Jade Taylor lives with her family. She has five sisters (Amelie, Emma, Blythe and Mimi). Her mother is a medium, so she focuses on the spiritual realm. Her father died of smallpox, leaving her mother in grief. This whole book starts off with Maude Taylor connecting with the spirit of Mary Adelaide. Mary Adelaide’s husband then thinks that Maude is just a fraud, when she connected with her. He thought she was a fraud because he was never okay with the spiritual realm. Sometimes, Mimi even thinks that her mother is a fraud, she sees her scribbling under the table when the lights are turned off, then she also pretends that she wrote them.
Jade admire’s Mimi’s glossy beauty, she is influenced her. Since she has influenced by Mimi, she believes everything that she says. Later on, Mary Adelaide’s sister suggest to them that they should move to Spirit Vale because there is a lot of spiritualism there. One day they go to a park to meditate, and Mimi and Jade go for a walk. Then, Mother decides to go to this little town called by the name Spirit Vale. When, they get on the New York train, the ground starts shaking and splitting. It was an Earthquake, In New York? All of the buildings start shakings and Mimi gets a very bad headache.
BUt, a man named Nikola Tesla rescued them and they were surprised as he smashed this small, particular device. He explains to them that he has been building this earthquake machine. He believes that everything vibrates and they sisters are very amused. Jane then takes Tesla as her role model and now she has collected newspaper clippings over the years. Maude and the family stay at Spirit Vale, where they stay at the inn for a while. When they are in Spirit Vale Maude opens a business, so she can go more in the movement in spiritualism. There, she changes everyone’s name Oneida Taylor.
Some of the sisters like it and some of them don’t. In Spirit Vale Maude is very known. Now, she is basically the “talk of the town” in Spirit Vale. Everyone comes to her office to get readings or sometimes she goes to the people. Also, her office is in her home. Now, as the years have gone by many more things are added to the sign outside her house. Which means, She did move forward in spiritualism. Also, in Spirit Vale, Mimi learns that Maude is not her biological mother. She learns that her father was married before Maude and when father died Maude too Mimi in as her own.
Mimi didn’t go with her biological mother because she also died. In 1911, Jane and Mimi runs away to New York, without their mother knowing. Jade wants to go to New York to visit Tesla and see about his new inventions. Mimi is going to find more about her heritage. When she is in New York she falls in love with Thad, who is Nikola Tesla’s assistant. Then, Mimi works as a companion for a wealthy French lady, Ninette, and she travels to Europe with her. As Jade and Thad border the train, Thad learns that Jane is sixteen. Thad is twenty so Jane is four years younger than him.
After a while, Thad doesn’t write to Jane,like he promised her. Jane soon got sad about Mimi and Thad’s departure. Now, Maude is overwhelmed and blames Jane for running away with Mimi and for her departure. Finally, Mimi got to contact her sisters, while they were in New York for a spiritual convention. It is there where it’s now proven that the twins, Amelie and Emma, have the same gifts has their mother of being able to speak to the dead, after having Queen victoria speak to Conan Doyle. Then, Mimi surprises them by saying that she is going on the Titanic, and now Blythe wants to go with her.
But, after much of the begging and convincing she did, she is finally allowed to go. Mimi is on first class and Blythe is on second class. When W. T. Stead predict the Titanic is going to sink, Jane, Amelie, and Emma try to sneak onto the boat to tell Mimi and Blythe. They try to talk Mimi and Blythe into getting off of it. While they’re doing that, Jane runs into Thad, who is on the ship with Tesla,after Emma fainted. Tesla was so happy to see her, and he tells her that he made a mistake not being with Jane. Soon enough, Jane, Amelie, and Emma are convinced that the ship won’t sink, so they decided to stay on.
Then, Mimi surprises everyone(again) by telling them that she is getting married on the Titanic to her mistress’ butler. Just before the wedding Thad tells Jane how much he loves her. Jade also feels the same way, now Mimi is happy for her sister. During the wedding,(of course) NIkola Tesla wants to show off his newest invention. It’s suppose to be a device that breaks ice. Very soon, Jane recognized it as the earthquake machine. When it used it, it malfunctioned, so it ruttered the cracks. That caused the ship to hit into an iceberg. The staff keeps telling everyone to get into lifeboats.
Really soon, they realise that Amelie was missing so Mimi , Emma, Jane and Thad go looking for her. Then, Tesla starts telling Thad and Jane to go with him. Sure enough again Tesla tells them he has another invention that can save them. He called it a time machine. After that, Mimi tells Jane and Thad to go on the lifeboat, living her behind. Tesla’s time machine didn’t work fully and Jane found herself in the water. She found a floating chair to sit on. She also found Emma and Amelie in the water. Tesla, then helps them onto the upside table he was standing on.
Mr. Brown’s Life boat spotted them, and put both of the twins on board. Emma sadly dies of hypothermia, which is having a very dangerously low temperature. Unfortunately, Amelie got frostbite on her toes and had two broken legs. When Amelie goes to the hospital, she starts to talk, she says that Emma is talking. She says that because remember, she can talk to the dead. Soon, jane remember Emma saying,” I won’t leave. ” She said that just before she had passed. Two years passed by and Mimi and Thad are said to have drowned. JAne is now 19, and she gets a job as a reporter.
She, then, sees a picture of two survivors of the Titanic in the newspaper, after all these years. Jane starts to recognize Mimi and Thad as the two survivors. As soon as she recognized it, she begged and begged her boss to do it. Finally, he said yes. She goes to them and now she is confirmed that it is truly Mimi and Thad. Then, they decide to go into Tesla’s time machine. When they went in it, it sent them a couple of years into the future. To everyone else, it seems that Mimi and Thad had been gone for many years, but for them it was just minutes. Jane then tells her that her husband is dead. Mimi, Thad, and Jane then take the train home.
My favorite part was the falling action because it was very surprising that Emma died and that Amelie broke both of her legs. And also the part when Emma said that she will never leave. That was my favorite part of the book. I recommend this book to anyone who like book that have a lot of surprises and a lot of spiritual content. I would rate this book a nine out of ten personally because of how good it was. nine to fourteen year olds should read it because it’s Lexile is low and it’s just not the type a book a fifteen or sixteen year old would read. That’s my recommendation for Distant Waves by: Suzanne Weyn.
