Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Title: Between Shades of Gray
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publisher: Philomel Books
Publication Date: March 22, 2011
Edition: ebook (368 pages)
Genres:

• Fiction
• Historical Fiction
• World War II Fiction

Literary Awards:

• Georgia Peach Book Award Nominee for Honor book (2012)
• SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Fiction (2012)
• William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2012)
• Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2013)
• Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2012)
• Indies Choice Book Award for Young Adult (2012)
• Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Nominee (2012)
• Lincoln Award Nominee (2016)
• Cybils Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2011)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2011)
• Carnegie Medal Nominee (2012)
• Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2014)

My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

The year is 1941, and World War II is raging. Lina, her brother, Jonas and their parents live a comfortable life in Lithuania. First, Lina's father is taken away, and, not long after, Soviet officers bang on the door, in the middle of the night, and force Lina, Jonas and their mother to pack a few meager belongings and leave with them. They are being deported without knowing where their journey will end. It ends in Siberia at a labor camp where they live virtually out in the open.

Although this book is historical fiction, it is based on experiences of real life people who were deported and often spent a decade or more in hard labor in Siberia and other places within the Soviet Union. The conditions described in this story are unbelievably harsh, but the story is about the ability of the human spirit to survive and the will to live. The writing is extraordinary, beautiful and compelling.