I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys

Feb 2022 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

#1 New York Times Bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal!

A gut-wrenching, startling historical thriller about communist Romania and the citizen spy network that devastated a nation, from the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray.

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?

Master storyteller Ruta Sepetys is back with a historical thriller that examines the little-known history of a nation defined by silence, pain, and the unwavering conviction of the human spirit.

Praise for I Must Betray You:

“As educational as it is thrilling...[T]he power of I Must Betray You [is] it doesn’t just describe the destabilizing effects of being spied on; it will make you experience them too.” –New York Times Book Review

“A historical heart-pounder…Ms. Sepetys, across her body of work, has become a tribune of the unsung historical moment and a humane voice of moral clarity.” –The Wall Street Journal

* "Sepetys brilliantly blends a staggering amount of research with heart, craft, and insight in a way very few writers can. Compulsively readable and brilliant." –Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "Sepetys once again masterfully portrays a dark, forgotten corner of history." –Booklist, starred review

* "Sepetys’s latest book maintains the caliber readers have come to expect from an author whose focus on hidden histories has made her a YA powerhouse of historical ­fiction…Sepetys is a formidable writer, and her stories declare the need to write about global issues of social injustice. For that reason and her attention to detail, this is a must-read." –School Library Journal, starred review

* "Cristian’s tense first-person narrative foregrounds stark historical realities, unflinchingly confronting deprivations and cruelty while balancing them with perseverance and hope as Romania hurtles toward political change." –Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Sepetys keeps readers riveted to this vivid, heartbreaking and compelling novel, locked into every meticulously researched detail. I Must Betray You demands a full investment from its audience--through poetic writing, sympathetic characters, revolutionary plot and pacing, it grips the heart and soul and leaves one breathless.” –Shelf Awareness, starred review

"A master class in pacing and atmosphere." –BookPage

Ratings and reviews

I haven't read all of Sepetys's books, but this one has me running to pick them all up. It was so much better than I was expecting. My favorite thing about this was definitely the setting it explored. I had no idea Romania ever was a Communist country. I had no idea it was ever under a dictatorship. High school history covered the Iron Curtain, but Romania wasn't spotlighted. And that's what this book remedied. It spotlighted the struggles of Romanian citizens. Not the well-off Romanians, just the everyday, ordinary citizens. It was beautiful for that. After finishing it, I felt like I both learned something and entertained myself, it was the perfect balance of both. Another thing I really loved was Sepetys's writing style. She doesn't try and do anything fancy with her writing. Not that it's unrefined, just that it's simplistic. Her books are easy to absorb, which makes the messages hit even harder. The most powerful quotes are delivered with elementary language, and they're heartbreakingly simple. The one thing I did find this to be lacking was an emotional connection. I enjoyed it, and I'll definitely be rereading/recommending it, but I just wanted a bit more from it. Still an amazing book though Thanks to BookishFirst for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars — This is definitely outside my normal genre to read, but I kind of loved how it allowed me to learn of some little known (in the West) history through a fictional perspective. I’m just not as interested in non-fiction, so I loved having this opportunity to expand my horizons while still giving me a compelling story with characters I could connect with. I really appreciated reading the author’s note at the end, so I could see all the research she put into it, and the pieces of others s

Recommended: yes, it's Ruta For Ruta's trademark history that's ignored by American schools (mine at least...), for a story of true events told in one possible existing story, for revolution and oppression and determination and risk, for a bite-history of Romania's not-so-distant past of becoming their own country again Thoughts: As are all of Ruta's young adult historical novels, this is very thoroughly researched in many different ways, from conversations with people who lived during the time to artifacts from it to written works about it and so much more. It really shows in the details of the story how Ruta learned about Romanian's lives. After finishing reading this, I really appreicated the notes at the back with details about references within the book. I was so curious about the woman who dubbed so many western films, and found a name to start my own research into her some more. Even though the Romanian revolution was violent and the rampant fear and tension is evident, the story itself is not too painful. The hardest parts for me to read were when characters discussed the awful things done in the prisons, which would definitely need some sensitivity if reading this book in a classroom. Still, the story carries on forward, and just like life won't stop for horror in one's own life, neither does the story. To be honest, it was almost a bit strange that this book wasn't harder to read considering it's topic. The gravitas felt somewhat limited at times, and while that made it a less taxing read, the feeling of the situation is critical for me. Much like Cristian, I had no idea who to trust. At times I was so overwhelmed that I thought wildly, WHAT IF EVERYONE IS A SPY! so I cannot even begin to think of how it felt to live in that time. I absolutely would have been the boy revealing his secrets in the classroom under stress. The atmosphere of the book is captured perfectly. There's also a very quick pace to this book. Cristian is made an informer by probably page 5, so there's really not much waiting around for tension or mystery or suspense. As I somewhat mentioned earlier, the speed helps mitigate the pain of remembering that though this precise story is invented, the details really are not. This all happened, and so much more. For me, the reflection after the story is where I really set in to my emotions while thinking about all I'd learned. One strange disconnect I had was that the narrator, Cristian, is seventeen years old. At no point in the story did I feel like he was seventeen; I usually had him in my mind as probably 14 or 15. There could be a few reasons for this, and ultimately none of them particularly matter since it didn't especially skew my reading of the story. There were a few moments where his immaturity seemed like an early teen instead of an almost-technically-adult, but people are stupid no matter what, right? He might have felt so young because I'm getting farther away from 17 every day. Maybe it's because in his lifetime, there was so much that he had never experienced, like eating fruit: so yes, of course he's going to seem young and inexperienced to me, an avid eater of kiwis. If you've read any of Ruta Sepetys' other works, you'll find that this is very much in the same vein as her historical YA. And if you haven't yet, you're in for a nice discover. Thank you to Bookishfirst for a free advanced copy. This is my honest review!

About the author

Ruta Sepetys (www.rutasepetys.com) is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Sepetys is considered a "crossover" novelist, as her books are read by both teens and adults worldwide. Her novels Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, and Salt to the Sea have won or been shortlisted for more than forty book prizes, and are included on more than sixty state award lists. Between Shades of Gray was adapted into the film Ashes in the Snow, and her other novels are currently in development for TV and film. Winner of the Carnegie Medal, Ruta is passionate about the power of history and literature to foster global awareness and connectivity. She has presented to NATO, to the European Parliament, in the United States Capitol, and at embassies worldwide. Ruta was born and raised in Michigan and now lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @RutaSepetys.