A review by spirallycoiled
Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

5.0

This book is about the mass deportation of the people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to slavery in Siberia by Stalin's USSR. I had not heard or read of this side of the story before. So it was very new to me. My heart started to feel heavy right from the first chapter. I frequently imagined myself and my family in that situation and thought what we would do, how we would survive. I didn't even know when tears rolled down my face. Lina's mom is a hero. In fact, all mothers are heroes.

The author summed it up perfectly in her note at the end.

Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.