In a blush-worthy case of mistaken identity, Ruta Sepetys’ historical YA novel, Between Shades of Gray, is finding itself routinely mixed up by readers (and booksellers) with E.L. James’ bestselling S&M erotica book, Fifty Shades of Grey, reports Christian Science Monitor. And the two books couldn’t be more water and oil. Between is the story of a 15 year old Lithuanian artist named Lina who is abducted with her family by Stalin’s NKVD (secret police) and sent to work in a series of grueling labor camps where they experience wracking starvation, sub-zero conditions, and unbearable cruelty. It’s an uncommonly soulful book – poetic and empathic, horrifying and shocking – that reveals how art can save one’s soul and honors – through the survival story of one resilient teen girl – the unsung millions of Baltic people deported, enslaved and/or murdered by Stalin’s Soviet regime. (Read more about the book in the Loft review here). James’ Fifty Shades involves a U.S. college student and her sexual entanglement with a wealthy man named Grey who has a penchant for spanking and domination.
