Review: Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The internet's been hyping this book so much lately that I couldn't help but pick it up at the library recently. Unfortunately, it absolutely fails to live up to the hype for me - and makes me wonder if I've got a problem with historical fiction, and especially YA historical fiction (I recently gave a bad review to Razorhurst, for example.) The real problem with this book is that it's written in no less than four different POVs, which are, at the very least, pretty distinct from one another, especially since they belong to individuals of different nationalities. Sepetys, however, gives each one an extremely short chapter, James Patterson-style, before switching to the next one. These multiple POVs and super-short chapters don't combine well - the story lacks flow, and the pacing, not unlike Razorhurst, is highly erratic, like you've got one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. And frankly, I had a hard time connecting to some of the main characters, especially Alfred, whose chapters consist mostly of letters to a girl named Hannelore (whose name I can't read without thinking of the Questionable Content character of the same name.)

This book, I've decided to DNF. Another surprising swing and a miss for a book Adam Silvera said was good, I'm sorry to say.

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