A Million to One

the idea was great, the execution left much to be desired

i do not want to trash this book but man i am just disappointed. sapphic titanic heist!!!!! it could have been so good

instead every aspect from that concept was lacking something

- the heist was..... boring. no stakes at all, the plan was whack and somehow all four main characters managed to look like dumbasses most of the time. it just wasnt any fun??? i came for an exciting heist story but ended up asking myself if there was even a heist at all in this book
- the romance was...... also boring? idk, i feel like there was so much going on, but also not a lot going at all, the relationship barely had any time to breathe and i think......... the story wouldnt change much if we left it out. WHICH IS A SHAME BC I DO WANT MY TITANIC SAPPHIC LOVE STORY
- the titanic aspects were........ super underwhelming. i dont quite understand why this setting was even picked when the ship itself and how it must have felt to be on such a marvelous and grandiose ship were barely described. this truly could have been on any other ship that sinks at some point. which is a shame as well. the tragedy of the titanic is a very popular historical event and i think one could have done so much more with that. let the reader FEEL like they are actually on that damn ship. there is enough info out there to do that. and it doesnt even have to be super accurate, but lets at least get the vibe across. honestly this could have taken place on land too. i feel like the titanic factor did not add anything to the story except for the fact that the readers and the author all know where this journey is gonna end.

generally speaking, i was also unhappy with the writing and structure of scenes that were supposed to be exciting or emotional. it was either way too fast paced or it fell completely flat. or they included cliches that took me out of the story because wow i have seen scenes like this one too many times in other media.

the characters were also not developed enough. all of them seem like they could be well rounded but in the end..... i think they are still extremely two-dimensional and i didn't care about most of them. their personal arcs barely existed and felt rushed in some parts. the characters' last scenes all felt very undeserved. i dont even know, i'm disappointed that i didn't like this crew of girls that wanted to do a titanic heist. i also wish they hadn't all known each other already. this story could have worked better without the flashbacks and with more focus on the girls NOW. my favourite kind of a heist story is partly about a group of different people coming together and learning how to work together. and that structure works for a reason! a heist alone can't save the story, you need good characters that make the reader root for them.

and now the last part that irritated me unfortunately: the historical inaccuracies. now, i'm no historian. but i did notice some stuff that was weird and felt off and got the confirmation that: yup, that wasn't a thing at all. and that happened several times. i don't really mind if a historical novel isn't 100% accurate, it's a work of fiction, the author hasn't lived in that time period, etc etc. i can still enjoy a novel for what it is. but in this case the author came up with things that didn't make any logical sense and that then caused issues for the characters that got solved pretty quickly most of the time. i do not understand why we need to make up things that only lead to scenes that could have been avoided - especially scenes that make the protagonists look dumb. it just feels like fake conflict where someone made something up just to put a hurdle in the protagonists way. this kind of plotting/writing doesn't appeal to me at all. please let the story make sense !!! we can have interesting conflicts that don't fall apart if i think about them for one second too long.

the pacing also has major issues. problems always get solved super quickly and i never feel like anyone has to actually work for the solution. sure, there is a lot of running/crawling around the ship. and sometimes they talk to people. i guess. but they really make it seem like the easiest heist ever. the interpersonal conflicts are also kind of benign and get resolved for no reason. nothing ever feels deserved.

all in all, it was a disappointing journey for me, but at least i could get through the book quickly and i do appreciate the inclusion of BIPOC and/or queer people as protagonists.

a solid 2 star book for me.

I was sold a lie. Why call this Oceans 11 meets the Titanic? Because when I hear that and know its a heist novel, I'm expecting big yet intricate plans, I'm expecting stakes. What you get is some street robbers who someone manage to pull off a major burglary...... They have the weakest plan, but keep alluding to some major plan that's been in the making for months..... The stakes were so low because everything was convenient for them; they would be on the edge of danger but DONT WORRY they are fine - over and over again. I feel like if I was told 4 teenagers on the titanic I still wouldn't have thought it was amazing but I wouldn't also be disappointed.

dnf as the first couple rotations of POVs with character backstories weren't that compelling to me. i even tried listening to the audiobook on 1.25x speed while also reading to keep me on track (at least the narrator's use of accents helped distinguish the cast a bit?), and finally gave up and very roughly skimmed the rest of the book, only slowing down for scenes where emilie and josefa got stuck in tight spaces together, inches apart, or were practicing calligraphy on each other (wow romantic).

eh, i don't know. i was thinking i'm just not in the right mood for this right now, but the last heist book i tried was portrait of a thief, which was similarly ambitious yet lacking. i guess outlining character motivations and skill sets for this kind of plot—and not relying too heavily on suspension of disbelief—is pretty difficult. i still plan on giving adiba jaigirdar's other works a try, likely after rani choudhury must die is released.