Ruta Sepetys’s “Between Shades of Gray.”
Reviewd by Evelina Vindasius
Between Shades of Gray, written by Ruta Sepetys, is realistic and historical fiction book that I did not want to put down. The combination of dangerous suspense, characters that a teenager can relate to, and the story that is part of my country's history, made even someone who does not like reading (like me), turning the pages. When I was growing up in Lithuania, I sometimes heard about older people who had been sent to Siberia by the Russians after WWII. So, I was surprised that there is a novel about this part of Lithuanian history, especially because this horrific period of history is not well known.
This story is written in first person from the perspective of a 15 year old girl named Lina. When the story opens in 1941, Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, Jonas, get separated from their father and are taken by the Russian soldiers into a big, dark truck, full of other people from the neighborhood. Their story gets worse from there. They are transported by train in cattle car for many weeks and are forced to work in different labor camps. They are given very little food or shelter and many of the people become sick and too weak to survive. Their tragedy goes on for 12 years.
Even in this tragic story, relationships between the characters form. One of the characters that stand out is Lina’s mother because she tries to keep everyone positive and makes huge sacrifices to help her children and the other prisoners survive. The relationship between Lina and a 17 year old Andrius, who met on the train, is complicated because of what they have to do to survive in these difficult circumstances. Relationships also develop between the Russian soldiers and these Lithuanian prisoners. It tears at your emotions to see how people react when they are forced to treat other people in ways that they would never do in normal society.
While this book is written for young adults, grownups would also love the story and learning about this unknown part of European history. The story is pretty intense and there are some scary parts that will make you cry or mad. I can’t imagine surviving for 12 years in cold, gray, and barren regions of Siberia, but it is a good thing that some people survived and were able to tell their story. The author interviewed her relatives and many old survivors to paint a picture of this heartbreaking period of time.
Overall, Between Shades of Gray is an excellent book that I highly recommend for teenagers and adults. I found it really interesting because I’m Lithuanian, but people of all nationalities may learn something not only about the Cold War history, but also how the human spirit can rise above the worst circumstances.
Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. New York: The Penguin Group, 2011. Print.
