I loved the book! As my brother would say, if it's not about some dictatorial and tyrannical government, Kylie won't read it. This was like a YA version of Solzhenitsyn's "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." I loved the characters and the alternate setting (Siberia) with a different group of of oppressed people (the Baltic citizens under Stalin's rule). The short chapters and the flow of the novel moved the story along at a perfect clip. I read it in four hours! I really can't recommend the book enough. Another great selling point of this novel is the positivity of the characters and their morality. As much as I love the book "Night," parents often complain (I'm a teacher) that the text is dark and grisly which it is and rightly so, but this book chose to focus on the virtues the human spirit can display even while enduring awful circumstances. The characters serve one another, share with each other and work together. I don't think the book is naive or unrealistic, it's just a different view of how humans can behave and how they can reject natural instincts toward depravity and selfishness. It was quite beautiful and uplifting. I gave it five stars because it was close to AMAZING...especially for a YA book.