kellymc03's review
5.0
A very powerful book about an escapee from a prison in North Korea. I learned a lot about north and South Korea and the problems these countries are having. My first book I have read from the new 2014-2015 Green Mountain Book list for young adults.
mandyist's review
5.0
This is such a powerful, important book that is especially relevant given the ongoing human rights abuses and torture, incarceration and slavery of citizens in North Korea.
superqs's review
2.0
This could be a very interesting and exciting story. However, the author did a terrible job... I felt the author failed to build any connection with Shin. Thus the whole book is very dry. Also I felt Shin is not a reliable story teller.
nakedsushi's review
3.0
This was only okay. Shin's story was compelling and horrific, but Harden's writing wasn't a good medium for it. Maybe I hold him to a higher standard because of other journalist written books like Nothing to Envy, but Harden seemed so hand-wavy about certain things that should be thoroughly researched facts.
elinacre's review
4.0
UNBELIEVABLE that this story is true, and that it happened in the last 20 years, and that similar atrocities are still happening today. WTF, north korea?! while completely terrible, sickening, and guilt-inducing, shin's story is amazing, well researched by the author, and well written. i can't imagine the full psychological impact being born and raised in a labor camp would have, but this book definitely gives vivid descriptions and makes the reader count their damn lucky stars that it isn't their own life story. 4 stars because it felt rushed at the end and kind of fizzled. (or maybe i am just an awful morbid person and was less interested in the part of the story that took place not in north korea.)
athenany's review
5.0
This is the book that first piqued my interest in North Korea. Before I read it I was aware, of course, that North Korea is an isolated country and that the people were horribly oppressed by the Kim regime. But I knew it in the way I knew something distant and abstract. This book, purchased rather on a whim, really brought it home. It's impossible not to be horrified, enthralled and inspired by Mr. Shin's incredible journey from a miserable upbringing and life in a prison camp, to freedom. A sign of how well-written and captivating this book is is that as I was reading it I found myself feeling cold and hungry, some kind of bizarre sympathy pain. I highly recommend it.