Tl;Dr: The perspectives of a complex cast of characters from a diverse range of backgrounds combine to create a heartbreaking but beautiful narrative about a tragedy the world forgot. A must read for any historical fiction fan. 
 This review is about to be super vague because there are so many main characters that it would take ages to talk about all of them individually, and because getting specific about any individual character's story would pretty much require I include spoilers and nobody wants that. So bear with me. 
 This is one of those books where you go in knowing it's going to hurt, but you read it anyway because you know it is a story worth hearing. 
 The writing is absolutely beautiful throughout the entire novel. Each character has a distinct voice, but the writing is consistently beautiful, which is hard to do when you are trying to portray such vastly different perspectives. And without a doubt this book's biggest strength is the variety of different perspectives the characters offer. The characters range from a Lithuanian refugee, to a traumatized Polish girl on the run, to a young German soldier desperate to prove himself. Each chapter is told in first person from the perspective of a different character, which means you get a good grasp on where each character is coming from. That is not to say that every character is necessarily a sympathetic or likeable character (cough Alfred cough cough), but they are all complex and thoroughly developed. The backstory of each character is slowly revealed throughout the novel, and every chapter left me desperate to know more about what each character was hiding. 
 The book is also very suspenseful. As with any novel set during WWII, not all of the characters make it to the end of the novel, and you constantly want to keep reading and stop reading all at the same time because you both need to know what happens and are afraid to find out. This is compounded in this novel because, really, we all know how it is going to end. So you spend 100+ pages getting to know these characters and watching them get hopeful for their future after they escape Germany, all the while knowing what is actually going to happen after they get on that ship. The slow hints at romance only add to this suspense; I wanted to root for them and to be excited for them, but I was also terrified because who knew if they would both survive? It is like part of you wants to remain detached from the characters just in case, but you can't help but get attached to at least a few of them. 
 The only thing I really think could have been done better is the actual event of the shipwreck. After building up to the event throughout the entire book, the event itself felt...underwhelming somehow. I was expecting that section of the book to be a more emotional experience than what it ended up being, at least for me personally. I would have liked more description of the scene itself from the characters to add to their fear and desperation. I also would have liked a little bit more of what happened after the fact, from those characters who did survive. We really only get the perspective one of character after the wreck, and so it felt like the others got a little jipped in that respect. 
 A beautiful, heartbreaking, fast read. I would absolutely recommend this book to any fan of historical fiction, or anyone even interested in trying the genre out.