Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

378 pages

"Winter, 1945.

Four teenagers.

Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies...and war.

As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

Yet not all promises can be kept.

Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Reta Sepetys lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope." -Dust Jacket

I read Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with Fifty Shades of Gray which I haven't read) and I really liked it. It's a very sad, heartbreaking, yet beautifully written book, so when I saw this new one by the same author, I couldn't wait to read it. I also didn't know anything about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and that it was a much bigger disaster than the Titanic or the Lusitania.

Because this is based on a true story, you know that the boat is going to sink. A Russian submarine shot 3 torpedoes at it on the same day it left port in Germany. It was a ship that was designed to carry around 1,500 people and there were almost 10,000 on board that day, nearly 5,000 of them children. So as you read this book and see the four main characters' lives converge, you know they are headed for disaster and the gripping part is that you don't know what will happen to these characters--will they be the survivors or the victims?

This book shifts point of view between Emilia, Joanna, Alfred and Florian. They are each from a different country and their lives converge early on for Emilia, Joanna and Florian and not until the ship for Alfred. Alfred is a young Nazi and has some very offensive views about those with disabilities and the groups that Hitler persecuted. He goes around chanting a song about all the groups of people that Hitler hated. Because he's weak, he persecutes people to make himself seem more important. I really like that he writes mental letters to a girl he likes that make him appear to be important and then it's contrasted with really how insignificant he is in real life. The shifting points of view was the only way to write this book and have it be effective, especially considering that each of these people has a secret and some tragedy that they are concealing. The chapters are short because of the shifting points of view.

I think this is a really great read for older kids, like 6th grade and up. There was no language that I can recall and just enough tragedy to teach/remind kids of how horrific WWII was without being graphic. These are all teenage and young adult characters. I really liked the ending, but won't spoil it!