Between Shades of Gray

*Audiobook Review

Appears I'm in the minority here. Let me start off with this: World war II was brutal, and this book covers a very important topic. It is a solemn reminder that non-jews were also affected and persecuted. In this case, it focuses on the Lithuanian people.

So why two stars?
- Audiobook narration. Oh god... where do I start? It was like Barbie narrating the holocaust. There was too much bubbly personality shining through. It was great for the flashback scenes, but completely took me out of their suffering. Made it sound like they were at a summer camp.
- Cliche love interest, hold heroine, artistic, misunderstood enemy, etc. Honestly, felt like the publisher made her include these to qualify as a YA novel. I enjoyed the non YA cliche moments.
- Ridiculous main character. She was outspoken, made brash decisions, stole, fought back. Maybe some real prisoners where like that, but I expect she'd have been shot the first time she spoke out.
- unrealistic. A man with a broken leg survives, while women are murdered for sobbing. Yes, it's eventually explained, but it was far fetched.

Was there any good?
Yes!
- suffering. There were some incredibly heartbreaking scenes. They reminded me of classics like Schindler's List, and The Pianist. I thought they were very strong images that young readers should be more aware of.
- theme/plot/story. The story was strong. I didn't know about the Lithuanian tragedy before this book. I applaud it for brining attention to their suffering.


Overall, The topic was incredibly important, but the YA stereotypes cheapened the story. The audiobook narration was way too bubbly and ruined the book. I know I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it in regular book format.

Usually when my husband comes to bed I'm already asleep but the last couple of nights when he turns in for the night I was still up reading this book and he would say “you must really like that book”. I don't know if I would say I like it, its not an enjoyable book. It was hard to read but I couldn't put it down and last night when my husband was ready to sleep I only had a few pages left so I continued to the end wanting to see what note the author chose to leave the book on and she ended it thankfully on a bit of hope. After reading the horrors the characters went through (horrors based on true stories) I was grateful the little bit of hope she gave in the end. This was such an important story to tell and one I had not known about until I picked it up. I highly recommend it to everyone.

I wish I could give this more stars. What a powerful and terrifying book. Terrifying because it was real. Terrifying because stuff like this is still happening around the world to some point. It shows how evil and bad mankind was in the course of history and still is today. But it also never stops to show the different side. Love and care within people, even in the darkest of all hours. An important story.