Book Review: Between Shades of Gray

By:  Ruta Sepetys
Pages: 338
Release Date: January 1, 2011

Summary: It's 1941 and fifteen-year-old artist Lina Vilkas is on Stalin's extermination list. Deported to a prison camp in Siberia, Lina fights for her life, fearless, risking everything to save her family. It's a long and harrowing journey and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day. But will love be enough to keep them alive?

Rating: 5

Review: This book was everything I expected and more. It was beautiful. It was Gorgeous. It was heartwarming. It was sad. It teaches about about hope when all seems lost and love when it's the saddest times. It warms it warms your heart and tears it apart at the same time.

From the first page to the last the book draws you in and don't want to stop reading. The book is a relatively easy read, but the topic is not so easy. There was so much pain and loss in the book. When someone they cared about died, you get a glimpse at the NKVD doing terrible things to innocent people. The war was so terrible. Set in Lithuania during WWII, it was a terrible time in history.

When people think about WWII they always think about Germany and Hitler and what the Nazi's did, but he was not the only one ripping families apart and causing people pain. In Between Shades of Gray the pain is so raw. You can feel all of it. Even as something may being to look up, the NKVD do another horrible thing to take away their hope.

Lina had so much strength and bravery. She preserved and kept going when it seemed like there was nothing good left to work for. She saw so many terrible things and still kept going because of hope and love.

It really makes me think in perspective. I know that I complain about my life sometimes and this book really makes you realize that most people have it pretty darn good. They were shipped around in cattle cars and were treated worse than dogs. 

Between Shades of Geay is an eye-opening book. It makes you appreciate what you have and it makes you grateful for the life you live. This book is a treasure and the words in it are so moving and powerful. I recommend this book to everyone!

Favourite Quotes:

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

“Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.”

“We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean.”

DFTBA and have an awesome Sunday!
-Janussa