I had to sit and think about what I wanted to write for a day before I actually tried to write this review. I am familiar with most of what happened during the era this book was set in, but I will have to admit that I knew absolutley nothing of what Russia did to those from Lithuania and the other Baltic States. It was absolutley horrifying how these people were treated. I will never be able to understand how another human being can treat another human being like they are nothing more than a common insect. I can't even fathom the scope of atrocities these people suffered at the hands of those who wanted to extinguish them from existance.

The book was quite captivating and held my intrest. The only thing I did not like was the ending. I really wanted to know more on how she got out of the camp and how she got back in touch with Andrius. I felt it lacked complete closure.

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If this book doesn't become banned, I'll be sorely disappointed in the self-appointed safety-bubble police. This is a perfect book to burst that bubble and I'm proud to have read it. This book deserves to be on the shelf of every school in the world. It is an important story that is largely unknown.

I will not give anything away in this story as it is important to follow Lina in her heroic and harrowing tale. Her fight for life, just living and breathing is heroic within the conditions that presented itself. The story is often paralleled by her memories of a better time which also contrast to the horror the family, Lina, Jona her brother, and her mother Elena, are experiencing. The horror is made much darker by that comparison. It also provided Lina something else to concentrate on other than hunger and toil. The darkness wasn't surprising to me as I also realized what I was getting into by the first chapter.
"Twenty minutes," the officer barked. He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot.
We were about to become cigarettes.

There is one thing I will warn you. You will need some tissues by the end of this book. *shakes fist* Oh, I hate crying and I hate it even more so when I'm trying to keep my sinuses from closing up on me and looking like I was punched in the face. So, don't say I didn't warn you when you start blubbering like a baby. At least you weren't the only one to do that. *sniff*

I recommend this book to everyone. It is YA, but written simply and well. Younger YA audiences could easily read this, but for concerned parents know there is violence and rape by coercion. It is a book describing atrocities that occurred, but isn't any worse than is presented in the media today. I would suggest to those with young kids to read it first and then decide. It is a book I think parents should read anyway.

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I won Between Shades of Gray on the Goodreads First reads contest.
Shades of Gray is a wonderful and moving first novel by Ruta Sepetys. Set in 1941, prior to the beginning of World War II, Between Shades of Gray is about the life of a young girl and her family.

We meet Lina, her mother and her brother as they are being taken from their home in Lithuania. Lina is unsure as to what is going on, one day she is planning to attend a prestigious art school and the next she is on a train. We follow Lina and her family as they journey into Siberia to a camp where they are forced to survive at all costs. They meet friends and foes on their journey of survival. Throughout it all, Lina struggles to document their story through her artwork.

I really enjoyed Lina's story, as well as how the author portrayed her. Lina became special to me and I found myself unwilling to put the book down. I knew very little about this time period and am now planning to read more about it. As children we learn so much about the evilness of Hitler but so little about Stalin (who is a truly horrible person). I recommend this book to everyone, as this is a piece of history that is all but forgotten.

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Incorporating true accounts and experiences from survivors, this fiction novel follows one girl, fifteen-year-old Lina, and her mother and younger brother through the aftermath of the Non-Agression Pact and Stalin's plans.

It's a frightening story. With the NKVD guard watching, the transported Lithuanians were sentenced to work on a kolkhoz, a working farm, and sentenced for ten years and longer. Farming for beets, digging holes, and only rationed 300 grams of bread per day, Lina and her family struggled to survive. There is no medicine and no warmth during the cold Russian winters at their gulag. Prisoners are starved, humiliated, and die.

Lina's artwork was always startlingly realistic for her age. As several prisoners did based on true accounts that Sepetys gathered during her research, they documented tragedies through writing, drawing, and wood carvings. Throughout Lina's "sentence" in the camps, she tries to draw as much as she can, atrocities forever etched on the scraps of paper she can find.

Fearful for what may happen, though, should they be caught, this evidence was destroyed or buried in the ground and never spoken about. Even after they were released years later, survivors were still afraid of being charged with another crime and returning back to the prisons, so they kept their stories buried.

This is probably one of the best Young Adult books I've ever read. It's an intense and tough subject matter of unspoken history, and the writing is both vividly descriptive and heart-wrenching, but also maintains the authenticity that this is told from a teenager's point of view. Sections that struck me the hardest at times were those that recognized that even in the depths of sadness, there were moments of hope and love.

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Don't let the title fool you!! This book begins in Lithuania in the 1940's and chronicles Stalins reign of terror during the 1940's and 1950's. This was an amazing book. This author did a wonderful job of writing history in a likable, readable fashion. I had no idea all the horrible things that happened during Stalin's reign. I knew Stalin was similar the Hitler in many ways, but I never knew the terror that some many people went through under his reign. This book was a real eye-opener. I feel like I learned something new, but I also really enjoyed reading this book. The Author's Note and interview in the back were also very interesting. Great read!

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During World War II, Fifteen-year-old Lithuanian refugee Lina was taken from her home by the Soviet NKVD along with her mother and younger brother. They were placed on an overcrowded train car and sent to an Internment camp in Siberia. There, Lina and her mother were assigned to dig beets for twelve hours a day. Lina, a budding artist, kept records of her family's journey by including information about her location in her drawings. She attempted to send some of them to her father who she learned was in a Soviet prison. As weeks turn into months and winter sets in, Lina and the other prisoners fight to stay alive.

This is a work of fiction set during a part of history we were never taught in school. The Soviets under Joseph Stalin occupied the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Much like Hitler did to the Jews, many people from the Baltic states were considered enemies of the state and sent to work camps in Siberia. There they were starved, beaten, or worked to death. Millions died in these camps from disease and from the brutal weather.

This story is told from Lina's point of view. We learned about her happy childhood and her work in the camp while trying not to freeze or starve to death. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Emily Klein. I had a hard time with the jump between present and past as there was no warning. Other than that, this book should be mandatory reading for school age children. Everyone should know what happened. My rating: 4 Stars.

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Summary
In 1941 the Soviet Union, led by Stalin, annexed the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Fearing opposition to the annexation, hundreds of thousands of people were sent to internment camps in Siberia. Between Shades of Gray is a moving story of a 15 year old Lithuania girl and her family that were interned in these camps. Lina, her mother and younger brother are pulled from their home in the middle of the night and shipped across Russia in cattle cars. Once at the camp they are forced into hard labor and meager rations. The inhabitants of the camp are forced to deal with cold, exhaustion, disease, and starvation. Tragedy, the will to survive, friendship, and hope are intermingled throughout this beautifully told story of a tragic event in history.


Critical Analysis
This is a powerful story of the human spirit during a shockingly dark event in history. The authentic characters and detailed descriptions make the scenes come alive. Sepetys does not sugar coat the events. Death, starvation, disease and freezing conditions are thoroughly described. Flashbacks are used to provide contrast between the happy family life and the horrible conditions of the camp. They also provide suspense as they slowly reveal the reasons why Linas family was chosen to be interned in the camps. The weakness of this novel is in its ending. I was left wondering what happened to the character in the 50 years between the last chapter and the epilogue.

The strength of the novel is the historically accurate details. The crammed cattle cars, the life in the internment camps, the relationships that develop between the prisoners, and even the fear the characters continued to feel after being released all resonate with a ring of truth. The romance between Lina and Andrius adds a lightness to the dark subject matter of the book. One of the best books I have read this year.

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I'm half way through Between Shades of Gray and I'm having a hard time emotionally going through it. It's an excellent book though, I think I can finish it but my heart aches with every page I read.

This book is great, when I started reading it I didn't think I could go through with it; it made me cry with every page I turned. I thought I would give it 3 stars but the more I read and hung on, my rating increased. Yes, it's hard to read about the horrors inflicted upon others but it's a story that needs to be told again and again so we don't forget how privileged we are to have the freedoms we enjoy today. I gave it 5 stars. At the end I thought the author was going to leave me hanging not knowing whether Lina and her little brother would ever be freed or die frozen in that Siberian forced labor camp. Not knowing is the worst. Have plenty of tissues handy, you are going to need them but it is worth it.

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