Yes, it's that time again. The time when I do a review, and for once it's not just a review copy. Today, I'm reviewing Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.
I borrowed this from a friend after hearing Salt to the Sea was out, and I'll be honest with you guys... Before reading this, I hated historical fiction with a passion. I didn't even want to pick this up when I realized it was historical. I thought that stuff was so boring and just had no interest in reading it. But when I heard Salt to the Sea was out, I had a real interest in reading it because while I don't enjoy historical books, I do enjoy books about ships sinking because Titanic, guys. I mean come on, you can't say you didn't love that movie and are interested whenever you see documentaries about it on TV. Anyway, I thought that was what Salt to the Sea was about, until I read the full description and realized it wasn't Titanic, but a different ship with even more fatalities. (I feel like I'm going off topic from Between Shades of Gray.) So, long story short, my friend was like, "I have her other book if you wanna borrow it," and I said sure because I'd never read anything by this woman. Dear God, why didn't I ever read her books before?
Between Shades of Gray follows a teenage girl named Lina Vilkas and her family during WWII when they are taken by the NKVD and deported as criminals. They face horrible conditions as they are forced to work for the NKVD in order to survive. Lina faces terrible grief and finds love in this awful time while working under harsh rule.
This book was so good. So, so good. When I finished it, I just really wanted to go back and read it again. It made me rethink everything I knew about WWII, and I absolutely love it when books make me rethink things. This gave me a lot of insight to a different side of a part of history that I didn't know about. I had never really thought about what other countries went through in WWII, I always focused on the Germans and the Jews because that's really all I knew of. Thank you Ruta Sepetys for writing such a beautiful and heartbreaking novel. I now love historical fiction, thanks to this book. I've just started reading Salt to the Sea so I'll most likely have a review up for it very soon. Also, be sure to check out my other reviews and my interview with the authors of Falling For Alice! I'll be doing a cover reveal for Princess of Tyrone by Katie Hamstead tomorrow so stay tuned!
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