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A review by cassmccaff
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
4.0
I lived in the Baltic countries for a year and a half, serving the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Learning Russian, as well as their native languages. I honestly had no idea what their past had held until I lived there.
This book is good. It tells the story well, it is sad but not too terribly graphic. The characters are well developed and I was interested. I wouldn’t say that this book is so captivating or a page turner but the story that it tells is very important to me. And the authors story of why she wrote it at the end is also really good.
I gave this book 4 stars because the book itself was just fine. The true story however, is what one that needs to be told.
It’s important to understand that this is not a story about the holocaust. This is not Hitler and the Jews. This is Stalin, and his mission to wipe out all of the Baltic people that he did not believe were devoted to him. And they weren’t liberated at the end of WWll like the other death camps. They were there for much longer, some of them never even returned. Russia occupied the Baltics up until 1991. Over 50 years, they were under Russia’s command. The Baltic people have quite a history. I visited there labor camps and there were beautiful. Every camp left you with a message of hope, that we will not be broken. I found that very inspiring despite what they have been through.
This is a piece of history that is not talked about often enough. So I do recommend this book. I believe this story is very important to know.
This book is good. It tells the story well, it is sad but not too terribly graphic. The characters are well developed and I was interested. I wouldn’t say that this book is so captivating or a page turner but the story that it tells is very important to me. And the authors story of why she wrote it at the end is also really good.
I gave this book 4 stars because the book itself was just fine. The true story however, is what one that needs to be told.
It’s important to understand that this is not a story about the holocaust. This is not Hitler and the Jews. This is Stalin, and his mission to wipe out all of the Baltic people that he did not believe were devoted to him. And they weren’t liberated at the end of WWll like the other death camps. They were there for much longer, some of them never even returned. Russia occupied the Baltics up until 1991. Over 50 years, they were under Russia’s command. The Baltic people have quite a history. I visited there labor camps and there were beautiful. Every camp left you with a message of hope, that we will not be broken. I found that very inspiring despite what they have been through.
This is a piece of history that is not talked about often enough. So I do recommend this book. I believe this story is very important to know.