Calling All Fans of Historical Fiction!

The novel I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys is one of my favorite historical novels I’ve read in 2025!

I Must Betray You is set in communist 1989 Romania. We get to visit this time period through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Christian as he lives in a country filled with secrets and fear. There was no way to know who could be trusted and who was safe. Christian didn’t even know if he could be trusted.

When the secret police forces Christian into becoming an informant and becoming an enemy to his friends and even his own family, this young teenage boy is thrown into the midst of his own battle.

I Must Betray You is an incredibly well written novel that brings the terrors of Romania in 1989 to light. It’s heartbreaking to read in vivid detail about all that these people endured in order to survive.

Books like this are important. It’s not always easy to read about these topics because there are so many things in history that are awful and terrible. It’s important to never forget those things- lest humanity makes the same mistakes time and time again. While we cannot change our past history, we can work together to make our future promising.

This book is best suited for the high school audience and above due to the mature themes and topics. There are many graphic scenes as well as hard topics discussed. There is also infrequent use of language such as sh*t, d**n, and h*ll.

I really enjoyed this book, and I think you will too.

Content warning-

Police brutality, physical violence, language, graphic depictions of war, violence against women.

Overall Rating- 5 stars

Age rating- 14+