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A review by kaitlyn_choe
Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee
4.0
Brother's Keeper is a middle-grade novel about a family in 1950s North Korea, confronted with the question that defined the decade: stay in the communist Fatherland, or escape to the South? The Pak family chooses to escape, but in a surprise bombing, Sora (12) and her brother Youngsoo (8) are split from the rest of their family. In the dead of winter with nothing but the clothes on their backs, Sora is faced with the ultimate task: lead her and Youngsoo to Busan over three hundred miles of war, strange encounters, and the struggle to survive.
I expected this to be a story about survival, hardship, and the bond between siblings, all of which it was. However, these things (survival, hardship, familial love) don't make the characters immune to the troubles that plague daily life (sibling rivalry, gender norms, parent-child power dynamics, etc.). What was so striking to me was how Sora, Youngsoo, and everyone else still bear the burdens of regular life in the midst of a war and a harrowing journey of escape. Sora is literally carrying her eight-year-old brother on her back, lice in their clothes, skin sticking to their ribs, and she is still told she is worthless as a daughter. This refusal to make society pretty and soft as a contrast to the harshness of war was really admirable, and Julie Lee's ability to craft simple but effective dialogue really reinforced this message.
The story also defies the box of its own narrative by pushing past the Final Destination moment. When Sora and Youngsoo arrived in Busan, I almost couldn't believe it. It felt like we didn't have that celebration and joy that I thought we were leading up to, and at first, this was disappointing. But then I realized-- that's the point. Life doesn't magically conclude with the reunion. In fact, the reunion itself isn't perfect, and the time afterward sure as hell isn't. Sora must continue to live after her return, continue facing challenges, and watching her do this is the most rewarding part of the book for me.
I expected this to be a story about survival, hardship, and the bond between siblings, all of which it was. However, these things (survival, hardship, familial love) don't make the characters immune to the troubles that plague daily life (sibling rivalry, gender norms, parent-child power dynamics, etc.). What was so striking to me was how Sora, Youngsoo, and everyone else still bear the burdens of regular life in the midst of a war and a harrowing journey of escape. Sora is literally carrying her eight-year-old brother on her back, lice in their clothes, skin sticking to their ribs, and she is still told she is worthless as a daughter. This refusal to make society pretty and soft as a contrast to the harshness of war was really admirable, and Julie Lee's ability to craft simple but effective dialogue really reinforced this message.
The story also defies the box of its own narrative by pushing past the Final Destination moment. When Sora and Youngsoo arrived in Busan, I almost couldn't believe it. It felt like we didn't have that celebration and joy that I thought we were leading up to, and at first, this was disappointing. But then I realized-- that's the point. Life doesn't magically conclude with the reunion. In fact, the reunion itself isn't perfect, and the time afterward sure as hell isn't. Sora must continue to live after her return, continue facing challenges, and watching her do this is the most rewarding part of the book for me.