Between the Shades of Gray by: Ruta Sepetys

"Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch..." - from the inside cover 


I currently finished reading Between the Shades of Gray. I really enjoyed this historical fiction book. It was filled with a whole wad of details. The historic place in the book took place in Siberia. The main character of this book was Lina who is a 15 year old girl and she and her family are forced by the Soviet guards out of their house and are forced to go to Siberia. Lina's father was captured before them and was sentenced to death in prison. Lina, at first, was extremely confused why she had to leave from their Lithuanian Home, but it was very hard for them to survive in Siberia as slaves. The Soviet guards were extremely cruel to them. Lina and her mom and younger brother had to stay in a crowded and dirty train car with other Lithuanian people. The  train car had absolutely no bathrooms at all, so people used the bathroom in the wagons! The train car became very stinky so they cut a hole in the train car, where the people can use the bathroom instead of using it in the wagon. Lina's mother tries hard to feed everyone in the cart, but Lina thought her mom shouldn't have been helping everyone especially the old man, who kept on complaining a lot. I also found this interesting quote from the inside cover. Lina and the other people had to get off the train car to go another one, but Jonas was grabbed a Soviet solider, but Lina's mother ran and begged the guard to let Jonas go. Jonas was extremely lucky that his mother knew how to speak Russian, so the mother had to give her pocket watch away(which was given by Lina's father). In felt really bad when I read this because it didn't make any sense to me. The reason why it didn't make sense because Lina's family is completely innocent, is isn't fair that he Soviet guards just violently barge into their house and capture them. After a hard life in the train car, they finally arrive to Siberia, but that's when things get even worse. Lina's father dies in the prison camp, which breaks their mothers heart because she couldn't see him for the last time. Lina is just experiencing  hard labor. Lina ended up with blisters all over her hands, but she and her mom were tortured badly by the guards. The Soviet guards wants Lina and her family to sign a contract, but a very bad contract. The contract stated that they had to work for 25 years, but they refused. So the guards kept shooting random people to scare them, most of them signed because they were really scared. Lina's mother dies at the end of the book because of hard labor. I felt so bad, because her life was completely ruined because of the Soviet Unions. I also felt bad because Lina had to see hoe both of her parents died. At the very end, Lina gets married with a guy she fell in love with, who she met in the train car named Andrius. Lina gets to leave Siberia and continues her life with Andrius.