Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

*Review created for Texas Woman’s University graduate level class*

1.       BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sepetys, Ruta. 2011. BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. London. Penquin Group. ISBN 978-0-14-242059-1

2.       SUMMARY

Lina Vilkas is a fifteen year old, opinionated, outspoken and intelligent girl.  She dreams of becoming an artist and attending an art school in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.  Her dreams are shattered when one night the NKVD barge into her home and arrest her, her brother Jonas, and her mother.  She later learns that her father is being sent to a prison, away from the rest of them, her and the rest of her family is sent to Siberia first, and then later to a village near the North Pole.  Her story becomes a story about survival; surviving the below freezing temperatures of the Arctic, the systematic starvation, the demanding labor, filthy conditions, the constant threat of separation from her family, and death.  Her story is one of love, and a story of hope that she and her family will be reunited and will make it back home.

3.       CRITICAL REVIEW

Sepetys presents a heartbreaking story about the Soviet imprisonment and murder of thousands of innocent people from Europe.  Lina is likeable, and young adults can readily identify with her and her art.  Lina’s worldview is black and white, right and wrong, and we see her identify herself as an artist, heavily influenced by Munch, in “shades of gray”.  Many historical novels tend to sugar coat the more tragic, despicable , or horrible moments in our world history.  Between Shades of Gray is a heartbreakingly authentic account of one of history’s most shameful moments.  The novel takes place in 1941, during World War II.  Sepetys provides haunting descriptions of the landscape that passes through the hole in the train, the village in Siberia, and the village of Trofimovsk.  Lina describes one of the last looks she has of her native Lithuania, “flowers burst with color against the June landscape.” Her description of Troimovsk is that of a desolate wasteland, “it was completely uninhabited, not a single bush or tree, just barren dirt to a shore of endless water.”  Other descriptions include the filthy living conditions she is forced to endure, “the smell of rotting flesh had become unbearable in the hot car. It made me retch.” 

Overall, young adults will want to learn more about the events of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States.  Many of the deportees of these countries never made it home again because of the slave labor conditions, lack of food, shelter, proper clothing, and lack of medical care.  The conditions of filth they were forced to live in were more than appalling, and are reminiscent of the concentration camps of Germany.  “My head was curdled from the stench, and I itched terribly.  Lice were biting down the side of my hairline, behind my ears, and in my armpits.” 

4.       REVIEWS

Starred Kirkus Review

“This bitterly sad, fluidly written historical novel tackles a topic woefully underdiscussed in English-language children’s fiction: Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror”… Kirkus Reviews

“A harrowing page-turner, made all the more so for its basis in historical fact, the novel illuminates the persecution suffered by Stalin's victims”… Publishers Weekly

5.       CONNECTIONS

Read A World Apart: Imprisonment in a Soviet Labor Camp During World War II by Gustaw Herling

Discuss the similarities and differences between the Holocaust and the Soviet Occupation during World War II

Read Night by Elie Wiesel

Works Cited

Kirkus Reviews. "Between Shades of Gray." Accessed July 27, 2012. http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sepetys-ruta/between-shades-gray/#review.

Publishers Weekly. "Children's Review: Between Shades of Gray." Accessed July 27, 2012. http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-25412-3.

Final Thoughts

“Evil will rule until good men or women choose to act.”  Ruta Sepetys
It is my hope that we will always remember the horror in our shared past, so history will not be doomed to 
repeat itself.