"โ€œ๐“—๐“ช๐“ฟ๐“� ๐”‚๐“ธ๐“พ ๐“ฎ๐“ฟ๐“ฎ๐“ป ๐”€๐“ธ๐“ท๐“ญ๐“ฎ๐“ป๐“ฎ๐“ญ ๐”€๐“ฑ๐“ช๐“ฝ ๐“ช ๐“ฑ๐“พ๐“ถ๐“ช๐“ท ๐“ต๐“ฒ๐“ฏ๐“ฎ ๐“ฒ๐“ผ ๐”€๐“ธ๐“ป๐“ฝ๐“ฑ? ๐“ฃ๐“ฑ๐“ช๐“ฝ ๐“ถ๐“ธ๐“ป๐“ท๐“ฒ๐“ท๐“ฐ, ๐“ถ๐”‚ ๐“ซ๐“ป๐“ธ๐“ฝ๐“ฑ๐“ฎ๐“ป'๐“ผ ๐”€๐“ช๐“ผ ๐”€๐“ธ๐“ป๐“ฝ๐“ฑ ๐“ช ๐“น๐“ธ๐“ฌ๐“ด๐“ฎ๐“ฝ ๐”€๐“ช๐“ฝ๐“ฌ๐“ฑ.โ€�

ห—หห‹ โ˜� หŽหŠห— 4.5 ๐•Š๐•ฅ๐•’๐•ฃ๐•ค โ„๐• ๐•ฆ๐•Ÿ๐••๐•–๐•� ๐•Œ๐•ก! ห—หห‹โ˜…โ€ฟ๏ธตโ€� หš โ‚ŠโŠน

Wow! Omg. What a beautiful and heartbreaking story! I can't believe I haven't read anything from Ruta Sepetys until now.

We follow our FMC, 15 year-old Lina Vilkas, her mother, and her younger brother are arrested by Soviet police on June 14, 1941, in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Linaโ€™s father, a progressive university professor, has already been taken. There will be twelve years of withering labor and unspeakable horror in gulags and cattle cars before sheโ€™ll see Lithuania again. To survive, Lina codes secret messages in her artwork and desperately clings to her instincts for kindness and generosity.

Based on first-hand accounts, Sepetys's YA novel charts an immense journey, in every sense, from a middle-class home in Lithuania to a gulag at Trofimovsk in the Arctic Circle.

The bare facts about the genocide perpetrated by Stalin are almost impossible to take in. Then, on the other hand, we have a lucid 15-year old describe a Siberian winter, or how the NKVD waited outside a hospital for the next victim's umbilical cord to be cut, then we begin to get a glimpse of what occurred.

Despite the subject matter, I do think this is a suitable book for young YA readers, as the horrors of war are related as morals rather than gory scenes.

I have to say... my very first impression was, this reads a lot like The Diary of Anne Frank. And although they do sound very similar in voice - a major difference is that we read Frank's words knowing that she is doomed.

Lina, however, tells us at the outset that "It was the last time I would look into a real mirror for more than a decade." So the tension works differently here: what new horrors will Lina have to bear?

It's a compliment of a comparison however you slice it. This book was phenomenal. The writing is poignant and intense. I was pulled into the story immediately and needed to know what happened with Lina and her family.

Incredibly bingeable, sob inducing and heart-pounding. Highly recommend!

โ‹†โœด๏ธŽหš๏ฝกโ‹� ห—หห‹โ˜…โ€ฟ๏ธตโ€� หš โ‚ŠโŠน "

"I really appreciated Jeannetteโ€™s writing style in this book. Sheโ€™s very cut and dry and to the point. No flowery language or metaphors. That writing style made it feel really raw, transparent, and honest. And it very much feels like Jeannetteโ€™s voice.

I would also really recommend the audiobook. It was so incredible to hear her story in her voice.

The book starts out in Jeannetteโ€™s childhood and then progresses to her acting days and then to her adult life post acting. It was a devastating yet eye opening journey to see her come to terms with how much her childhood hugely negatively impacted her life and ruined so many healthy habits she shouldโ€™ve had in her adult life. And to see how the abusive from her mom was a huge huge part of that.

Would highly recommend as long as you check the trigger warnings first!"

John (I want my notifications back) wants to read Camp Lanier