The Devils Poetry

The Devils Poetry by Louise Cole

    The world is about to be thrown into a world war. If the peace talks in London don't succeed, then no one will be safe. Callie, a seventeen year old girl, is just one of the many young people who will be forced to fight. But then, a chance is offered to Callie to save the world. And it comes in the form of a young man with a book...
    But, this comes with a price. The dangerous Cadaveri want, even need, to stop her from reading the book, and succeeding in her mission to bring world peace.

On the whole, I liked The Devils Poetry. Whilst I cannot say that it is my new favorite, like I do with some books, it was certainly a page turner. Every time you turned over you were thrown into a new gripping scene. Especially at the end, I found it quite hard to put it down, I was so enthralled by the book. As well as this, I liked the poetry in the book. Not only did Louise Cole have to write a book, she had to write poetry, and I thought she did a very good job at it. Sometimes, in books like these, you find yourself skipping over the poetry, as it might feel out of place, or just boring. But not the poetry in this book. It was exciting, and had a nice rhythm to it. Callie, the main character, was very likable, and written in such a way that you could get behind pretty much all of her opinions. She was caring of her friends, as well as being a book worm, which always goes down well with me.

Now, there were unfortunately ya few parts of the book that I didn't like so much. For example. I was never really sure who the Cadaveri actually were, and why they wanted to stop the reading. The reason  for this lack of explanation was that supposedly, nobody knows, but I didn't find that satisfactory. I feel it could have been developed a bit better. The other thing that I didn't like was that it kept slipping from first person when they were with Callie, to third person when she wasn't there, with almost no warning whatsoever. I did at points find this confusing

So, in conclusion, it was a interesting, thrilling book, with a few things that could have been improved.

I am going to give it an 8/10
and an age rating of 12+

Louise Cole

Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Florian was tricked by his Nazi employer, and is now escaping Germany.
Joana was forced to flee from her country, and is now escaping Germany.
Emilia had to leave, after her father was killed, and is now escaping Germany.
Alfred is a Nazi sailor, on the ship thats going to get them out of there.
Four people, one amazing story. The tale of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

I think that salt to the sea migbt be my new favourite book! The plot was outstanding, and a great way to tell everyone about the greatest maritime disaster of all time. I couldn't put it down, enraptured in the story. I loved the way every single character was written, although I cannot say that I loved every single character. Whilst the characters of Florian, Joana and Emilia were really nice, Alfred was not. He agreed with Hitler in everything he did, and had even written a (Rather rubbish) song about the enemies of the Nazis. I found myself skipping out most of the bits narrated by Alfred, not just because he was horrible, but becasue they were also mostly letters written in his head to the love of his life.

The main thing I loved of the book was all the twists and turns. You never quite knew what was going to happen next. One second they could be fine, the next second they could be plunged into extreme danger. Another thing I liked was the theme of art in the second world war. The book actually taught me some new facts about the war that I didn't know, such as that the Wilhelm Gusloff even existed, or that Hitler stole many great works of art, mostly from Poland, in the war.

Now, I am a sucker for a good cover, and Salt to the Sea was no different. Featuring a barbed wire fence seemingly turning into birds, it really did represent the book, and what it was about.

Salt to the Sea was shortlisted for the carnegie award, which is going to be announced next Monday. Having read all of the books but one I really hope that it wins. Good Luck to Ruta Sepetys!

I am going to give it a 9.5/10
and an age rating of 12+