1916 was a book about the Irish revolution. It starts out with this guy named Ned. He is taking a voyage on the ocean liner the Titanic.The ship sinks and he survives but his parents and his new best friend go down with the ship.He returns home to Ireland and he attends a new school. There he joins a group of Irish revolutionaries. Later that day he gets caught in a riot that was known as bloody sunday. Then he starts dating a girl who was his best friend’s sister Sheila Duffy.While this is going on Ned’s cousin Mary is having an affair with her husband.She is unhappy with him and she falls for a priest. The priest told that he should leave for a bit a Mary ditches her husband because he raped he.Back at Ireland Ned and the rest of the revolutionaries marches to the city of Dublin as a way to revolt. Then the British opened fire on them hurting civilians. Ned saw one child loses her mother so he takes the child and gives her to an orphanage.The child insists of being called precious. Eventually the revolutionaries stage a bigger revolt. They take over parts of Dublin. The British fight back and they use heavy duty cannons. They destroy the city of Dublin and eventually execute all of the prisoners. Ned however was never caught and reunited with Sheila and Precious.

I think that this book told us how much the Irish wanted to break free. The book captured the pain and the excitement that the Irish went through at the time. I would give it a 4/5 stars because this was a very emotional but sometimes it was too emotional. The details about their individual lives made me feel their pain and anguish. The book made me feel all excited when I read about the revolution starting. I felt so sad hearing about the loss of life in the sinking of the Titanic.