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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
I am looking forward to our discussion of this book in our book club Global Reads. The extent to which humans can go for survival is mind boggling. This book certainly celebrates the resilience of human spirit while shedding light on the plights of thousands of North Koreans who are held captive by an authoritarian government in inhuman conditions by systematic brainwashing from a very early age.
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Hearing Yeonmi Park's story is surreal. It just doesn't seem possible that she made it though so many impossible situations. Heartbreaking.
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I have to be honest I was dreading reading this book knowing that I would be horrified. Could not find the "right" moment for such a heavy book and in the end, I brought it with me on a trip to Thailand. It was the best idea ever, it turns out, because it got me crying in public. I would like everyone around me including family, friends and complete strangers to read this book. I hope they'll experience crying episodes, get noticed and start talking about human rights violations in North Korea and human resilience.
Good story. Wish I hadn’t learned more about the author. Wish she didn’t go on Fox News and Joe Rogan. Wish she didn’t think “woke” culture was just like North Korea.
fast-paced
Having grown up in North Korea Yeonmi had no idea how big the world really was. In order to make ends meet, her father smuggles metals but gets caught and sent to a labor camp from which he returns a shell of a man. They decide the best course of action is o flee to China. Her sister sets out first but when Yeonmi and her mom get to China her sister is nowhere to be found. Yeonmi and her mom fled North Korea when she was 13. There they struggle to make ends meet and mother and daughter are separated and both sold to different Chinese men looking for wives. Her story is heartbreaking and inspiring and she is very frank about what she had to do in order to survive. At times the language is too simple and it feels like it was written by a child. I do understand that this not her first language but with the editors I truly believe some of the sentences could have been rewritten to convey emotion better. The author also has been known to voice some anti trans and anti black remarks which is ironic because as an advocate for social justice this should transcend skin color or partner choice. Still an incredibly moving and inspiring story.
5/5stars
Beautiful, horrifying and incredible, I can't believe any human who has read this could give this book anything less than 5 stars because we are literally talking about the story of this young girl's LIFE in this book.
While reading this book, sometimes I had to remind myself that this is a story about a woman only three years older than me - not a historical novel set fifty or a hundred years ago. The things that happened to this girl when she was only thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old were absolutely horrific, and she, and all the other people who made it out of North Korea, are some of the strongest people I've ever read about.
No, the writing of this book is not amazing or poetic, but the messages and voice that Yeonmi puts into her tale is definitely beautiful, and this is a book everyone should read.
Beautiful, horrifying and incredible, I can't believe any human who has read this could give this book anything less than 5 stars because we are literally talking about the story of this young girl's LIFE in this book.
While reading this book, sometimes I had to remind myself that this is a story about a woman only three years older than me - not a historical novel set fifty or a hundred years ago. The things that happened to this girl when she was only thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years old were absolutely horrific, and she, and all the other people who made it out of North Korea, are some of the strongest people I've ever read about.
No, the writing of this book is not amazing or poetic, but the messages and voice that Yeonmi puts into her tale is definitely beautiful, and this is a book everyone should read.