Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Salt to the Sea

A beautifully written yet heartbreaking historical fiction that captured a part of WW2 I'd never learned about before. While I appreciate this book, I simultaneously struggled with the pacing and sadly never became fully invested in any of the MC's due to the storytelling format. Despite my personal reading struggles, this story is so important and the author's note perfectly sums up why:

History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and remembrance. Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past.

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taracloudclark's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An excellent story told from four perspectives of one of the most horrific events in history.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I had difficulty writing a review for this book because I got to the end of it and realised that it was a historical fiction piece based around a real life maritime incident. As such that shook me up a bit and it was a little hard to get my feelings about it clear. It was yet another case of reading something for book club without having looked it up first. I think that's a pretty valuable experience because it means you see things with fresh eyes, but sometimes you don't want to reread it with the knowledge of the outcome. I don't have the tenacity to reread this.

The book was slow. It was the first time that I have ever noted the similarity between the stories of apocalyptic zombie survival, and those of refugees. There is a lot of cross country wandering.. hoping you are going in the right direction, not knowing if anyone you run into is going to be friend or foe, not knowing if you will find food or shelter, and coming up with a Plan to hold a ragtag bunch of travelers, of different ages and backgrounds, together long enough that they might get someplace safe.

This is the second story I have read recently with a blind girl in a world war. It was hard to read this book and not be occasionally reminded of "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. This is also because in both stories there is a viewpoint of a German soldier as counterpoint to what is going on with those fleeing. The depiction of the main German character is interestingly unsympathetic, as he turns out to be a jumped up coward, universally disliked by his fellows, and radiating hot waves of obsessive, sociopathic Incel Energy. I'm sure this jab is a lot more meta, than useful for building the story, but he is certainly a part of this book that I won't forget in a hurry.

The story was ..ok. I didn't dislike it, but it's not something that would bob to the top of my recommendations list.

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