Salt to the Sea

I've had conflicting feelings when it comes to Ruta Sepetys. On the one hand, she does an excellent job of exploring the more overlooked moments of history. Yet, her characters are not ones that I find memorable. Still, I was excited to read this book for our local book club, as I haven't read anything YA in a while. Now that I have finished this book I can say that her novels are both excellent and disappointing in equal measure.

Let's begin with the good.

This book makes you understand the tension and desperation that people fleeing into Germany felt at the end of WWII in Europe. Some supported the Nazi party, those who were looking forward to the Russian advance, and those simply caught in the middle who were trying to survive. For those who believe that the Russians may have been seen as saviors, many found them just as cruel as the Germans, many Russians having orders to rape and pillage as they pleased (and some not even needing orders as an excuse). Septeys works to show this violence unflinchingly for a YA book, allowing the reader to understand the group's desperation.

We have four main protagonists that we follow:

Joana is a girl with nursing experience who is traveling with a group trying to make her way away from the advancing Russian soldiers. People in the dook see her as an angel of mercy, who has come to help in their time of need, but Joana hides the knowledge that she did something that makes her little better than the soldiers she flees from.

Emilia is a Polish girl who manages to run into the group Joana is with. We soon discover that she is pregnant with a child, and we soon find that her relationship is not as innocent as she leads us to believe.

Florian is a young man on a secret mission, one that could get him killed if he talks to the wrong people. Super secretive about what it is, we soon find that he is out for more than Nazi treasure, rather he wants to turn Germany's misfortune into his gain.

Then we have Albert, a young sailor stationed on the Wilhelm Gustloff. His story is told through a series of letters to his young love, but we soon see that he hides a secret that even he himself refuses to acknowledge.

All of these characters are interesting in their own right. The most mysterious would be Florian, as we try to see what he is hiding, why he is running, and (as it first seems to the reader) working for high-ranking party officials. The most fascinating to read about is Albert. He is a young man totally devoted to the Nazi party, even to the point where, as the world is literally crumbling around him, he believes he will get a medal for his bravery. I could not help if he had some sort of disability, or was slightly autistic, as he seemed especially incapable of socializing with others. But bear in mind this was only my observation, and nothing more.

The least interesting would be Joana. She is mostly there to help others and be a main love interest for Florian. While I won't spoil it, her mystery wasn't very interesting and even was something I found confusing. She mentions multiple times that she is a murderer, but once how she murdered people is revealed to the reader, I thought “Well, you didn't really kill them. Not on purpose, anyway.” At best, she had good intentions that turned out negative, so I don't think her mystery holds up well for me at all.

And that leads me to the negatives of this book. The biggest being the characters themselves. While I do understand a lot about them, I just don't think I connected with them in any way. I remember the situations that they were in more than the names and the people themselves. This aligns with the other books written by the author that I have read in the past.

This leaves me with giving this book a three out of five. This was a fun premise and was a good thriller, with subpar characters.