Publisher: Puffin BooksPublishing Date: March 22, 2011
Genre: YA/Historical Fiction
Pages: 344 pgs
ISBN: 9780399254123
Rating: 5 stars
Summary from GoodReads:
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.
My Review:
This book was such a good read. It was an emotional read and I couldn't put it down. Lina, her mother and her brother are captured and sent to a prison camp. While this book wasn't about the Holocaust it had some disturbing similarities. I took History as a minor in university and I was mostly interested in social history. I loved hearing people's stories and this book was a little piece of someone's life set in a horrific history. Lina is so full of strength and courage and is always trying to take care of others. I also like that even throughout all that she kept her character flaws like stubborness and jumping to conclusions. My only negative with the book is the way that it ended. I don't want to give too much of the plot away but I felt like the whole book was so detailed and I felt like the ending wasn't. That's not to say that it wasn't good I just wanted more. I know this review was short but I really don't think that I can give the book justice. I think it is one of the best books of 2011 and I give it 5 out of 5 stars.
I also loved this book, great review! It's definatelty a book that's hard to describe & one you have to read to feel.
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