Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 4,25/5 Awards: SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Fiction (2016), Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fiction (2016), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2017), Audie Award for Young Adult (2017), Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee for Honorable Mention (2018), California Young Readers Medal for Young Adult (2018), Lincoln Award Nominee (2018), Carnegie Medal (2017), The Magnolia Award Nominee for 9-12 (2018) Français: Le sel de nos larmes Summary World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en routeto the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people—adults and children alike—aboard must fight for the same thing: survival. My thoughts Two years ago, I read Sepetys’ debut Between Shades of Grey and loved it. I was hesitant to pick up Salt to the Sea after I heard several reviews that it wasn’t as good as BSoG, but when the beautiful hardback edition came on sale for only 6$ (!) at my bookstore, I simply could not pass this opportunity. I expected to find the same poignant writing style, and the same attention to historical details than in her previous novel, however Salt to the Sea was even more refined. Sepetys’ writing style was even better than I remembered it. Instead of just leaving a crack in your heart, it completely destroys it. She clearly grew a tremendous amount as a writer between her first and third novel (still need to get on Out of the Easy). Since Salt to the Sea is a multiple-POV novel, which I adore, there is a lot of potential for it to go haywire. We have too often seen POV novels with no clear distinction between the voices of each character to the point where it just feels like the author is telling one long story. However, that is not the case in Salt to the Sea. The four main characters, Emilia, Joanna, Florian and Alfred, each have their own individual voices. It is clear that Sepetys took some time to fully establishing each character’s personality and a matching writing style. We still get a poetic flow throughout, but one cannot compare Emilia’s prose to Alfred’s pragmatism, or Florian’s reclusiveness to Joanna’s open-heart. Speaking of Emilia and Alfred, they were by far my two favourite characters. Emilia, a Polish girl who manages to hide away from the Germans, and Alfred, a naïve Hitler-abiding navy “soldier”, two characters in opposition, but I loved them for the same reason, that is their undeniable realism. Sepetys does not shy away from cruelty. She accurately showed what it was to be indoctrinated into believing far-right, murderous ideologies, and what the victims of both the German and Russian regimes went through. In order to tell a story as tragic as one of the refugees embarking on the Wilhelm Gustloff, if feel like such honesty is necessary. The only reason why I marked down this book is because of some plot holes. There was a logical line, but I felt there were some small yet annoying holes. For example (no spoilers!), they cross over a lake at some point with no details of how they got from point A to point B, we just know they crossed a frozen lake. However, it did end on a bang with what will probably remain one of my favourites ending of a historical novel ever?! Overall, I would recommendSalt to the Sea to anyone looking for a deeply emotional historical novel with a twist. If you liked Salt to The Sea, you will love… Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
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View from Palatine Hill, Rome *Hello readers, this is very different from anything I’ve ever posted on here, but the creative bee stung me. Enjoy. Xx.
Dedicated to CB On my last day in Rome, I walked into the "Mercati di Traiano", a small, virtually empty, museum about Emperor Trajan’s legacy. As I read the inscription explaining the origin and inspiration behind a fresco, an ennoncé caught my eyes. It simply said, “Romans kept their stories written in stone”. Stories written in stones. It is simply true when you think about it. All the sculptures, the carved messages in marble, the columns, the frescos… were made with the intention of sharing a story about the Gods or the Emperors’ successes in battle in order to teach the younglings about their past and their faith. In a population that was mostly illiterate this made sense. It was easy to understand the meaning of coloured carvings depicting a gruesome battle or a scene of everyday life. These artifacts were made to communicate. While it was mostly for the propaganda of war or for religion, they had a clear intent and audience. Perhaps, they even thought that one day, a 21st-century girl would stumble upon them with admiration in a museum two thousand years later. However, most of the tourist sites I visited in Italy were not created with that desire to share stories for posterity. The Colosseum, the Diocletian and Caracalla Baths, the Pompeii ruins, Ostia Antica, the Mercati di Traiano itself… all of these were buildings used every day by everyday people. Yes, they were well-designed and had an artistic component to it, but they were mostly practical and grand enough to show the power of the current leader. Yet, we have transformed them in objects of our human curiosity for the olden days. Just in 2017, seven million people visited the Coliseum in Rome. How and why did we turn these buildings into stories? Why are we fascinated by things that would be mundane to the people of the time? Is the only reason why we still visit the Colosseum is for its astronomical size (although it is not the biggest of its kind), or do we want to see something more, a remnant of our past? There are two main “seasons” to read classics: winter and summer breaks. Classics demand, for the most part, a lot more focus than regular books mostly due to the unfamiliar syntax or the heavier topics. Some of them also weave complicated plot lines where one simple sentence can change the course of the story so the reader needs to pay attention to every single word, every pause, every gasp of air. While this exercise might seem strenuous, there is a reason why these works are considered classics. Their themes transcend the test of time and their style inspired the next generations of writers. It is critical to understand the repercussions of these books in today's literary, political or even social world. However, that does not mean that all classics are good! I compiled a list of all the classics I read over the summer, get ready for some unpopular opinions! Enjoy.
P.s. My definition of "Classics" is quite vague. They generally include any book that is at least 50 years old and still read today. "Classics", to me, include authors, novels, dramas, short stories… that would be considered in their geographical area as part of their literary canon. |
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