4.25* 
 I had never heard the story of the sinking of the William Gustloff during WWII. This was such a powerful story and I enjoy reading WWII stories, but you usually see stories about those who were Jewish during the war. It was refreshing to see a different angle taken on those who perished during this awful war. History becomes lost if we don't talk about it and continue to learn about it so even though this is historical fiction, I enjoy reading and learning about those who experienced the unthinkable. 
 I loved the characters (or most of them) and loved learning about their stories - everyone starts out so guarded (rightly so with the kind of horrors going on to those who were seen to be the enemy) then slowly learn to trust another human being. My heart broke multiple times and while I was never brought to tears, I found myself reading more quickly when getting closer to parts that I knew were probably not going to end well. 
 Ruta Sepetys has a way with story telling. Her way of putting words and sentences together becomes hypnotic and as you are reading makes you want to keep going. This book does not have much dialogue in it which at some points did make it difficult to want to pick back up because there are some spots that we spend so much time in a character's head that it doesn't feel like the story is moving forward very quickly. This is a difficult book to say whether it is plot driven or character driven - the plot is horrific and makes you want to continue to read, but there is also character development that makes you want to continue to read as well. I guess you could say there is a healthy balance of the two... with some spots heavier on the character development (spend a lot of time in characters' thoughts). This is made a little better by having short chapters that end on little cliffhangers. 
 With that being said, I just couldn't quite give this story a full 5 stars. The beginning was difficult for me to get into - the rapidly changing chapters left me feeling like I couldn't quite become connected to any characters (this may be why I didn't feel the need to cry or feel quite as horrified by words or actions of others like I did when more recently reading A Thousand Splendid Suns). Once I began to feel connected to characters I still didn't necessarily feel the great desire to pick up and continue reading the book because it was so character driven at times. I do love a good character driven book, but I also need to feel like something is still happening with the plot - like I mentioned earlier, the short chapters help this. Because of this, I had to knock off .75 stars. This book is still very good if you like historical fiction (WWII historical fiction) and I would still recommend it to anyone.