Ruta SepetysReviews

10.50€

I think I'm an outlier here, but I didn't really enjoy this as much as I'd hoped. I thought it was a really interesting premise -- two teens in England in WWII trying to find out if their mom was killed. I liked the background on codebreaking, and Enigma more specifically, and their efforts to solve codes that are mysteriously mailed to them. I also really enjoyed Lizzie as a character, she was highly entertaining!
*
But I found the writing to be somewhat clunky. Just as an example, the relationship between Lizzie and Jakob felt inconsistent (and not in a way that would indicate growth, in a way that made me think I had missed something.) And there's a plot point with the diary Lizzie finds that it is possible it's not a plot hole, but felt like it needed a bit more to explain how it happened. The ending felt really anti-climactic as well.
*
This definitely reads as more of a middle-grade book, so perhaps this would have worked better if at least Lizzie was younger. I've absolutely loved other YA books that Ruta Sepetys has written, but this just didn't live up to my expectations.

While I typically don't read a lot of middle grade books, The Bletchley Riddle really kept my interest. It was hard to put down, and despite being 400 pages, I felt like I was flying through the book. Lizzie was definitely my favorite of the two protagonists, with a spirit and determination that kept the story exciting. I went into the book with little knowledge about Bletchley Park or the World War II codebreaking efforts, so I enjoyed the insight into such a historically impactful place. We even get to meet some real people who were part of the effort, such as Alan Turing, which gave the story even more validity. I thought the explanations of the Enigma machine were explained in an understandable way, even though it obviously was quite complicated. It was a nice touch that some puzzles/riddles were included in the book, so I could try to solve them along with the characters.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group, Viking Books for Young Readers, and NetGalley for the advance review copy of The Bletchley Riddle! All opinions expressed in my review are completely my own.

Daniel is the son of a rich Texan oil magnate visiting his mother's native Madrid in the summer of 1957. The family is staying at the Castellana Hilton, hotbed of American society abroad, and while his father woos Franco for drilling rights in Spain, Daniel takes photos for the portfolio he hopes will win the Magnum photography prize. Ana is the daughter of schoolteachers murdered during the Spanish Civil War for wanting to start a Montessori (non-Catholic) school. She works as a maid at the Castella Hilton to help support her family: older sister Julia, her husband Antonio, and their infant daughter; and her brother Rafa, who spent years being tortured in a Anuxilio Social home for boys before escaping. She is assigned to take care of Daniel's family during their stay. As the two teens become friends, they realize the gulf that exists between them, but are drawn together in ways that won't become apparent for years.

This historical novel attempts to shed light on numerous social issues during the "war after war," Franco's 39 year long dictatorship: the estimated 300,000 infants stolen from Republicans and sympathizers and adopted by Catholic families; the notorious Auxilio Social homes for children of "enemy" parents; and the institutionalized silence that buried these issues for decades. It also attempts to depict the complexity of US-Spanish relations during this time. Numerous official documents and transcripts of former US diplomats are interspersed throughout the novel, and these, along with the photo section at the end of the book, lend an air of historical veracity. The author writes:

During my study and examination, the fragile tensions between history and memory emerged. Some were desperate to remember and other were desperate to forget. I was haunted by the descriptions of war—and also war after war. Hunger, isolation, fear, and the socialization of silence. Suffering emerged the victor in Spain, touching all sides...

The Spanish Civil War and its aftermath is less visible in the US than WWII and the Holocaust. This novel and it's extensive bibliography will hopefully inspire young people to learn more about it.

The novel is written in very short chapters which keeps the action tight and allows for frequent changes of setting. After covering a few weeks in great detail, I was surprised to find an 18 year gap before a surprising denouement. Although I didn't find the novel as compelling as [Salt to the Sea], it did provoke a latent interest in learning more about this time period. I will follow up with [Paracuellos: Children of the Defeated in Franco's Fascist Spain] by Carlos Giménez.

Heartrending story of a family that's wrested from their home in Lithuania by the Soviets during WWII. Lots of stuff I never knew about the unrest.

Totally worthwhile read, if sad in many places.

that was interesting, although given that the author is not Romanian, it would've been like if I were to write a novel about Romania. All the events are there, all the anecdotes, and because of it, it sometimes feels like she's just listing items. Other than that, the person reading the book was good, apart from the fact that he was mispronouncing some Romanian words. Story-wise, it was a bit slow at the first, but the events of December 1989. were quite thrilling to read about.

"Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch."

"We were thousands of kilometers away from our home, and they were forcing us to march in a direction that was taking us farther and farther from everything we knew."

I received Between Shades of Gray as part of a gift box. Having lived in Estonia just after they re-gained independence from the Soviet Union, the topic immediately interested me. I had heard about the deportations to Siberia, but hadn't realised how similar they were to those happening in other parts of Europe at that time nor exactly how harsh the conditions were. I appreciated the balance of themes in the book, contrasting the horrible with moments of hope and love. I also really liked the ending, however, I wish there had been a bit more explanation from the last main chapter to it.

This book stayed with me quite some time. I thought about it regularly and ended up doing a bit of history research after it because of it.

In January 1945, tens of thousands of refugees from the Baltics, Eastern Europe, and Prussia flooded the port cities on the Baltic Sea hoping for boat passage to escape the Red Army, whose soldiers were leaving a swath of destruction behind them. Germany organized Operation Hannibal in an attempt to evacuate military personnel, Nazi officials and their families, wounded soldiers, and civilians to Germany. On January 30, the vastly overloaded Wilhelm Gustloff, a former cruise ship, left Gotenhafen with an estimated 10,500 people on board. She was struck by three torpedoes fired from a Soviet submarine and sank within an hour. An estimated 9,500 people died, making it by far the largest loss of life in maritime history from the sinking of a single vessel.

Ruth Sepetys did an amazing amount of research for her novel, including travelling the world to speak to survivors and their families. She decided to write the novel from the perspective of four teenagers in order to give voice to the child victims both of the war and the tragedy of the Wilhelm Gustloff. In alternating chapters, the Lithuanian nurse Joana, the Polish girl Emilia, the wounded Prussian Florian, and the German sailor Alfred tell their stories. The result is an amazing piece of historical fiction that I found incredibly gripping and moving. Although billed as young adult, due to the age of the protagonists, I would recommend this for anyone interested in WWII historical fiction.

Book:
The Bletchley Riddle

Review:
4⭐
I don't generally gravitate toward historical fiction, but something about this novel screamed at me. I was pulled in from the first page, and it seemed all I could do was read and read. I just had to know everything: the point of the title, if Willa was alive, whether Lizzie and Jakob would survive the war. This book was riveting in a way that I can't describe. I found myself rooting for the multitude of characters as they went on their journey.
THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE is a dual point of view novel that takes place during World Ward II. It follows Lizzie and her brother as they navigate the world as it was, as well as try to find their mother.
I thought this book was interesting. THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE was so full of mystery as well as themes that are complicated, but very much a part of history. It actually inspired by a secret code breaking center uses during World War II, which I found intriguing.

What I Liked About It:
*the mystery

The book looks at a different atrocity during WWII. The characters are fleeing their homelands and trying to make it from East Prussia to the Wilhelm Gustoff, a ship intended to transport refugees. The group sets out together , but as Joanna says when they arrive at the vessel, "It's been nice to trek with everyone, but now we're here. I don't need a group. I need my belongings and I need a ship," (175). The four main characters, Alfred, Florian, Emilia, and Joana alternate each chapter. The book reads very quickly as the chapters are short and the POV alternates so rapidly. Although it could be classified as a Holocaust novel, it tells of a different atrocity, yet equally as horrific as the concentration camps. I found myself intrigued by Klaus, a young boy they find wandering after his mom dies in the cold. Over 9,000 died when the ship was torpedoed. Two of the main characters survive.

“Thousands of babies were stolen from their parents during the Franco dictatorship in Spain, but the story was suppressed for decades…
Between 1939 and the late 1980s, it is alleged that over 300,000 babies were stolen from birth mothers and sold into adoption.”

The setting is Madrid, 1957. General Franco’s fascist regime still rules with an iron fist. Eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson, the son of an oil tycoon, is staying at the Hyatt, with his parents. There he meets Ana, a teenage hotel worker, who is assigned to his family. As their friendship grows, the story of Ana’s family begins to unfold and dark secrets are revealed. I knew very little about Spain in these post-war years and this wonderfully researched novel filled me in. The author is such a good storyteller and despite it’s 500 page length, the novel read very quickly. Top-notch historical fiction.

4.5 stars. This is a fun story! The writing is engaging and moves along quickly in this young adult novel set in England during World War II. The reader is pulled in from the start with precocious 14-year-old Elizabeth (“Lizzie”), who in first person narrative, tells of spy tactics and her own mischief-making on her quest to find out what happened to her missing Mom. The story cuts back and forth from Lizzie to her mathematician big brother Jacob, who has been keeping secrets from her. It turns out that he’s been working as a codebreaker in the fight against the Germans! It's an adventurous story with hijinks, spies & cryptic messages. The authors do a good job of bringing to life wartime in Britain with its food rations & shortages, and blacking out lights at night etc. The photos were a nice touch. On the negative side, I felt some things were a bit of a stretch, such as the common memory-based solution to the main cryptic message that our heroine was tasked with.
I was provided with an ARC (thanks to the author & publisher!) and I am voluntarily posting my honest review.½

Lively World War II tale centered around two teen-aged siblings, and packed with action, adventure, code-breaking and wartime secrets.

It was good to expand my reading of historical fiction by reading a story that starts in Lithuania in June of 1941. This book explores the journey of young Lina Vilkas (15 years old), her younger brother Jonas, and their mother, as they are pulled from their home by the Soviet secret police (NKVD) and taken into cattle cars with other Lithuanians to labor camps in Siberia. Their father, a university professor was already deported to a prison camp and they are unsure where he is or if they will see him.
As we are taken on this journey with Lina and her family, we meet others in the same situation, all fighting for their lives and clinging to hope. Lina was preparing for art school and brought some art supplies. Throughout the book, she reflects on past memories to sustain her through the hard times. She also secretly relies on her art skills to process what is happening and keep a record of the people and the atrocities. Lina also creates art to try to communicate with her father. The book follows Lina and her time in the labor camps for 12 years and shares the story of the Soviet occupation of the land. I was shocked to learn about the thousands of people forced out of the Baltic states because they were deemed enemies of the state.

The author, Ruta Septys, does a fabulous job sharing lesser-known historical events through her books. Between Shades of Gray has personal significance, as her grandfather was in the Lithuanian army and her grandparents and father fled the country. I'm grateful for the author's telling of a forgotten and unique story that I definitely never learned about in school. The historical context is fascinating and the plot and characters moved the story forward in a way that made me not want to put it down. It was sad, but an emotional and valuable read.

During dictator Franco’s reign in Spain, life was extraordinarily hard for average citizens but especially those whose parents fought on the “wrong side” during the Spanish Civil War. It’s the 1950s, and along comes a Texas teen Dan whose dad wants to enter the oil business with Franco. But Dan has a huge heart and empathy and falls for a hotel maid. We learn her family’s stories through various family members and friends and they are heart-breaking. This author writes brilliant books. I’ve loved them all and this one is just as good. Highly highly recommended especially about very recent events that unbelievably continued to occur into the 1980s.

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel - and I am so very glad that I read it! In 1939, Lina is just 15 years old when her family is deported from their home in Lithuania and forced to spend years working in labor camps in Siberia, where the conditions were similar to Nazi concentration camps. Despite the devastating circumstances, she amazingly manages to retain her identity, her dignity, her hope for a future of freedom, and even manages to find love. Haunting, horrific, and simply beautiful, this is a book that will be appreciated by teens and adults alike. Highly recommend.

Ruta Sepetys does it again. This book was absolutely phenomenal!

Remember in school when you learned about the sinking of the Wilhem Gustloff?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Me, too.

As she did in [b:Between Shades of Gray|7824322|Between Shades of Gray|Ruta Sepetys|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327873479s/7824322.jpg|10870318], author Ruta Sepetys vividly and emotionally gives a voice to those who have been lost to history in her latest book, [b:Salt to the Sea|25614492|Salt to the Sea|Ruta Sepetys|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437084512s/25614492.jpg|27126244]. In this fast-paced and stirring book, readers follow a rag-tag band of refugees through Nazi-occupied East Prussia in the waning days of WWII as they try to escape from the advancing Russian forces. The refugees are headed toward ports on the Baltic Sea where they have heard ships will transport them to safety.

While the refugee group includes both a child and an elderly man, the majority of those in the group are teens and young adults, and Sepetys primarily tells the story through their point of view. Don't be put off by this YA bent. Sepetys's writing is smart and mature and will appeal to those who normally wouldn't consider a YA book.

WWII-inspired literature is prevalent, and I find myself sadly thinking of its relevance today more than ever. How "leaders" foment hatred and distrust among groups of neighbors who once worked for the same goals. "Would she believe that Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, and Hungarians had all coexisted peacefully in Lviv before the war?"

Sepetys includes a poignant author's note at the end of the book, parts of which I'd like to share here: "Stories of war are often read and discussed worldwide by readers whose nations stood on opposite side during battle. History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and remembrance. Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past. What determines how we remember history? And which elements are preserved and penetrate the collective consciousness?...When the survivors are gone, we must not let the truth disappear with them."

And the Wilhem Gustolff? It's not exactly a spoiler, since it's a matter of historical record, but it was the largest maritime disaster in history. The boat was designed to hold 1,500 and was carrying over 10,500. It was sunk by Russian torpedos and over 9,400 people died, most of whom were civilians (by comparison, 1,503 died on the Titanic). In 1945 alone it is estimated that over 25,000 people lost their lives in the Baltic Sea, again most of them civilians.

4 stars

Excellent story about the tragedy of totalitarian regime and cult of personality.

Great WWII historical fiction young adult novel. Saying more feels like it would be giving too much away.

NB: Set in Franco's Madrid, Spain.

Lina, her younger brother, and her mother are taken from their home one night - while Lina is still in her nightgown - charged as criminals, and crammed into train cars where they deal with filth, starvation, and disease for weeks. Some who begin the trip with them do not survive. Lina's father was taken while he was at work, and the family is desperate for news of his whereabouts and try to find him, or at least find news about him, on neighboring train cars at great risk - they could be killed for sneaking off their own car. When they are finally deposited on a beet farm, they perform backbreaking labor for a few grams of bread each day. Some of the guards also take pleasure in tormenting them - making the prisoners think they are about to be murdered. They live like this for months. Lina, a budding artist, never gives up hope that her father will find his way to them. She does some things I wanted to yell, "Stop! Are you crazy?!" at her for doing, but she's young and desperate to reach out to her father. Throughout their entire ordeal she draws pictures and writes about the people who are sharing their experiences in order to document what is happening to them - and also to leave a sort of trail of breadcrumbs for her father to follow to find them. She passes on a handkerchief, letters, and pieces of wood onto which she has encrypted messages within her artwork, hoping they will eventually find their way to her father.

Eventually, the prisoners end up in Siberia where they labor by building, cutting wood, and fishing for the soldiers who are living in warm buildings with plenty of food while the prisoners live in mud huts that barely keep out any wind or cold and survive on scant bread rations. Cold, disease, and starvation claim the lives of many. Some prisoners also begin to lose their senses - others lose hope. Lina, however, shows great determination and spirit, even in the face of such tragedy.

The ending wraps things up very quickly and I would have liked the epilogue to have given more information about what happened to all the characters into which I had become so invested while reading. However, the whole novel was a very engrossing read - even as it was upsetting to read how inhumane man can be to man.

Although these particular characters are fictional, this is as upsetting a recounting of some of the things that happened to people during this time as was [b:Night|1617|Night |Elie Wiesel|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311999832s/1617.jpg|265616], which I first read years ago.

Gr 9 Up—In 1989 Romania, Christian is forced to become an informer for the tyrannical Communist regime and
betray everyone he loves. Rife with tension and historical details, Sepetys's novel shines a light on another dark
moment in history and forces readers to ask themselves what they would do.

Gr 6 Up—Taking advice on writing from a masterful storyteller like Sepetys makes sense. Personal memoir and
writing prompts are woven together seamlessly for readers to tackle cover to cover or in sections in this book that
will certainly inspire the next generation of writers.

This is set in the 1950’s about twenty years after Generalissimo Franco’s rule began in Spain. Franco is beginning to allow business with other countries.

Daniel, is the son of a rich Texas oilman. His father hopes to make oil deals which will enrich both his business and Franco. He has traveled to Madrid with his family to meet the dictator in person. Daniel has no interest in the oil company and plans to be a photojournalist. Although he has been cautioned about taking photographs in Franco’s Spain, he does so, capturing images that the dictator’s strong men are not happy to see, including a nun carrying a dead baby.

Daniel is intrigued by Ana, a maid at the hotel. Her parents were both anti-Franco republicans, killed during the revolution. Lke other offspring and relatives of those who fought Franco, Ana's family are still paying the price.

This is a vivid picture of Spain under Franco’s dictatorship: there are many orphaned children of the anti-Franco movement, who, denied education and opportunity, have no path to better themselves. A friend of Ana’s brother, an orphan who sleeps on the streets, takes up the path of bullfighting as a means to escape his situation.

But the true story here is the continuing mystery of thousands of children who disappear from those who fought against Franco.

There is also a strong romantic story in this novel, too, which does give it more YA tones than the others I have read by this author.

Once again Sepetys has produced strong research and an unforgettable story.