Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray       
              

     Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys is the historical fiction story of a young Lithuanian girl named Lina living during Stalin and Hitler’s reign. She was taken by the Soviet soldiers in the night, out of her home and out of her normal life, forced to get on a train with no idea where she was going and if she would live. Her mother and younger brother, Jonas, were taken too. Before the train left, she was able to get a glimpse of her father, who had been taken before them, and knew she would probably never see him again.
After six awful weeks in horrible conditions on the train, living like pigs, they arrived in Siberia, where she and her mother and Jonas are forced to work as beet farmers in a work camp. Workers were forced to sign a contract for twenty-five years of living and working there. Food was scarce and barely enough to keep the works alive. Diseases and sicknesses ravaged the camp. The workers lived in ten-by-twelve foot huts with the villagers and were forced to pay them rent, even though they had no money. Stealing was the only way to stay alive, but if they were caught the soldiers would likely shoot them. The NKVD (the Soviet soldiers) beat, starved, tortured, and killed the people without any purpose or a second’s hesitation or reprimand.
  Andrius, a boy Lina’s age, who lived in the same work camp, was able to give Lina information about her father. She learned that her father was living in a prison called Krasnoyarsk, far from where she was.
After months of living at the work camp, Lina’s group was taken to a freezing island, near the North Pole. The living conditions were even worse and many of the people died, including her mother and almost every person she knew from the train, and there she learned of her father’s death in the prison. She and her brother worked in that place for twelve years before they were released.
I loved this book. It was awesome. I loved the main character, Lina, and her mother. It was so interesting, definitely a page-turner, and really informative. Amazingly well written.
Definitely 13+. Andrius’ mother was forced into prostitution to stop the NKVD from shooting her son. This part is not detailed and leaves it very vague, but mentioned multiple times. The NKVD sexually assaulted the women in the work camps, including the main character, slightly detailed, and a worker makes a crude remark about this. There is some swearing. Also, very violent and graphic.
-Grace