Synopsis: “Trapped by an evil dictatorship, will Cristian be forced to betray his family or will he risk everything he loves to resist? A bestselling YA thriller based on real events, from a prizewinning author. Cristian has lived his entire life in the grip of a repressive dictatorship. The country is governed by fear. When the secret police blackmail him, Cristian has an impossible choice. Save the life of his sick grandfather by informing on his family, or risk his life – and all of theirs – by resisting? At 17, Cristian dreams of being free but doesn’t know where to turn. In this climate of constant suspicion, can he trust his best friend, his girlfriend or even his family?  Closely based on the real events of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, this is a powerful, heart-breaking thriller from the author of Salt to the Sea, winner of the Carnegie Medal.”

My Review

This was a fantastic book! I bought years ago, and now I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner, as I loved the author’s previous book The Fountains of Silence.

It was mostly told from Cristian’s point of view, a 17 year old boy living in Romania in 1989, months before the Soviet Union collapsed. I liked Cristian a lot and his grandpa too, they were honest with each other, and were able to speak truthfully about the regime, when hopefully no-one was listening.

There were a lot of suspicious characters in this book, as this was a regime very much like East Germany under the Stasi (Secret Police) where everyone was an informant. You couldn’t trust each other. I can’t imagine what that would be like, although the writing made me feel so claustrophobic. Cristian had to make some very hard decisions every day, whether to become an informant or not, whether to give in so that he could get medicine for his sick grandpa?

As the book got closer to the end the tension ramped up so much that I wanted to take a breath, but I couldn’t stop reading as I needed to know what would happen to Cristian, his family, and his friends.

Highly recommended if you’re looking for a YA claustrophobic thriller set in the 1980s.

Book 3 of 20 Books of Summer 2026