between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys

This book is about the Lithuanian deportation to Siberia by the Soviets during WWII. Although this book is a book of fiction, it is based on the stories of many survivors of these deportations.

            I remember learning about WWII in high school, but it was from the American point of view. We learned that Hitler and the Japanese were the bad guys in the war. I don’t remember learning much about the Soviets. They fought against Hitler, so they must have been good, right. Actually they were not. I’ve learned from reading this book and others about WWII and other wars, that there are really no set good guys and bad guys. There are good and bad people on both sides of any war.

            This book was a real eye opener. Stalin was just as bad as Hitler in many ways. He conquered the Baltic countries: Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Within these countries he deported many of the educated people because they could teach others and spread ideas that would be considered anti-Soviet. These individuals went through many of the same hardships and torture as the Jews did under Hitler’s regime.

            between shades of gray is a well written book that shows the cruelty of war, the will to survive, and the generosity of those that tried to help the deportees.

            If you can not handle the graphic telling of what happens during war, then this book is not for you. If you are interested in learning a little more about what some people went through during the horrors of WWII, then give this book a try. It is an easy read, there were places where it was very difficult to put the book down.

Additional Review:  After reading Jennifer's review I decided that I really wanted to read this book.

If I didn't know any better, I would have thought this book was about how Nazi's treated Jews because the parallels were right on.  I always new Stalin was a bad guy (even though Russia and the US were technically allies in WW2) and I knew that he treated people like crap and had even heard that he was responsible for more deaths than Hitler but I didn't realize that the treatment of the people who died (and survived) was so similar.

I'm a big fan of WW2 survival stories.  There can be a lot of gruesome stuff in these books but there is usually one underlying message in all of them: people in need help other people in need.  After some background information is one of my favorite excerpts from between shades of gray: 

A little background, these people were living in the arctic circle during the winter (the sun didn't rise for months) with absolutely nothing.  The narrator and a friend found a dead owl and determined to take it back to their living space (their "jurta" made out of sticks and mud) to cook it (on a stolen stove) and eat it.  The owl was too big for the narrator to hide under her coat (had to be hidden because it would have been taken away had the Soviet army seen her with it).


"People I didn't know formed a circle around me, sheltering me from view. They escorted me safely back to our jurta, undetected. They didn't ask for anything. They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren't to benefit. We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean.  I realized that if we boosted one another, maybe we'd get a little closer."


I think it is really telling that a group of starving people would help one person hide food.  They could have demanded that she share it with them.  They could have turned her in out of spite or jealousy.  They didn't.  They helped her for the sake of helping, for the sake of having a cause - something to live for.

between shades of gray was an excellent book and an easy read; I think I finished the first 50 chapters in one sitting.  I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who can handle the more disturbing aspects of war.

Andrea