CW- confinement, war, death, death of parent, trauma, physical abuse, emotional abuse, rape
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Between Shades of Gray: the graphic novel is an adaption of the popular young adult historical fiction by Ruta Sepetys.
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The art was absolutely gorgeous in this book. It really added and enhanced the original book, and I definitely recommend this to fans of the original and those new to the story.
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In terms of the book itself, this story is one of my favorite historical fictions. It is just so raw and hard-hitting, and I can honestly not recommend it enough.
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Beautiful artwork and a powerful story. I am looking forward to seeing the finished graphic novel in full color.

When I heard that Between Shades of Gray was going to be made into a graphic novel I was worried. While I love the story, it is not an easy-to-digest book. There is so much pain and the fact that it is historically accurate makes it that much worse. I also knew that I would have to read it as soon as possible. In some ways, the drawings made it easier to read and in others, it made the story so much worse.

Since I had already read the novel Between Shades of Gray I wasn't surprised by the story. I was also pleased that not much had to be cut out. At times, a lot of information was given in a short period which made it a little confusing but a quick study of the panels always cleared it up. I loved the artwork in the graphic novel. Watching as the characters faded in both their skeleton and in their color was very sad but also drove home how much they were suffering. There were many pages that stood out in my mind. The page where they buried their mother and stood together watching the stars, the page where she found out her father had been shot and his face was slowly covered over by the snow, and the pages that talked about the dividing of countries between Germany and the Soviet Union that had maps as the background. I found it so visually interesting that there were factual maps in the background and the characters in the actual panels.

This is a definite recommendation for me and is ideal for those patrons who enjoy historical fiction and graphic novels..

I adore Rita Septys and her writing. This did not seem accurate to my memory of one of my favorite HF.
I’ve read many e-ARCs and they almost always have typos. That’s the beauty of the books, it’s before they’re perfected and we’re able to glimpse their greatness before everyone else.
But this one was terrible. I really had a hard time understanding a lot of the pages. The sentences are mashed together, sometimes appearing in different places on the page. Sentences are placed in between the lines of sentences, words are not complete or random letters are throughout the page. It really was difficult to decipher.
I’m seeing reviews that it is stunning and beautiful and I can’t help but feel jipped for the condition my copy was in.
I will give this another try with the hard copy when it is published, but for now, I’m sorry to say I do not recommend it.

I was a bit torn on this one. The watercolor wash illustrations are affecting when one comes across the notes and illustrations found throughout the story. But as someone who has read the novel text of this tale, I couldn't help but feel that some of the weight of the story was lost. R. Sepetys writes beautifully, her words interweave in a fashion that plops the reader almost brutally into settings that are uncomfortable, intense and impactful. I am not sure that this translates as strongly to the graphic format. However, that being said, stories like this should come to light and if this venue opens up a new type of reader to some perhaps little-known sections of history... I can see the value. I might not have even quibbled on the impact of this one if I had not read the other version first. So, toss up. I would present it to my sometimes-reluctant reader teens as something that would be worth their time. #netgalley

I am a really big fan of the novel, and really all of Ruta Sepetys' novels. I enjoyed reading this graphic novel adaptation, but found that some of the concepts and events were too much to be in a small text box. I was left wanting to re-read the novel. That isn't really a criticism of the execution of the adaptation, which is partially done by the team that created Illegal, a graphic novel that also has violent atrocities committed against people of particular ethnic groups. I think I personally far prefer this to be a more complete story as it is in the novel, but fully realize that it may reach more people in this way.
I am also a little wary of the way that some younger students like to pick up just about any graphic novel they can find once they start to read things like Babymouse, or Smile, or Phoebe and Her Unicorn, but this is a book that includes a sexual assault and acts of violence that many young readers are not ready to see.
I would be more likely to include this story in my classroom library where I will have greater knowledge of who might be signing it out (as I teach 5/6 and have grade 7s visit to sign out books).
This is a powerful story of what happened in Baltic states during World War 2, in which a family is sent on a train full of other displaced Lithuanians to work camps where they were given treated terribly. A teenage girl is able to survive through the strength of her mind, thoughts of her father, art, and imagining a future beyond these work camps (against the odds). A hard, but uplifting story.

The format is quite bad. Some letters are missing as well as half sentences. Sometimes words or phrases from a previous sentence are found down the page. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I can give this book a rating because I'm unable to understand what's going on and I keep getting drawn out of the story by the format.

The artwork and text were beautifully done. This is a great companion if you read the book or as a supplement if you wanted to know the story. The letter at the end was probably my favorite page as far as artistry.

Between Shades of Gray tells an important story, and one that many people may not know about. I haven't read the original novel, so this was my first experience with this story and these characters. It's very clear that this was based on a novel - it was one of the most text-heavy graphic novels I've read, focusing on the narration rather than dialogue or even the pictures to say what was happening. This made it really difficult for me to get into the story. There were many times that I felt the pictures could have told the story, but the author instead leaned on the narration blocks to do it instead. There were even times where dialogue was told as narration instead of speech bubbles (ie "Hello," he said, rather than just a speech bubble saying hello) which I found particularly odd and distracting.

Again, I think that learning about this part of history is really important, and it's great that the graphic novel will connect more readers to the story. There was a lot of character development and by the end of the book, I found myself caring about what would happen. However, it took me a really long time to get there because of the formatting. While I love graphic novels, in this case I suspect I may have preferred the original novel. I've found this before in novel-turned-graphics - text is grabbed from the book and placed into narration boxes, making it more of an illustrated book rather than a book where the pictures are the driving force of the story. This will work well for some readers, but I personally wished there had been less "telling" and more "showing."

2.5 stars, rounded up.

As someone who has read the original book multiple times, I have to say that this graphic novel is one of the best adaptations I have seen. While some of the pages are a little wordy resulting in text boxes that were initially tough to follow, that would be my only real negative comment. The artwork is astounding, emotive, and fits the story. This is a must-read.

This was outstanding. I love everything Ruta Sepetys and seeing this story in this new format was everything I hoped it would be. Sepetys writes such thought provoking stories that I'm left speechless.

It is hard not to immediately feel for Lina and everything she went through. You want to hug her, tell her everything will be alright, when you know that her story will not end in sunshine and rainbows. Nevertheless, this is a story that everyone should read. I was not familiar with this part of history but I am very glad I took the time to read it. The book is tough to put down once you start reading, as you will immediately be pulled into Lina’s world. You will fall for the characters, the setting, and the journey. It certainly will tug at your heartstrings.

The writing was so strong and flowed beautifully. While reading, I felt as if I was in the ditches with Lina and Jonas – that is how well this story was executed. I have yet to read a more brutally honest story that made me cry tears of pain for the characters. I cannot recommend this enough to all readers. Please do not let the category of ‘historical’ deter you from adding to your TBR. I implore you – please give this new graphic novel a chance.

Thank you Penguin Teen for sending me the graphic novel of Between Shades of Gray to read and review, however the formatting makes it near impossible to line up the text and dialogue with the beautiful artwork, that I have decided to wait until a finished copy is available to review. Thanks!

As a huge fan of Ruta Sepetys's work, I found the graphic novel edition of BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY to be just as good, if not better, than the original. The artwork felt all too real and fitting for this story of loss, suffering, and overcoming oppressions in a place that hates you. Fans of the original or those who are unfamiliar to this story will find this adaptation fitting. Thank you for the e-arc.

The formatting of this "graphic novel was atrocious. The words are not even on the art. The art looks good tho but this is literally impossible to read. Gonna rate 5 stars as the story seems promising.