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jensen1's reviews
428 reviews
See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey Into Kim Jong Un's North Korea by Travis Jeppesen
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Just reading other people’s reviews of this book shows how divisive it is- some think it’s too apologist and some say it’s fabrication / extremist. Some can’t believe that the author is American and not just flaying NK.
However, my 3 star rating comes from a place of thinking Jeppeson was trying a bit too hard to be philosophical. I’m not saying the confrontation of his own ideologies compared to NK don’t deserve much reflection, but Jeppeson’s points don’t hit home as well as I’d have expected. For example - he correctly points out that westernized nations do not and do not want to report anything positive coming out of NK but then spend the entirety of the book telling us how bad it is there. While I would never deny that South Korea and the US probably do plenty to inflate hardship and stupid rumors (like everyone needing Jong Un’s haircut), there is little that seems to be positive for the average North Korean and Jeppeson acknowledges that.
Some of his “profound” conclusions seemed a bit childish to me - thinking he was immune to bias in his writing at first despite being American felt juvenile - as an American myself, I’m always hyper aware of it when in other countries and I would expect to be crushingly aware of it were I in North Korea!
In addition, he makes a sweeping generalization that we tend to demonize people who hold different values than us - which is true, to a degree. However, besides the Kim family which is, in my opinion, exempt from pity, I don’t think North Koreans as a people are bad? I think their system of oppression makes me care for them on a human level. I don’t think it takes a lot of nuance to realize that individual people are not their governments and I appreciate that understanding myself from others that may oppose current US administration abroad. Therefore, I can apply it to people of all different countries. North Korean people are three dimensional individuals that think and feel differently just like anyone else.
As much as I agree that North Koreans have limited freedom and resources compared to a lot of folks in the western countries, I also disagree with Jeppeson’s conclusion that it’s hard for us to empower them. I’m not sitting here living a lavish lifestyle because of capitalism. I’m here watching the world burn because of it. Do I have freedoms they are not afforded ? Sure, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t struggling and can’t ever comprehend getting screwed over by greedy upper class politicians and elites.
Maybe I’m just rambling at this point, but I do think reading this in 2025 makes me reflect that the average citizen life is at the whim of their government - western or eastern ideology be damned. We should all be a little more sympathetic to each other - we’re all just a bunch of nobodies.
However, my 3 star rating comes from a place of thinking Jeppeson was trying a bit too hard to be philosophical. I’m not saying the confrontation of his own ideologies compared to NK don’t deserve much reflection, but Jeppeson’s points don’t hit home as well as I’d have expected. For example - he correctly points out that westernized nations do not and do not want to report anything positive coming out of NK but then spend the entirety of the book telling us how bad it is there. While I would never deny that South Korea and the US probably do plenty to inflate hardship and stupid rumors (like everyone needing Jong Un’s haircut), there is little that seems to be positive for the average North Korean and Jeppeson acknowledges that.
Some of his “profound” conclusions seemed a bit childish to me - thinking he was immune to bias in his writing at first despite being American felt juvenile - as an American myself, I’m always hyper aware of it when in other countries and I would expect to be crushingly aware of it were I in North Korea!
In addition, he makes a sweeping generalization that we tend to demonize people who hold different values than us - which is true, to a degree. However, besides the Kim family which is, in my opinion, exempt from pity, I don’t think North Koreans as a people are bad? I think their system of oppression makes me care for them on a human level. I don’t think it takes a lot of nuance to realize that individual people are not their governments and I appreciate that understanding myself from others that may oppose current US administration abroad. Therefore, I can apply it to people of all different countries. North Korean people are three dimensional individuals that think and feel differently just like anyone else.
As much as I agree that North Koreans have limited freedom and resources compared to a lot of folks in the western countries, I also disagree with Jeppeson’s conclusion that it’s hard for us to empower them. I’m not sitting here living a lavish lifestyle because of capitalism. I’m here watching the world burn because of it. Do I have freedoms they are not afforded ? Sure, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t struggling and can’t ever comprehend getting screwed over by greedy upper class politicians and elites.
Maybe I’m just rambling at this point, but I do think reading this in 2025 makes me reflect that the average citizen life is at the whim of their government - western or eastern ideology be damned. We should all be a little more sympathetic to each other - we’re all just a bunch of nobodies.
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Just too long. But a sweet story.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Captivating Guide to The Atlantic Slave Trade and Stories of the Slaves that were Brought to the Americas by Captivating History
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
No author? Hardly any citations? Links of Wikipedia images and no mention of famous treaties?
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Basketful of Heads by Joe Hill
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Her Little Flowers by Shannon Morgan
2.0
I'm a sucker for a gothic, spooky, haunted house story. This, however, was not that.
The prose and writing felt very juvenile: the cliches like "let out a breath she didn't know she was holding" and "nails digging into her skin" were rampant throughout.
Francine, as a character, lacked depth and was completely unlikable in a boring way - I can handle unlikable characters, but this main character lacked any substance. She is a 50-something woman that is cranky and contrary for no reason. Her consistent need to be rude, hostile, and contrary to everyone made me wonder why Todd, her lodger, would ever think of her as a potential love interest. She has never made a single nice comment to him, barely talked to him, and also has treated him and his coworker with indifference. Why are some literary men written like this? He is so "perfect" that he just knows there's something special about her??? He's willing to fix up her house at no cost because he's got a tiny crush on a woman he's known for a few weeks (at most)? Despite all that, the "nice guy" finds something attractive about Francine- he is either stupid (can't pick up on an obvious disinterest even though she's being blatantly mean to him) or is pushing her boundaries, which is *not* something that most women find romantic in the modern age. Their romance is completely contrived and unnecessary to the plot of the story. It felt so forced, stale, and boring that I wondered why he was kept in the story at all. He also lacks any kind of interesting character aspects - the only thing of note I found was that he asked Francine, who has confessed she's lived with the ghost of her sister and father for decades now if "it's all in her head" and somehow that is just swept under the rug as if him suggesting they're all delusions is not directly against everything she's told him thus far and also suggests that he doesn't believe her. She then says "You don't believe me," and he backtracks and says "Yes, I do!". Excuse me, Todd, asking her if the ghosts of her family members are a figment of her imagination definitely suggests that you have some doubts. Their insta love does not even make it to the epilogue - what was the point? What did he add?
Then there are some plot holes. Why on earth would those little girls stay in the priest hole so long? Wouldn't they yell or try to get out before they suffocated to death? I know it's said that Francine is scared of the cemetery, but Madeleine didn't seem to be. Why didn't Madeleine ever see the graves of her brother and sister in the backyard? If the mother was so bent on keeping all of this a secret from her two living daughters, why did she even put headstones for Bree and Monty? Francine has lived in the town her whole life and no one ever mentioned to her that she had 5 siblings that either died or disappeared one night? Did Francine's mother somehow convince the entire town that they should keep it a secret for decades? Why is there an asylum that BELONGS TO FRANCINE??? in the backyard and the name of it never appears on Google, ever and all of a sudden becomes a huge answer to the mystery???
The list goes on but I just can't. I really just didn't like this one.
The prose and writing felt very juvenile: the cliches like "let out a breath she didn't know she was holding" and "nails digging into her skin" were rampant throughout.
Francine, as a character, lacked depth and was completely unlikable in a boring way - I can handle unlikable characters, but this main character lacked any substance. She is a 50-something woman that is cranky and contrary for no reason. Her consistent need to be rude, hostile, and contrary to everyone made me wonder why Todd, her lodger, would ever think of her as a potential love interest. She has never made a single nice comment to him, barely talked to him, and also has treated him and his coworker with indifference. Why are some literary men written like this? He is so "perfect" that he just knows there's something special about her??? He's willing to fix up her house at no cost because he's got a tiny crush on a woman he's known for a few weeks (at most)? Despite all that, the "nice guy" finds something attractive about Francine- he is either stupid (can't pick up on an obvious disinterest even though she's being blatantly mean to him) or is pushing her boundaries, which is *not* something that most women find romantic in the modern age. Their romance is completely contrived and unnecessary to the plot of the story. It felt so forced, stale, and boring that I wondered why he was kept in the story at all. He also lacks any kind of interesting character aspects - the only thing of note I found was that he asked Francine, who has confessed she's lived with the ghost of her sister and father for decades now if "it's all in her head" and somehow that is just swept under the rug as if him suggesting they're all delusions is not directly against everything she's told him thus far and also suggests that he doesn't believe her. She then says "You don't believe me," and he backtracks and says "Yes, I do!". Excuse me, Todd, asking her if the ghosts of her family members are a figment of her imagination definitely suggests that you have some doubts. Their insta love does not even make it to the epilogue - what was the point? What did he add?
Then there are some plot holes. Why on earth would those little girls stay in the priest hole so long? Wouldn't they yell or try to get out before they suffocated to death? I know it's said that Francine is scared of the cemetery, but Madeleine didn't seem to be. Why didn't Madeleine ever see the graves of her brother and sister in the backyard? If the mother was so bent on keeping all of this a secret from her two living daughters, why did she even put headstones for Bree and Monty? Francine has lived in the town her whole life and no one ever mentioned to her that she had 5 siblings that either died or disappeared one night? Did Francine's mother somehow convince the entire town that they should keep it a secret for decades? Why is there an asylum that BELONGS TO FRANCINE??? in the backyard and the name of it never appears on Google, ever and all of a sudden becomes a huge answer to the mystery???
The list goes on but I just can't. I really just didn't like this one.
Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.0
Bukowski just gives try-hard incel and edgelord wannabe that fantasizes about sexual assault, incest, pedophilia, and …. Eggs?
It’s a no from me, dog.
It’s a no from me, dog.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
dark
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Not the story or book for me. It felt gratuitously violent and sexual - at some points it just felt like the whole book was just for shock value. The writing style - "I'm so angry I can feel it in my c***" - is so weird.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment
The Mysterious North Shore of Lake Superior: A Collection of Short Stories About Ghosts, UFOs, Shipwrecks, and More by William Mayo
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
2.5
A few good stories but mostly short-winded and wanting. The author seems have had run-ins with Bigfoot, Lake Superior monsters, and ghosts?
The best part was probably about shipwrecks because it had no conjecture. Gunhilda story was great.
The best part was probably about shipwrecks because it had no conjecture. Gunhilda story was great.