The last cruise

I am giving this 4 stars because of the interesting, well-formed characters. I kept reading because I found myself caring about Christine, Mick and Miriam, the main characters. However, the story got lamer and lamer and the ending was ridiculous.

I read this in hopes of getting a better idea of how passenger ships operated in the 1950s. The premise of the book, that an old passenger ship takes its last cruise and takes on its old ways so that modern people could feel like they've gone back in time, turned out to be untrue. It was a book about a few people on a cruise ship. I may not have minded all that much—after all, a good book is a good book—but this wasn't a good book.

My biggest gripe, without getting into any spoilers, is that the book pretends to be character-driven. I say pretends because it definitely isn't plot-driven—almost nothing happens the entire time. So instead it focuses on the characters, who unfortunately are static and uninteresting. They start the book thinking and believing certain things, and they end the book thinking and believing the same things. They do everything you expect them to do along the way. Since the plot goes (nearly) nowhere and so do the characters, the author spends most of the book going into explicit detail about every little thing. I don't mind that usually because it becomes visceral, but if I don't care about the characters or plot why should I care what the crew's break room smells like?

Overall, I finished it but I thought it was a waste of my time. It was not suspenseful like it was made out to be and focused on single-minded characters.