ANNIE WOODS
  • Home

My Reading Tips

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

8/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys will make you cry and will haunt you forever, in the best possible way. It’s a master piece, a gripping and beautiful story of hardship, humanity, loss, love and survival during WWII. This book is both heart-breakingly sad and hopeful at the same time, showing both the best and worst of humanity, and with so many wonderful characters you immediately fall in love with and want to rescue from the brutality and horror surrounding them.
Picture
The book takes place during the Winter of 1945 when four persons paths converge as they try to escape the horrors and survive the war and all the terrible things they have experienced. Joana is a Lithuanian nurse who struggles with demons for leaving her family behind, Florian is a German with secrets of his own and revenge on his mind, Emilia is a Polish teenager running from the betrayal and abuse she has suffered at the relatives who were supposed to keep her safe, and Alfred is a Nazi soldier with something to prove and a mind that works in a not completely sane way. There is also the sweet “shoe poet” Opi and the boy Klaus and other lovable persons in the small group of refugees travelling together, trying to reach the coast and get passage aboard a ship to safety and freedom.

The four main characters alternate in telling the story from their point of view, thereby sharing their secrets, backgrounds, hopes and dreams with us, if not to each other. The different POVs really add to the story and brings an extra dimension to story, spinning it around in all angles, and revealing the ever-changing dynamics between them. Three of the characters, and the side-characters, are lovely and make your heart go out for them and their hardship. I felt so so much for them and their struggles it kept me on needles to find out what would happen to them all. (The fourth, Alfred, is an idiot. Even if he can justify his actions to himself, no one else can. That’s all I have to say about him.)

The book is based on a true story, the sea evacuation Operation Hannibal and the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff. This is the deadliest disaster in maritime history, with Soviet torpedoes destroying and sinking the ship carrying nine thousand people, the majority being civilians (of which, about five thousand were children). The losses dwarf the death tolls of famous ships like Titanic, but yet, this disaster is almost unknown. Ruta Sepetys surely will make that change now. You can tell how much research and thought she has put into this story to inform people about this devastating tragedy.
​
The writing is exquisite in the face of such brutality. The way Ruta Sepetys told the story was just beautiful, how she created this weave through the different POVs and slowly, slowly revealing their secrets and reasons for their actions.

I finished the book crying my eyes out and my heart aching for the characters in the story, as well as the real lives they mirrored. It is a pretty intense book for being YA, but I cannot recommend it enough! This is one of the best books I’ve read and definitely the best historical fiction ever! Just be prepared to cry and to be hit by a tornado of emotions.

Find out more about the book and the author here: Ruta Sepetys
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Annie Woods’s
    ​Reading Tips

    I love YA books more than any other kind of literature, and especially books with LGBTQ representation, and want to share what I read with you. So please go ahead and check out my reading tips here and make sure to give some love to all these amazing books too.!

    Below under Categories, you can find the reviews per author as well.
    Picture
    Photo by @tata.lifepages

    Categories

    All
    Abbi Glines
    Abdi Nazemian
    Adam Silvera
    Aisha Saeed
    Alexandra Christo
    Alwyn Hamilton
    Amy Engel
    Amy Harmon
    Amy S. Foster
    André Aciman
    Angie Thomas
    Ashley Woodfolk
    Audrey Coulthurst
    Becky Albertalli
    Benjamin Alire Saenz
    Bill Konigsberg
    Casey McQuiston
    Cassandra Clare
    C.G. Drews
    Colleen Hoover
    C.S. Pacat
    Curtis Sittenfeld
    David Yoon
    Dean Atta
    Debbie McGowan
    Delia Owens
    Elizabeth Acevedo
    Elizabeth Corr
    E. Lockhart
    Emily M. Danforth
    Erin Watt
    Ernest Cline
    Gilly Macmillan
    Haley Rhoades
    Holly Black
    Jacqueline Woodson
    Jamie Deacon
    Jandy Nelson
    Jeff Zentner
    Jenna Evans Welch
    Jennifer Gilmore
    Jennifer Leigh
    Jennifer Niven
    Jenny Downham
    Jenny Han
    Joey Paul
    Kasie West
    Katharine Corr
    Kevin Van Whye
    Kiley Reid
    Kim Liggett
    K.M. Shea
    Laurie Frankel
    Leigh Bardugo
    Leylah Attar
    Lisa Williamson
    Lisa Wingate
    Mackenzi Lee
    Maggie Stiefvater
    Malin Persson Giolito
    Malorie Blackman
    Marie Lu
    Mary E. Pearson
    M.C. Frank
    Meredith Russo
    Mila Gray
    Miranda Kenneally
    Nic Stone
    Nina Kenwood
    Pearl Khatri
    Phil Stamper
    Quinn Anderson
    Rachael Lippincott
    Rachel Hawkins
    Rainbow Rowell
    Rosemary Danielis
    Ruta Sepetys
    Sally Green
    Sally Rooney
    Sarah J Maas
    Sarah Waters
    Simone Elkeles
    Sophie Gonzales
    Stephenie Meyer
    Suzanne Collins
    Tahereh Mafi
    Tomi Adeyemi
    Veronica Rossi
    Wesley Chu
    Victor Dixen
    Victoria Aveyard
    Virginia Macgregor

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home