Lina is just 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.
This is a novel about people other then Jews who are effected by the labor camps and WW2. I think many people do not realize that many people other then Jews were effected. The smaller countries were a lot of times were taken a long with the Jews to work. Most of the time it was educated people and their families because they did not want them to rebel.
This story follows Lina, a fifteen year old girl from Lithuanian who wants to become an artist. One day her father goes missing, and the next night her mother, brother, and her are taken and put on a truck and are taken to labor camps. During this time, she draws to tell her father how her family is.
This book was so good. I was crying most of the time, but there were some good times that made me laugh. Sepetys was really good about not making the situation "kind and gentle" like some authors have a problem doing. At times it feels like she is doing this, but as the story goes I realized that the reason it sometimes feels "kind" is because the characters believe that everything is fine and it will get better.
This book was amazing and I think everyone should read it.
5/5- Carson
