Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Category: Historical Fiction
Age group: Young adult
Format: Physical book
Summary: Salt to the Sea is a World War II historical fiction book based in 1945 that follows the point of view of four different characters. Each character is on their way to board the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that tragically sunk in the Baltic Sea. The four main protagonist each become connected throughout the story, as they face hardship and challenges on their journey to the Wilhelm Gustloff, and tragedy towards the end of the book.
Justification: I chose to read this book because I have read books by Ruta Sepetys before and she writes great historical fiction novels. She is one of my favorite authors and Salt to the Sea had been on my list of books to read.
Evaluation: For this book I will be evaluating the characters, plot, and cover.
This book has 4 different point of views. Four characters each on their way to the Wilhelm Gustloff. Joana, had nursing experience and uses that to help her land a spot on the ship. Florian, is a Prussian solider fleeing the Nazis, Emilia, is a pregnant Polish girl soon to give birth, and lastly Albert, a Nazi peon. The author did a great job in maintaining the different characters and their point of view. There was no confusion among the different changes in chapters and characters. Each character was unique and played a different part of the story that the author tied together at the end.
The plot was well done. As someone who had never heard of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy, I thought it was good to learn about this event and the author made sure to share the journey before the characters were on board. This really made the reader think of all the obstacles people may have had to encounter before getting on the ship. As the reader you wonder what will happen to all the characters once they board and you know they each have a goal set for when they get off the ship. Sadly, things don't turn out the way the characters would expect. One learns about the struggles people had to endure during this time period.
The cover of the book makes you wonder what the story entails. As I finished the book, I found the cover representing the many people of all ages who were on the ship, and those who sadly did not make it.
References: Sepetys, R. (2017). Salt to the sea. Penguin Books.
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