Blame It On the Books

“Have you ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning, my brother's was worth a pocket watch.” Where do I even begin? Maybe I should start this off by saying how much I am fascinated by WWII and yet I hate that it even happened. Everyone would remember Hitler, but no one I knew would ever talk about the Soviet Union whenever the topic of WWII was brought up. I thought the Jews had it bad, but Lina, along with her family and companions, are treated like cattle in Between Shades of Gray.I was filled with a huge amount of grief while reading this. It's definitely on the heavy side. I felt my self sympathizing with Lina and everyone else; what they went through was just unfair and unjust. I wanted to punch something because I was so angry with it all, but I couldn't because all this already happened. For some reason, I found myself hoping that this book would get a happy ending, because after all that pain and suffering I couldn't imagine that there would be more, but what I got in the end... I don't even know how to feel about it.Lina's journey is accompanied with beautiful writing that told about rays of hope, not even vague descriptions of despair, friendship and family. This book is really bittersweet because some moments really brought a huge smile to my face. I could compare those moments to the moments the people had that brought happiness to them even if it was just for a while. I can't believe I thought historical fiction was boring. It clearly is not.Between Shades of Gray is a courageous story that should be told to everyone. Because after all, after those who have experienced WWII die, who will tell the horrors and history?