Between Shades of Gray60second Book Review

I'm a latecomer to Between Shades of Gray,
but after reading Out of the Easy, I had to circle back to this book. In case you didn't
realize it, they're both written by the same author. Anyway, I'm glad I did, because upon finishing
this story, all I could say was: Mind.
Blown. There's a universal terror associated with
late-night pounding on the door and officers clearing you out of your home.

But even this
opening, with fifteen-year-old Lina, pulled from her house in her nightgown, wasn't enough
to prepare me for what was to come. Lina and her family are Lithuanian, and what
happens to them in 1941 at the hands of Russian officers is an ethnic cleansing that's unimaginable
in its scope, ruthlessness, and brutality. Lina relies on her art during the family's
horrifying journey to Siberiahoping that it will one day reunite her with her father,
and perhaps leave a record of her story for future generations. But what is art in the
face of certain death? I don't know how you end a book like thisespecially
one that's based on the true story of the massacre of thousandsand that's probably
why it was the one piece of this story that was dissatisfying.

Still, Between Shades of Gray will blow your
mindnot only because of its powerful storytelling, but because of the terrible history it documents,
and immortalizes..