sometimes... books... are good...?

i give a lot of negative or mixed reviews on here, but i've read a book recently that i am happy to give a pretty glowing review of: i must betray you, by ruta sepetys. i've read a few of her books before and enjoyed them, and this one--about the fall of communist romania--didn't disappoint. she writes about these awful things, betrayal and surveillance and concentration camps and mass death and all sorts of awful loss and injustice--in a way that makes them easy for teenagers to understand without really dumbing it down. just like, this is the way it was for someone like you in this place at this time, and it sucked, but there was always some small act of resistance that could be done. and i like that she doesn't focus on the most obvious places too. like what american teenager is going to learn about ceausescu romania or francoist spain, right? idk, i just enjoyed it and i felt like i learned something, which was really nice because... hoo boy guys, let me tell you... i am having A Long Week.