It’s 1989 and Christian Florescu lives in Romania under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After the secret police blackmails Christian to be an informer and spy on Americans. In a society built by fear and mistrust, Christian wants to save his grandfather and wants to stay out of trouble so he agrees. Christian uses his connections with the Americans to spread the truth about Ceaușescu and shed light on Romanians living under his harsh rule. When the time to fight comes, Christian is one of the firsts to stand up. However in a place where everyone has something to hide not everything can come out clean.
The whole book from start to finish was captivating. The part where Christian really commits to his journal filled with anti-sentiments about the dictatorship of Ceaușescu was the most captivating. Christian plans to make his journal seen by many outside of Romania to spread the word. This book is perfect for anyone, it doesn’t matter if they read YA or adult. Sepetys does a good job of informing readers who are completely unaware of the Romanian revolution and life under this dictatorship.