Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Hey guys,

So I just finished our book of the month. It was incredible. Now I know we will be doing a big review at the end of the month, as well as announcing the March book, but I thought I would do a little one now.

So today I'm going to be reviewing Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys.

This was my first historical fiction novel, I don't avoid them, but this was the first one that's really caught my attention. It follows an actual event in history, but surrounds made up characters.

I wasn't aware of the event that took place in the book, but I haven't studied WW2 in depth as of right now.

The book is about four characters that all have a secret, they're not all bad, well in the eyes of the beholder, but they are secrets. And, the most are refugees. They all are on board the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that plans to take refugees across a sea (I think the Baltic).

In some places it was quite harrowing, it doesn't help when needing to take a break, that I realized everything that happened is true, to an extent. Some of the scenes didn't surprise me but still shocked me, if you get what I mean.

I didn't love any of the characters but I was interested in all of them, and their back stories. A big component of the story was piecing together a back-story for the characters.

So that is all. I recommend you go pick up this book, it was fantastic. Plus, it is our pick for February for our book club, and we would appreciate it if you read it along with us. I will see you soon, but I warn in advance; I'm going to be gone next week. I will schedule ahead, but I make no promises of a review any time in the near future.

 

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Welcome to my spoiler dungeon...

I like to have a new creepy intro to this section every time.

So, where do I begin, the beginning. So we start with the introduction to our characters. We had the: fate is a hunter, guilt is hunter, shame is a hunter and fear is a hunter. What I didn't realize until the end was how the characters ideals of their personal hunter link in with their secret. Their secret is the reason for their opinion on the hunter. I like how Ruta put the hunters in at the end to close the story.

Let's discuss characters, they were all dishonest but I feel like, although she was one of the nicest, Emilia was the most dishonest. She told an outright lie, whilst the others just kept to themselves. I was not expecting Emilia to be pregnant, that surprised me.

I intensely disliked Alfred/Frick he just had an arrogance surrounding him, as well as being a mini Hitler himself. I kind of liked that he died at the end; it was interesting how he went insane first though.

Florian. He interested me the most; I was interested in what secrets he was hiding from the very beginning. When we met him he seemed suspicious, but he was an interesting character. I liked his romance with Joana.

This brings me neatly to, Joana. I really loved her need to help people. She just seemed liked the nice girl that everyone loves. Her secret wasn't too bad; she was blaming herself for something that wasn't fully her fault.

My favourite scene for funniness was when Alfred was watching the women and the other sailors came down, and they said: ' don't mind him; he's been watching us all morning'. The scenes like that counter balanced some of the darkness. My proper favourite scene was the one where the boat was leaving and the people were still trying to get on. I have a quote because I want to: "Mothers tried hurling their infants up to passengers on deck, but they couldn't throw high enough. Their babies smashed against the side of the ship and plunged into the sea."  That scene just shocked me, and I had to take a break.

The only negative thing I can say is the boat journey was very near the end, and to me felt a little rushed. A couple more chapters to add detail would have been nice.

I won’t talk too much about the actual sinking, because I would like to discuss that in depth at the end of the month. Sorry for the pre-review but I had to write my feelings somewhere. I hope you enjoyed it; I would love to hear your thoughts on the book. See you soon...

-A