I Must Betray You

 I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys, 321 pages.

Under the rule of dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu seventeen-year-old
Cristian Florescu is unwillingly recruited as an informant for the Romanian secret police. Many things are illegal in communist Romania in the 1980s; making fun of the regime, talking to foreigners, accepting American currency, and certainly the secret journal where Cristian records his honest thoughts. Cristian is recorded as an informer, but he's far from the only one, and the mistrust of every citizen for every other is a life-draining weight on the country. Here we follow Cristian as he desperately tries to find a way to have a better life not just for himself, but for his country as well.

As always Sepetys is a master of extremely sad and well-researched historical fiction. This wasn't my favorite of her books (I found the first half a little slow and repetitive), but it was still quite good, and it was good to learn about a historical period I knew literally nothing about going in. I would probably recommend Between Shades of Gray as the better introduction to the author, but this was still definitely worth the read.

Note: Throughout (but especially near the end) there's some pretty graphic violence that may take people by surprise in a young adult book, so be prepared for that.