It’s Russia in the 1980’s. I love historical fiction but this is definitely a time period and location that I have read very little (if any) about. The lead character goes to a school that seems to be training the next generation of communists, it isn’t willingly either. The students and basically eve Gond it seems are forced to obey certain rules. They are not allowed to say or do much of anything without potentially getting in trouble with the higher powers. There was a mention of how people had to wait to be approved to get onto a list to have a car and that even when they were approved they had to wait for years to get it, then they were only allowed one exact model of car in one of three colors. It’s hard to imagine. The lead character talks of having gun training in school. It sounds like a terrifying place and time to be alive. In this excerpt, the lead character is forced to become a spy to make up for something he did that the government considered to be against their rules. I think this book would be incredibly interesting but possibly very dark. My review is based only on the excerpt. I was still in the middle of reading the excerpt when this review option changed to a full review rather than first thoughts review. I had plenty of thoughts to fill the space though :)