I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I Must Betray You

By Ruta Sepetys

YA Historical Fiction

Ages 13+, grades 7+

Summary Cristian has lived all of his 17 years in the Socialist Republic of Romania. He is a quiet, observant student with an apparent rebellious streak– not something that is heralded under the Communist tyranny of Nicolae Ceausescu but that is encouraged and fed by his grandfather, Bunu. He constantly ponders the nature of his existence, wondering if high schoolers in other countries have to stand in line for cooking oil, or whisper in their own homes to avoid surveillance. Deep down, Cristian knows the answer and detests the oppressive government that keeps Romanians in a perpetual state of poverty and fear, and he journals about it in a forbidden notebook he keeps tucked in the floorboard of his closet bedroom. But when his Bunu falls terminally ill with leukemia and he is recruited by the secret police to become an informant on an American diplomat in exchange for medicine, Cristian accepts the offer. He believes he can outwit them long enough to help his grandfather, but the revolution is reaching its peak more quickly than he knows and bringing with it tension and violence that complicate his plans and endanger him and everyone around him. He risks everything to expose his country’s reality to the rest of the world, and in the end finds both disorienting betrayal and spectacular hope.

Justification Historical fiction is my favorite genre, as well-researched and well-written historical fiction is my favorite way to learn about what life was like in a given place and time. I know very little about Romania or the Communist movement outside of the broad historical facts around the Russian Revolution, so picking up I Must Betray You opened up brand new territory for me. The cover is beautiful and the summary was engaging enough for me to land without hesitation on this book for my final review, but it doesn’t begin to do justice to the story itself.

Response I did not want to put this book down, and looked forward to every moment I got to sit back down with it. Constructed of short, pacy chapters, this book keeps the reader hanging on. Author Ruta Sepetys does a phenomenal job of showing the human impact of living under oppressive regimes like that of Ceausescu– not only the hunger, poverty, and reprehensible conditions, but the crushing distrust, anxiety, and isolation that keeps everyone on the edge of a breakdown. Cristian is a great character, he is imperfect and has a teenage naivete and occasional arrogance that makes him believable, but not unlikeable. The persistent internal monologue of his grappling with his country’s situation, the ethics and ramifications of his own choices, and his growing understanding of how the rest of the world lives is spot on to an intellectual teenager, and he and his peers offer a powerful illustration of the real-life youth who led the revolution in 1989. The age of the protagonist is the only thing making this a “YA” novel, as its themes are far from juvenile and Sepetys' writing is top notch. I highly recommend this for readers high school and up.

Sepetys, Ruta. (2022). I must betray you. Philomel Books.