Reviews tagging 'Death'

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

63 reviews

booktalkswithregina's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I always have a hard time rating memoirs. How to rate someone's life.
This is a story of overcoming the cruellest conditions. 
A story of survival and loss. Incredible pain and suffering, but also resilience and strength. I already knew a lot about North Korea, but this book still shocked me. Very hard to read and comprehend even.
After finishing, I was left amazed by the human capacity to overcome anything and everything.4

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Death, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Moderate: Torture

kirstenpod_'s review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cancer and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcoholism and Genocide

ajsterkel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

I didn't like it, which is a terrible thing to say because it's a memoir. I feel like I'm judging somebody's life. Maybe this is why I don't read more nonfiction.

The author was born in North Korea and didn't have an easy childhood. When she was 13, her and her mother escaped into China and became victims of human trafficking. They jumped from one bad situation into an equally bad situation. It's a brutal story to read.

Aside from the difficult subject matter, most of the book is fine. The writing isn't great, but I can forgive it because the author doesn't have the same education level as other writers.

I think the pacing is too fast. I kept wishing the author would slow down and give more details. I wondered how she learned Mandarin faster than the other kidnapped refugees, and why she was so valuable to human traffickers that they were willing to "go to war" for her, and why her mother allowed a 13-year-old to make so many important decisions for the family. I wanted more information!

Then, a paragraph at the end of the book slightly ruined everything for me. The author admits that her story has changed multiple times. She gave different accounts to different journalists. Instead of telling the truth, she told reporters what she thought they wanted to hear. She says, "I was reacting, improvising like a jazz musician playing the same melody a little differently each time, unaware that there might be people out there keeping score."

My brain went in two directions with this. First, I said, "She obviously lived through something traumatizing. Of course she's not going to spill her secrets to every reporter who asks a question." The second part of me went, "Nooo! North Korea is a vault wrapped in propaganda. Changing your story will muddy the waters and cast doubt on the stories of other refugees." The North Korean government is going to grab these inconsistencies and use them to discredit survivors and keep people trapped.

I don't know what to think about this book. I'm not mad that I read it, but I can't recommend it to other people. I lost trust in the author. How do I know I'm reading the real story right now? Does it even matter if I'm reading the real story? 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Colonisation, Trafficking, Cancer, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Chronic illness, Deportation, Abandonment, Classism, Confinement, and Death of parent

ernie_8's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Blood, Classism, Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cancer and Confinement

Minor: Alcoholism and Abortion

ell_n's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

4.0

An incredible story, beautifully written 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Trafficking, Pedophilia, Self harm, Suicide, Death, Cancer, Rape, Abandonment, and Slavery

Moderate: War

graff_fuller's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.25

Do we ever really know why we pick up a book...and start reading it? Was it the cover? Was it the topic? Or could it be that we desire to know the story being told is going to TOUCH us...change the way we feel about [whatever the subject is]. 

I love biographies, but autobiographies are even better. "Straight from the horse's mouth", as they say.

The traumatic escape of Yeon-mi Park from N. Korea, to China, to Mongolia, to S. Korea, onward...to where she now lives in America.

The peak behind the curtain of what is actually going on in N. Korea is amazing (in a bad way). Also, to read about the propaganda machine that is at work in N. Korea...for 70+ years, so that not even S. Koreans know HOW different these two cultures are now.

To hear about empathy and love being devoid in the average N. Korean. Seeing public executions and dead people in the streets...as normal events. Being sold into slavery and prostitution, just to survive and escape...for slavery and prostitution are one thing, but HUNGER is worse. Anything, just to eat food.

None of us in the US can understand these things, which I'm glad for, but we need to educate ourselves. We do not agree with the leadership of N. Korea, but the people of N. Korea are enslaved, themselves to this dynasty and deserve our pity. The need to help other escape this hell hole...as Yeon-mi says, it is the DARKEST place on the earth. If you look at satellite photos of the area...there are very few lights, compared to the bordering countries...it looks like a black hole swallowed the entire country. Shortages of electricity, food, are necessities normal...and this is how the leadership keeps the people in check.

You really have to read it in her own words. She escaped when she was 13, but it wasn't until years later that she truly had freedom from the oppression that ALL people of N. Korea accept as NORMAL.

Share this story to your friends and family. It is a VERY sad tale, but she's come out of it, scars and all...and is trying to shine a light on N. Korea...so the world will come to its (the enslaved people who live in this country, under THIS regime) rescue.

I'm so happy that I picked this book up and read her story. There will be images that I won't be able to get out of my head, but maybe this will help people to help these downtrodden people.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death, Trafficking, Bullying, Confinement, Death of parent, Deportation, Murder, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

nidhimoney's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Torture, War, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Bullying, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Sexism, and Violence

brittsbooknook's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

Loved reading the story of her upbringing and escape from North Korea (and then from China). She went through so much; she's a survivor.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Violence

Moderate: Death, Rape, and Death of parent

vintage_library's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

5.0

A heartbreaking true story which sheds light on the cruelty and inhumanity of the Kim regime. Park puts herself in extreme danger by telling her story, in hopes of raising awareness and support for those trapped under the North Korean dictatorship. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Rape, Child death, and Death

absolute_bookery's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Harrowing, terrifying, brutally honest and incredibly sad - a story of hope and escape for freedom that will inspire and educate you in equal parts. Just wow.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Police brutality, Slavery, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Hate crime, Violence, War, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts