Between Shades of Gray

Bibliography

Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. New York, NY: Philomel Books, 2011. Print.

Nilsen, Allen Pace, James Blasingame, Kenneth L. Donelson, and Don L. Nilsen. Literature for   

       Today's Young Adults. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.

Summary

In 1941, Lina, fifteen, and her family are forcefully taken from Lithuania as part of Stalin’s “intellectual cleansing” program. She, her mother, and brother are shipped via cattle cars and trucks for weeks before they are imprisoned in multiple Soviet labor camps in inhospitable places such as Siberia and the North Pole. Lina uses hope, her family, and her drawings, to attempt to survive the 6500 mile journey and life in labor camps.

 

Analysis

“Was it harder to die, or harder to be the one who survived?” (Sepetys 319). 

Between Shades of Gray allows the reader to immerse themselves as a prisoner of war in Stalin-era labor camps. The book is “steeped in time and place” and weaves in national pride, religion, and customs, including some of the political issues that led to Lina’s family being persecuted and labeled as criminals (Nilsen, et al. 258). There is a constant sense of danger, confusion, mystery, and even adventure. The characters in this book constantly move between total despair and hope, deep love and mindless hatred, and compassion and cruelty from the guards.  

Unlike many YA novels, the teen protagonist in Between Shades of Gray is not going through her challenges alone. Lina is with her family for the majority of the novel. The reader is witness to their suffering as well as the effect on Lina. Lina is mature and immature at different points. As things get worse, she progressively loses any remaining childhood and becomes a responsible adult trying to survive and protect her family. She has to make a choice to give up or fight for her life. She deals with her new reality by accepting the challenge of having to keep her brother alive by all means. 

Sepetys creates a believable 15-year-old character. She keeps sane by expressing herself and reflecting on her situation through her drawings. It is very easy to relate to Lina’s thoughts throughout her ordeal. Sepetys has a clever writing style, interlacing flashbacks of Lina’s previous privileged life with her current, stark situation. 

To Sepetys credit, several of the guards are also presented as three-dimensional characters. They are experiencing confusion and inner turmoil at having to enforce the brutal, and often inhumane, treatment on the prisoners that is demanded of them. Some of them are prisoners in their own right, just better fed.

Between Shades of Gray would be a good novel for introducing a discussion about Stalin, Communism, and the “intellectual cleansing” that claimed nearly 1/3 of the populations of Estonia, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. Lina’s family was sent to the labor camps and branded a thief and traitor because her father was the Provost at the University and an educated man. Students today could discuss what effect a political move like this would effect them and their family. Additionally, students could discuss current countries that do not allow freedom of speech such as enforcing a tight information barrier to the Internet and media, like in North Korea.

There is much action in the book as Lina and her family try to survive each day. At times, the action seems too thick as there is constant movement from some event to the next. There author needed to better balance mundane existence in a prison camp with more dramatic moments. 

Overall, I would recommend this book to a male or female YA reader because of the historical significance of this novel. Few books capture the history of a prisoner during Stalin’s genocide of the Baltic people. Sepetys’ writing makes this very accessible to a teen audience.