Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
338 pages

It is 1941 and World War II is tearing through Europe, but the horrific events taking place in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are unknown to the rest of the world. Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas is winding down the school year, and spending her free-time lost in colored pencils and paint, when a knock on her front door changes her life forever. She and her family are taken from their home in Lithuania by the Soviet secret police and are thrown into cattle cars bound for northern Siberia. Along the way, Lina embeds clues into her drawings hoping if they are passed along, they might reach her father, and bring him back to them. In this moving story, Lina will spend the next twelve years fighting for her life as well as others' in the prison camps the world never knew about.

The horrific events that occurred between 1941 and 1954 under the rule of Josef Stalin was a part of history I had never heard of before reading this book. When I first started reading, I had a few questions, so I turned to my grandfather for the answers. We had a really nice discussion, although the topic was not uplifting, and I enjoyed hearing what he had to say (as I always do). I swear, my grandfather should have been a history teacher, he knows so much about the past. He tells me that's one of the side effects of being an avid reader: you learn a whole lot :)

Between Shades of Gray is Sepetys' first novel, and based on the events her Lithuanian relatives faced during this hidden part of history. She says in the author's note, "Speaking about their experience meant immediate imprisonment or deportation back to Siberia. As a result, the horrors they endured went dormant, a hideous secret shared by millions of people."

Sepetys brings to light these tragedies through Lina, her brother Jonas, and their friend Andrius in a way that is sometimes humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking. Interspersed with flashbacks to the past, Sepetys draws parallels to the life Lina used to live, and the one she must now fight for. Between Shades of Gray is a very character driven novel, therefore, in order to love the plot, the reader must love the characters. All of Sepety's characters are drawn to be very real, but the only thing I would have liked more of was more references to Lina's father. A strong connection is developed between Lina and her mother who is described as, "the only sun in the polar night."

Powerful and insightful, Between Shades of Gray, uncovers a hidden section of mankind's timeline in a way its readers are likely never to forget.