I originally rated this 4.5 stars (or in this case, circus tents😅) but bumped it up to 5 because I’m STILL thinking about this story almost a week later. This was my first introduction to Stacey Lee’s work and let’s just say that I was not disappointed. As I mentioned in my recent posts, I knew I was going to like this one due to the Titanic element alone. However, I truly became invested in not only Valora and Jamie’s stories/lives, but also the side characters. I was rooting for ALL of them, even the ones who were doing everything they could (through small gestures/simple acts of kindness) to support Valora and Jamie along the way. There’s just such a strong sense of family and community here and it’s great. Despite the obvious tragedy and harmful sexism and racism (which was needed to show the severity and horrors Chinese people and women endure/d), this book did have a lot of highlights and shenanigans that kept you entertained and truly engaged throughout the story… even to the point where I sometimes forgot they were on the Titanic. Though the ending caught me off guard, Lee’s way of allowing us to really get connected to/know the characters helped it all make sense in a bittersweet way.