Between Shades of Gray in Crazy Challenge Connection

Mar 23, 2022 Lindsay♫SingerOfStories♫ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2022-reads, ya-historical

If you have read this book, good on ya! If you have not read this book, you should!
If you are like me and you are on the fence about historical fiction, or maybe historical fiction is just not your go-to genre, Between Shades of Gray is an impactful, quick read that you won't regret picking up. I found that the chapters were short, the characters were easy to keep straight, and the world was immersive.

The book is about 15 year-old Lina, who is taken away from her home in Lithuania and charged a ...more

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May 23, 2013 Gina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: award-winners, historical-fiction, race-relations, government, grief, medical-illness-child, psychology, adventure-survival, book-club, environment-outdoors

Goodreads Description- 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, Jonas, slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are f Goodreads Description- 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, Jonas, 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 one of those stories that describes historical events that I had little to no knowledge of even happening. I feel like at some point I have read something about this part of WW2 history but this book really gave me all of the information that I was missing and it was vital information at that. I had no idea that Stalin was targeting the Baltic States specifically and deporting those deemed "anti-Soviet" to remote labor and prison camps in Siberia. Most of the history American's hear is about the Nazi horrors but I think this story is absolutely a must read not only for the historical information but for the actual writing itself.

I loved Lina and her heart wrenching story of everything that happened to her in her 12 years of imprisonment. The imagery used in the novel added to the cold mood. I loved how the author occasionally wrote flashback scenes to when Lina and her family were still home in Lithuania. It really gave the reader an idea of the backstory as to why the family was deported and the events leading up to the invasion. It also alludes to the reader that these flashbacks Lina was having weren't necessarily things she understood or understood at the time they were actually happening. The flashbacks shine a light on the fact that Lina was really just a child...how could she understand...yet she was forced into these labor camps. I imagine that as a child she truly must have been terribly afraid and confused.

There were some lines at the end of the story that those who lived during this genocide want people to look and share the truth. This book is a fantastic opportunity to do just that. It is a simple, yet not simple writing, story that is easier to understand than some heavy history textbook yet the reader learns such an important part of history. It is our duty as a reader to turn to another reader and say "Look at this book and share it". I took the time to review this book to make sure that I do my part in telling other readers that this is a wonderful and important story that is a must read. 5 stars! ...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I had to sit and think about what I wanted to write for a day before I actually tried to write this review. I am familiar with most of what happened during the era this book was set in, but I will have to admit that I knew absolutley nothing of what Russia did to those from Lithuania and the other Baltic States. It was absolutley horrifying how these people were treated. I will never be able to understand how another human being can treat another human being like they are nothing more than a com ...more

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Jun 27, 2017 Rebecca rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2017-popsugar-challenge, 2017-audiobook-challenge, 2017-around-the-year-challenge

If you enjoy reading about a part of world history that you are very likely completely unfamiliar with, I definitely recommend this book. The story is of a teenage girl, who, along with her family, is rounded up from her home in Lithuania in the early days of World War II, and sent to concentration camps in Siberia. This is a time in history when Josef Stalin started taking over the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, essentially erasing them from the map, not to emerge again until ...more

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