I rate this non-fiction book 2 out of 5 possible stars. I give it this rating because I feel that it was quite boring, and I had to force myself to finish the book.




In this book the author tells you about World War II and all of the little details that made it crucial for the war to turn out the way it did.
This book tells about the efforts of young and old men that risked their lives serving for the U.S. Navy supporting the Allied forces. In the beginning it describes the torpedo attack on the USS Indianapolis and the men suffering to survive the explosion and the shark infested waters into which they were hurled. After telling you a little about their struggle, the author goes back a step and describes what was going on inside the ship during the explosion. He explains what the crew was talking about and how at first they thought that there was just something wrong with the ship’s boiler. Later in the book the author goes into precise detail about battling the Japanese submarines and why they used the sailing techniques they did to cross the seas.

The main character in this book is a young boy named Hunter. Fifty years after the war he was doing a report on the USS Indianapolis and learned about the attack, so he went to talk with some of the survivors. While talking with a few of the Naval troops he found out that the sinking of the ship was in no way the captain’s fault, as the rumor had been spread. That news sent Hunter to the government on a mission to clear the fault out from under the captain’s name.

This book has a great hook right in the beginning, but unfortunately it fades after the seventh page. The excitement of staying alive in shark-infested waters turns into the history of World War II soldiers and what happened to them after returning to their homes and families.

This book is connected to my life in a huge way; my great-grandfather was a Naval soldier on the USS Sangamon in World War II and was attacked by a Kamikaze. This book helped me to learn a lot about his experience in the war.

The author of this book writes the story in third person. He writes it in such a way that you get the feeling that initially you will never be able to put it down. After the first chapter, the author doesn’t do a good job tying the remainder of the book together, and you are left waiting, until all of a sudden you finish the last page of the book and are disappointed to have found no connection.