REVIEW: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

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 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.

I don't like sad books. When I got sent this book as an ARC, I put off reading it so long, it was published before I picked it up. I wish I hadn't waited that long, because: 

Between Shades of Gray is a novel that everyone should read.

I read it quite a while ago, and I am still unable to give an opinion on this book. All I can say is that Sepetys has done an amazing job in evoking emotions and educating people, especially the Young Adult bracket (including myself), who are unaware of the atrocities that were committed to everyday people just like you and me.

I cannot put into words my feelings for this book. The review by Linda Sue Park for the New York Times, entitled "A Teenager's view of the Gulag" does a great job at it, and if you are interested in the book, should read it.

Other than that, 

I think that you should really make up your own mind about this book. 

No matter what genre you are into, you have to read it.

Out Next year!

Look out for these books, out in 2011!

House of Night book 8: AWAKENED Out January 4th 2011

Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa’s House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey. Dominion over her immortal consort Kalona is only one of the weapons she plans to use against Z. But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there. Being Queen would be cool, wouldn’t it? Why should she return to Tulsa? After losing her human consort, Heath, she will never be the same – and her relationship with her super-hot-warrior, Stark, may never be the same either…

And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim? The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie Rae (since she saved his life), but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay with their relationship? Does he betray his father or his heart?

In the pulse-pounding 8th book in the bestselling House of Night series, how far will the bonds of friendship stretch and how strong are the ties that bind one girl’s heart?

BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY out APRIL 2011

Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth?

That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch.

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina is preparing for art school, first dates, and all that summer has to offer. But one night, the Soviet secret police barge violently into her home, deporting her along with her mother and younger brother. They are being sent to Siberia. Lina's father has been separated from the family and sentenced to death in a prison camp. All is lost.

Lina fights for her life, fearless, vowing that if she survives she will honor her family, and the thousands like hers, by documenting their experience in her art and writing. She risks everything to use her art as messages, hoping they 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, and it is only their incredible strength, love, and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day. But will love be enough to keep them alive?

Between Shades of Gray is a riveting novel that steals your breath, captures your heart, and reveals the miraculous nature of the human spirit.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis Out 22 March 2011

Trapped in space and frozen in time, Amy is bound for a new planet 300 years away. But fifty years before she's due to arrive, she is violently woken, the victim of an attempted murder.