Title: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
My Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Release Date: March 22nd, 2011
My Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.
My Review:
Between Shades of Gray is one of those books that will not only tear into your heart, but devour it. When I started this book I kind of understood what I was getting into, but there was no preparing for what was coming. Ruta Sepetys, you created a beast with this book, and what I mean by that is there is history and some truth in this book, however, there is enough indulgence and intriguing facts and bemusing twists that keep my eyes wet.
Lina coming from Lithuania in 1941, is ripped from her home by the SKVD, the Soviet Union army. A world where she never knew would exist, she is forced from her boy chasing life. Into the world of a slavery, she's trucked off to a camp where a world of men and cruelty in ways I could only have imagined happen to her. There is something about this book that tears into the heart, and if there's not a compassionate heart in the reader this may not be the best pick, but it will enlighten.
Lina's goal of reaching her father, the driving force in every young women's life. It drives her, but not only in her need to reach him, but her desire for art. The work she creates, the need to believe is conveyed through everything she draws. With Ruta's help there's a world conveyed in her words, an art of themselves and I would go so far as to say that Lina lives within her.
Along the way there is a love that grows between Lina and Andruis. A love that I found myself pulled into, a love that even through all the hard times, you wish would keep going, wish would grow and live on and make it through everything. I found myself yearning for more of these love affairs, wanting to see more. And yet when there seemed to be more on the way, the Soviet had other things to say.
Between Shades of Gray is a literary work of art. There is an eye opening expanse of history here, a world in which only few of us will ever know, and Ruta brings it to life. I applaud her, I give her far more than what she's given credit for. I wish her the best, and for her work in this book I encourage any History teacher or any English teacher to pick this book up, give if a read, and please pass it along to a classroom. It deserves it.
Lina coming from Lithuania in 1941, is ripped from her home by the SKVD, the Soviet Union army. A world where she never knew would exist, she is forced from her boy chasing life. Into the world of a slavery, she's trucked off to a camp where a world of men and cruelty in ways I could only have imagined happen to her. There is something about this book that tears into the heart, and if there's not a compassionate heart in the reader this may not be the best pick, but it will enlighten.
Lina's goal of reaching her father, the driving force in every young women's life. It drives her, but not only in her need to reach him, but her desire for art. The work she creates, the need to believe is conveyed through everything she draws. With Ruta's help there's a world conveyed in her words, an art of themselves and I would go so far as to say that Lina lives within her.
Along the way there is a love that grows between Lina and Andruis. A love that I found myself pulled into, a love that even through all the hard times, you wish would keep going, wish would grow and live on and make it through everything. I found myself yearning for more of these love affairs, wanting to see more. And yet when there seemed to be more on the way, the Soviet had other things to say.
Between Shades of Gray is a literary work of art. There is an eye opening expanse of history here, a world in which only few of us will ever know, and Ruta brings it to life. I applaud her, I give her far more than what she's given credit for. I wish her the best, and for her work in this book I encourage any History teacher or any English teacher to pick this book up, give if a read, and please pass it along to a classroom. It deserves it.
