This book has left me shocked and full of emotions. Shocked because I can't believe that I had never heard of such a catastrophic event. The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff took over 9,000 lives, 5K of which were children. It's just devastating. How do is this not a known fact? 
 And that's where our story takes place. I started reading Ruta Sepetys' books without much knowledge of the Lithuanian/Prussian situations and I think that's one of the reasons why I enjoy her novels so much: I am learning. Tons! 
 She creates wonderful characters and has them shine through these dark periods of history. It makes me so incredibly sad that actual people suffered things similar to what these characters suffered. I recommend reading Between Shades of Gray before starting this novel. It will shed some light on some things! 
 The story is told in four perspectives: Joana, Alfred, Emilia, and Florian. As we learnt more about these characters, we begin to realize that each one has been damage by the war. They have horrifying stories and Sepetys shares them in her captivating writing. I had to close the novel a few times to control my emotions. Sometimes over the love that blossomed amidst all of the tragic incidents & sometimes because of the scenes she describes that are truly terrible. And then I realize that yes, this story and characters are fictional but the desperation of these refugees is true; there were people on board the Wilhelm Gustloff. People died, and tried to save their loved ones by any means possible. One scene in particular has me tearing just thinking about it as I type this. That's how powerful Sepetys's writing is. 
 So yes, I hope you read this book! (But after reading Between Shades of Gray!)