☆ I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

About

Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force.

Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.

Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country. He eagerly joins the revolution to fight for change when the time arrives. But what is the cost of freedom?

Thoughts

I Must Betray You is a chilling look into communism, but a necessary one. This is an eye-opening novel with beautiful themes and lovely characters you'll just want to sneak out of the country and bring to America. The themes are handled very well, and although it's slightly slower paced, by the end you'll want to binge the rest of it to find out what exactly happens.

I think that all readers over age fourteen should read this one because it's such a good look into what was happening in the world less than forty years ago.

Content

Language

Romance

• "h*ll" (used 3 times)

• "sh*t" (used twice)

• "d*mn" (used twice)

• "a**" (used 3 times)

• "b*stards" (used twice)

• took the Lord's name in vain (8 times)

• Undetailed kissing (twice)

• A couple innuendos