Between shades of gray is a captivating book about the life of a 15 year old Lithuanian girl called Lina and her experiences with Soviet guards. She shares her stories about how her mother, her brother and herself are thrown into cattle cars and deported. The book tells tales about how she was sent away to Siberia and her fight for survival and how hope is all she had. It is an emotional book about strength, young love and survival even in the toughest of conditions. It has the potential to make anybody cry.

Lina uses art to keep her moral up, she may never see her father again but even in the hardest of times she finds a way to use her artistic talent to keep herself hopeful. She documents her life through her artwork, at the risk of death, hoping these messages will make their way to her father so he will be able to find them once again. She is forced to work in exchange for her life. The story let’s us have an insight on what it was like to live and work in one of Stalin’s gulags. It shows a side of World War II that many people may not know about. It is a brutal book but worth the read; however if you are easily upset by the type of things this book has to offer it may not be for you. Ruta Sepetys does a wonderful job and portraying what it would have been like to like in a gulag. It is such a wonderful book even though it is quite grim to say the least. It shows many harrowing truths that I myself never knew about.

This book will capture your heart and steal your breath.