Monday, June 1, 2015

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania





The Lusitania left New York with the destination of Liverpool on May 1, 1915. It was carrying passengers, many of them were women and children. Germany had declared the seas around Britain a war zone, but many people did not seemed concerned for their safety, as they were on a civilian ship, and unofficial rules of war kept civilian ships safe from attack. Hoping to bring the war to a swift end, the decision was made to attack all ships in the war zone. The Lusitania was struck by a torpedo ending in great disaster.

I found this to be an interesting account of the sinking of the Lusitania. I have wanted to read a detailed account for some time, and was eager to read this book. It starts out slow, but builds tension as you read how 2,000 passengers decided to travel on the Lusitania despite warnings of German submarines and traveling through a war zone. I was intrigued to learn that British knew the danger the Lusitania was in, as they had broken codes being used by the Germans, and still did not warn the Lusitania, or provide an escort to help deter attacks.

I also found the details about some of the passengers interesting. While I liked learning about some of the people on board, at times it seemed to take over the story and interrupt the flow of reading the book. I am conflicted about this, as I think the personal aspect is important. The death of so many civilians is a major reason the sinking of the Lusitania made such an impact on history. It was also important to have a personal connection with some of the passengers when the description of the sinking of the Lusitania takes place. The horror of that moment is more clearly felt because we know who some of these people are. I think it was beneficial to include some personal stories, I just wish they had been integrated into the story in a way that made more sense to the reader and made the information seem more natural.

I found this to be an interesting book and learned some new information while reading it. It brought up some intriguing questions about the sinking of the Lusitania that I had not considered before. If you are interested in World War I or the sinking of the Lusitania, I would recommend reading this book.

I read this book as an ebook on my Nook. I only had a few problems with it. My main issue is just a formatting preference. It was that the pages left in chapter would tell you how many pages are left in a section and not an actual chapter. I prefer knowing how many pages are in an actual chapter so I know when a good break point is coming up. It would also occasionally get stuck on a page or skip a page, but this was typically fixed if you closed the book and reopened it.

**I received a free copy of this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for an honest review.**

*Receiving a free copy of this book does not change my review. It simply provides me with a copy of a book I would not have gotten to as soon, or heard about otherwise.


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