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A review by ashction
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
3.0
It's not the book. It's me.
During this lovely quarantine, my manager assigned us some reading challenges, one of which was to read out of our comfort zone. Historical fiction is one of the genres I notoriously consider very much out of my comfort zone (I like history, to an extent, but find it tends to be sad, depressing, and not something I want to read about), and since Ruta Sepetys is arguably one of the leading voices of YA Historical Fiction, I just had to finally read one of her books.
I picked the book I was least likely to enjoy to feel truly, completely out of my comfort zone. Salt to the Sea follows four main characters: Joanna, a Lithuanian nurse attempting to help refugees reach safety; Florian, a thief on the run; Emilia, a young girl with burdens and secrets; and Alfred, a German soldier upon one of Germany's largest ships that sunk tragically during WWII.
The story was interesting; I read it quickly enough, and there's no doubt that Sepetys is a skilled writer who's done ample research for this novel. Like I mentioned, I chose this book as my least likely to enjoy. I hate reading about war, especially, and I avoid sadness whenever possible in fiction, so I knew this one was sure to hit at all the things that made me the most uncomfortable about historical fiction. While I did feel those things, I did have a generally good time reading the book. It was just so, so sad, and the end was so abrupt! I read it as an ebook, so I'm not sure if maybe some font style and transitioning from the print copy just didn't make it to the digital copy, but it wasn't clear that the final chapter was a time jump and it definitely soured the ending for me.
Of course, I'm a sucker for a good happy ending, too. And while there was some happiness, it was pretty bleak. While this one may not have been THE book for me (and that was the goal!), I do think I liked Sepetys' writing enough to test out some of her other books. Out of the Easy sounds like a good blend of a genre I'm not familiar with and mysteries that I love, so maybe I'll try that, next.
During this lovely quarantine, my manager assigned us some reading challenges, one of which was to read out of our comfort zone. Historical fiction is one of the genres I notoriously consider very much out of my comfort zone (I like history, to an extent, but find it tends to be sad, depressing, and not something I want to read about), and since Ruta Sepetys is arguably one of the leading voices of YA Historical Fiction, I just had to finally read one of her books.
I picked the book I was least likely to enjoy to feel truly, completely out of my comfort zone. Salt to the Sea follows four main characters: Joanna, a Lithuanian nurse attempting to help refugees reach safety; Florian, a thief on the run; Emilia, a young girl with burdens and secrets; and Alfred, a German soldier upon one of Germany's largest ships that sunk tragically during WWII.
The story was interesting; I read it quickly enough, and there's no doubt that Sepetys is a skilled writer who's done ample research for this novel. Like I mentioned, I chose this book as my least likely to enjoy. I hate reading about war, especially, and I avoid sadness whenever possible in fiction, so I knew this one was sure to hit at all the things that made me the most uncomfortable about historical fiction. While I did feel those things, I did have a generally good time reading the book. It was just so, so sad, and the end was so abrupt! I read it as an ebook, so I'm not sure if maybe some font style and transitioning from the print copy just didn't make it to the digital copy, but it wasn't clear that the final chapter was a time jump and it definitely soured the ending for me.
Of course, I'm a sucker for a good happy ending, too. And while there was some happiness, it was pretty bleak. While this one may not have been THE book for me (and that was the goal!), I do think I liked Sepetys' writing enough to test out some of her other books. Out of the Easy sounds like a good blend of a genre I'm not familiar with and mysteries that I love, so maybe I'll try that, next.