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 Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope.

I get a few unsolicited books in the mail every week and I’ll be honest and admit that most of the time I don’t know what to do with them.  I have so many books and not a lot of time to read.  Most of the time, I haven’t heard much about these books (I’m not the best at keeping up with new releases) but if a book I get sounds good, then I will at least make the effort to either read it or listen to the audiobook if available.  A copy of Salt to the Sea showed up in the mail last month, and while I had heard of it, I only knew that it was about a book set in times of war and that it’s probably gonna be sad.  If you know me, you know that those two things are not normally books that I would ever read!  But when I found out that there was an audiobook narrated by one of my favorites, Micheal Crouch, I decided to give it a shot.  Since I listen to audiobooks fairly quickly, if I don’t like it I only lose a few hours instead of a week or two (which is how long it takes me now to read a book).  I reread the summary before going in and was like: ‘Oh shit, this sounds really sad and not for me’  but I still wanted to at least try an hour of the audio before giving up.  I prepared myself emotionally and was fully prepared to remain and emotionless robot while listening to this book…and I failed miserably.

My Thoughts:

I really did try to keep myself emotionally distant from this book.  While half of me is pretty cold and heartless and gets annoyed instead of sad with emotional book like normal people do, the other part of me is a big baby who wants to cry with every Disney movie. This is another reason why I stay away from sad and emotional books, while other reading are crying their eyes out…I’m trying to feel…something and then being a little worried that I’m not affected like others.  I knew going into this book that it was gonna be sad and there would probably be a lot of deaths, and I was determined to not make myself care that much for these characters.  Like I said, I failed.

Salt to the Sea follows four very different characters who are running away from something, in their own way.  Joana amazed me with her bravery, Florian won me over despite his ulterior motives and the secrets he was hiding, Emilia broke my fucking heart, and Alfred… well, he was batshit crazy his narrative scared and fascinated me in a very weird way.  I simply loved how all four of these characters made up this story and how they all came into each other’s life somehow.  I felt very much like I was Florian while reading this book.  Just how he tried very hard not to care about Joana and Emilia and the rest of the group he was traveling with, I couldn’t help but loving these characters (except Alfred) a little bit more with each page.  The story of the Wilhelm Gustloff is terrible, as expected, but I really admire how Supetys was able to add beauty to this tragedy.  Another thing I wasn’t prepared for was the romance.  It completely snuck up on me, but I also loved that it didn’t overpower the rest of the story.

I loved the way this story was told, sometimes the stories overlapped a little bit and we got to see the same moments through each of the characters POV, and instead of sounding repetitive and boring, it added a whole new level of intensity that I was not prepared for.  The last few chapters were especially magnificent and horrible at the same time.  The way the scenes were written and executed, not only written but by the audiobook narrated, were enough to break through my emotional walls.  I even texted Nick a few times telling her ‘fuck this book! how dare it make me feel!’  I felt like an emotional wreck by the time I finished this book and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to cry or be happy or sad that it was over.  All I know is that this book really got to me, and for a reader who doesn’t like sad book, historicals, or books about war, that’s a pretty big deal for me.

Audiobook Comments: This is just another reason why I love audiobooks so much.  If it weren’t for the fact that 3 of my favorite narrators were performing this book, I would have never given this book a second glance because it was simply not my kind of book.  The fact that I only listened to this because of the narrators and ended up loving it so much makes me want to listen and read more books out of my comfort zone. I’ve listened to quite a few books narrated by Michael Crouch, Jorjeana Marie and Cassandra Morris, and they always do an amazing job, this time is no exception.  Although this is my first time listening to Will Damron, he also did a great job an his voice fit with the story and his character perfectly.  The last few chapters were very intense and emotional and I applaud all of these narrators for the amazing job they did in those scenes especially.  Such a great book and audiobook!

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