The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: I Must Betray You

Series: Standalone

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Genre: Young Adult, Historical Ficition

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

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? – summary from Goodreads

I Must Betray You is a harrowing, illuminating story depicting life under the Communist rule in Romania during the 1980s.

This book is incredibly illuminating to the struggles Romania went through after WWII. This is not an easy book. There is a lot of deceit and secrets, as well as the hardships of what live was like. There were not enough food, not enough electricity, and way too many informers and reporters. This was a lot, but I think everyone should read it, as it is so informative.

This book follows Cristian Florescu as he struggles living under the Communist dictatorship. His story was incredibly moving, and it was told in the past-tense, as though he was writing it from the future, so there were many asides. I liked that aspect of it. Cristian is recruited as an informer after he is caught with American contraband. One of the things that strikes me the most about this story is how many people were informing and how everybody was being watched. Another thing that sticks in my head is just how much you could get in trouble for- such as having a Coke.

Following Cristian on his journey- being an informer, as well as a dissenter against his government- was incredibly moving and informative. The tension in his own family, not to mention with everyone outside of it, is incredibly thick. The author did not shy away from the harsh reality of living in Romania at this time. The author also did an incredible job of writing Cristian and his complex emotions surrounding his situation. I truly felt like I was right there with him.

We also follow Cristian through the revolution in this book. Those were some of the hardest parts of the book- it was incredibly sad and harrowing. The people in positions of power in this book were truly awful, and again, the author didn’t shy away from this.

The other characters were amazing, and I quite enjoyed them, especially Bunu. He was a wonderful character and inspiration for Cristian. You could tell that all of the characters were keeping parts of themselves hidden, and that everyone had secrets.

This book also had a little bit of a choppy writing style. I really enjoyed that, as it just felt like how the story was supposed to be written. The writing style was still moving and poignant. I will also say that there wasn’t a lot of closure for a lot of the characters, and even at the end you’re not entirely sure of what happened, right along with Cristian.

I Must Betray You is an illuminating book depicting Communist rule in Romania with secrets, spies, and lies.

*This review is short as it is really hard to review this book without spoiling it. It is also hard to write a review of this book because there is so much happening in this book, it is hard to put it into words. I highly, highly recommend reading this book!