I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another MUST READ from Ruta Sepetys; I have read and loved all her historical fiction books and this one was particularly hard to read, like Cristian Florescu I was forced to bear witness to the horrors of 1989 Romania and dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife for 24 years. Just like The Fountains of Silence, Cristin and all the Romanians live in abject fear and watch as the world is left in the dark about the horrors (starvation, forced to be informants against friends and family, monitored by security 24/7 ). Cristian's family has been held hostage by Ceausescu's spies, his mother and father have changed, his philosopher grandfather continues to rail and speak out (Cris loves his fight and honesty). When he is approached and forced to spy (hence the title!!!) he is determined to outwit them, but at every turn, the spies know what is going on...as Cris is plunged into self loathing, doubt and fear---he grows closer to Lilliana Pavel (whom he has cared for from afar for years). Cris is forced to spy on the American ambassador) VanDorn family son, Dan. After seeing Dan's notebook, Cris begins his own notebook of thoughts and poems, I loved this coping mechanism, and how he decides to use it. The informer top secret files were interspersed and were totally awful---who was undermining Cris and reporting back to Paddle Hands? This is such an important read for all; it is another example of people in history suffering under Communism, under a dictator that prospered while he sowed fear amongst his people. Such a thoroughly researched book, and I needed the epilogue and author notes for further knowledge.

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