A review by madiganinwonderland
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

5.0

This book was haunting. Absolutely stunningly haunting. I have a steel stomach but at one point I even had to stop so I could process the beautiful, terrible imagery Sepetys makes. This will stay with me forever and just like the author said I truly can't believe this story isn't more well known. I learned about it very briefly in my own research for a school project in middle school but never again. Yet the titanic is infamous and a household story, and it can't even compare to the neglect and complete disregard for human safety of refugees, children... It's not a competition, but the fact the Wilhelm was literally gunned down during a war.. It needs to be discussed just as much as the titanic if not more especially in an academic setting. Children, and even adults can't always conceptualize the individual amount of people that were slaughtered in all of the American wars. When you hear "thousands" it's too large. But tell the kids to count to the 9000 of people who were lost just in this SINGLE tragedy and they see it completely differently. An easier way is to just read this book. It's amazing and beautiful and if it wasn't so painful I would have immediately reread it. I will in the future but I'm just so glad I finally got to this book. I loved it.