God I love Ruta Sepetys so much. She's a master at crafting amazingly heartbreaking stories with just the right amount of hope. I will read anything she writes, ANYTHING.
The Fountains of Silence centers around several young people in Spain in 1957. Spain has slowly recovered from WWII and is under the facsist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. However, while the country seems an amazing spot for American tourism, Madrid is hiding dark secrets and fear is rampant.
This book transported me to 1957 Madrid, Spain. The fear, the beauty and the history was alive in a way I've come to crave from historical fiction. There was something so palpable about this story that enthralled and terrified at the same time. The darker parts of this story take longer to unfold, but they are there and the secrets are slowly finding their way to the light.
I don't want to give away anything, because going into this book blind is honestly the best thing you can do. I had no idea where the story was heading and because of that the danger, the intrigue and the relationships were so much more intense. All of the characters were amazingly well written. Each one had flaws and dreams they only hoped would come true. It was so hard not to root for them. Especially Ana & Daniel. Ugh those two melted my heart so badly.
The one thing that was shocking to me was that there is a giant time gap between Part 1 and 2. Part 2 is also a lot shorter. But I really loved seeing all the characters grown up and into their adult selves. I cannot recommend this enough and I eagerly await Sepetys's next masterpiece.
The Fountains of Silence centers around several young people in Spain in 1957. Spain has slowly recovered from WWII and is under the facsist dictatorship of Francisco Franco. However, while the country seems an amazing spot for American tourism, Madrid is hiding dark secrets and fear is rampant.
This book transported me to 1957 Madrid, Spain. The fear, the beauty and the history was alive in a way I've come to crave from historical fiction. There was something so palpable about this story that enthralled and terrified at the same time. The darker parts of this story take longer to unfold, but they are there and the secrets are slowly finding their way to the light.
I don't want to give away anything, because going into this book blind is honestly the best thing you can do. I had no idea where the story was heading and because of that the danger, the intrigue and the relationships were so much more intense. All of the characters were amazingly well written. Each one had flaws and dreams they only hoped would come true. It was so hard not to root for them. Especially Ana & Daniel. Ugh those two melted my heart so badly.
The one thing that was shocking to me was that there is a giant time gap between Part 1 and 2. Part 2 is also a lot shorter. But I really loved seeing all the characters grown up and into their adult selves. I cannot recommend this enough and I eagerly await Sepetys's next masterpiece.