance of perseverance. After her mother’s death, she finds herself unwanted by her father and is forced to move in with her aunt Geraldine. Due to Ellie’s inability to cope with her circumstances, her aunt sends her aboard the Empress of Ireland where she learns to embrace her new position as a stewardess with the help of her most trusted friend, Meg.

On the second crossing of the Empress, Ellie meets Jim, a lonely fire stoker who has experienced his share of grief and tragedy, something Ellie is all too familiar with. After many chance encounters late at night along the ship's rail, she finds Jim writing in a journal. He is a quiet and secretive young man who doesn’t share much of his life, which intrigues and compels her to discover more about him. When the ship docks at Quebec City, they explore the city together, a memorable experience for her. However, tragedy strikes on their next voyage when the ship collides into another ship. Ellie appears to be the one of the few remaining crew members to survive the disaster and has no word of Jim’s whereabouts; it seems unlikely that Jim would have survived the frigid ocean. 

Wyatt Steele, a journalist with The New York Times, later asks Ellie for her story. She refuses at first, but unwittingly gives into him when he appears one day with Jim’s journal. Wyatt represents the last remaining hope she has to learn more about the man she had fallen in love with and to possibly discover what happened to him. In exchange for her story, he agrees to provide Jim’s journal as payment, one page at a time.               

This young adult novel follows Ellie’s journey aboard the Empress of Ireland in 1914 and offers a realistic context for Canada’s worst maritime disaster. It explores themes of depression from the loss of family and friends, survivor’s guilt, and redemption. The story weaves an intricate plot that alternates the timeline before and after the ship’s sinking, in order for the reader to actively live through Ellie’s recollections in the present. Overall, the author intricately writes a romantic story in the backdrop of a historical Canadian event that is well suited to young adult audiences.

Recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
Reviewer: Janice Kung

Janice Kung is an Academic Library Intern at the University of Alberta’s John W. Scott Health Sciences Library. She obtained her undergraduate degree in commerce and completed her MLIS in 2013. She believes that the best thing to beat the winter blues is to cuddle up on a couch and lose oneself in a good book.