Henrietta "Etta" Spencer, the lead protagonist of the story, is a violin prodigy who's raised by Rose (her mother) and practically by Alice (her mentor). She lives her normal life in New York and if she is not in school, she is most likely found at Alice's place; practicing continuously for hours and hours with her violin. 
 Etta, even if she's raised by her mother, feels that something is missing between their relationship. She feels that no matter how hard she tries to receive her mother's affection, or catch her attention, and earn her appreciation, she is always denied. 
 What does it take to ignite their relationship and finally bridge the bond between her mother and her? Why does Etta know very little of her family's past? What secrets lurk in their, her, bloodline that's keeping her from the truth? 
 Passenger by Alexandra Bracken was a curious read for me. Now that I thought about it, it sort of follows the footsteps of Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis because they both (view spoiler)["travel" through a portal of some sort (though Spinning Starlight travels to different dimension while Passenger travels through time) (hide spoiler)] and both, unfortunately, in some way lost me when they started talking Sci-Fi-ish. 
 The author knows her words and is capable of using them beautifully like how she can fluidly describe her characters emotions, what's stimulating their sensations, and with a few words, an intimate love scene between Etta and her love interest, Nicholas. However, there were times when I skimmed through her words due to excessive world building or inner dialogue and there were times when I had to muscle through a chapter because it felt like reading everything was a chore. 
 I had information overload when the author started talking about music concertos, a pirate's life, traveling back in time, Etta's family history, and how to find the passages. Nevertheless, it seemed like she did a great deal of a research regarding the topics (though I never verified that). The plot did make me feel random emotions especially when it started talking about slavery and the ideology behind it, how Nicholas described Etta as a "fierce queen on a battle field," the secrecy and deception, and most importantly feminism. 
 Overall, Passenger was a good read. I must say that I LOVE the calligraphic design of the title and if you look closely, you can see Nicholas' ship capsized beneath the beautiful New York City. 
 Disclaimer: I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 
 Rating: 3.5/5 stars 
 Want more reviews? Check out Books In My Vein