Genre: YA Contemporary
Published: April 3, 2012 by Speak
Length: 338 pages
Source: bought
“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. “
Between Shades of Gray is such a beautiful and impactful story. Readers will be hooked on from start to finish because of the beautiful writing style and relatable characters. If you are looking for a contemporary read that will make you feel “all the feels”, then this is the one. The book is divided into 3 parts and is told in 1st p.o.v. from the main character Lina. Lina is a fifteen year old who lives in Lithuania with her parents and little brother Jonas. She tells us what she and her family experiences during WWII through her drawings. I could not stop reading this because I felt so attached to the characters that I really wanted to know whether the characters will be reunited with their loved ones at the end. This book made me feel sad, happy at times, hatred, and just lots of emotions.
There is a bit of a romance in this book and I absolutely loved it! I loved Lina and Andrius’s (a boy that she meets while being taken to a camp) relationship and how they got each others’ backs. I admire them for taking risks, and for just being strong and hopeful. This book was also a reminder for me that I should be thankful and appreciative of what I have right now. It’s crazy how this is part of our history, and I hope it won’t repeat. What the characters had to go through just disgusts me. They did not deserve being called “fascist pigs” and being shot in the head just because they were mourning for their loved ones who died. I really loved Lina and her brother Jonas because when a lot of people were giving up, they pushed through. I also love how the people they were with were not greedy. They receive bread for rations, and if one was sick, they would sacrifice their ration to that person. It just made my heart melt! Ugh. I love this book.
I honestly don’t have words for this book. You should just read it asap. I promise you, you will not regret it.
