Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

OVERVIEW: Salt to the Sea follows four different refugees from World War Two in each of their perspectives. The perspectives are from Alfred, a German sailor; Joana, a Lithuanian nurse; Florian, an East Prussian boy; and Emilia, a Polish teenager. The four all meet on the ship Wilhelm Gustloff.

My thoughts: This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking story. I've always enjoyed historical fiction books about WWII and the Holocaust; and I absolutely loved Sepetys's Between Shades of Gray, but this book exceeded my expectations and easily become one of my all time favorite books. Before reading Salt to the Sea, I had never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff. I would suggest you read the book before researching the Gustloff if you've never heard of it; this will ensure no spoilers. But what happened is so heartbreaking and honestly made me mad that I never learned about this event in school. While I did not cry while reading the book, I cried when I read the author's note and hearing the disturbing facts of this event. This book was so fantastic, I am having such a hard time putting my thoughts into words. I would recommend this book to EVERYONE.





SPOILERS AHEAD:

I am SO upset that Emilia sacrificed her life for others, but I SO admire the action. I just wish she was able to survive and watch Halinka grow and have a wonderful life. The fact that Alfred died made me strangely happy, he was just too corrupted by Hitler's propaganda. My favorite part, though, was that Joana and Florian ended up together and raised Halinka, along with a family of their own. Although, I was kind of hoping that Emilia and Florian would stay together.



I give this book a 5/5 stars!