Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

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

36 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

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

georgia_gabrielle's review against another edition

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

5.0

Absolutely outstanding, how Park and her family went through such a  harrowing time and came out on the otherside of it is completely mindboggling. This book made me tense, it made me cry and it was beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, War, and Deportation

kcelena's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Medical trauma

writingcaia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

There’s no right way to review such a memoir.
This is not a life many can ever relate to or even conceive off.
While I was reading I shared some sentences out loud to my partner and this comment he made was really poignant to my review of the book “if you ever heard the words poop thief in any other context (that wasn’t that of the memoir) you’d think people were joking.” Well, it was no joke in North Korea.
Another thing that really hit me hard is that when she finally reaches South Korea, after extreme poverty, famine, fear and repression (to say the least) in North Korea, naively being human trafficked to China, raped at 13, she starts reading a lot to try and catch up and it is then she realizes how limited her vocabulary was. Because, in North Korea the state wants you to live a small limited life, to be so naive as to never conceive of anything besides those teachings, but as she then learned new vocabulary she felt a new world had opened up, new feelings, new expression, new life, freedom.
It is not an easy read as you can tell by the hints I left behind so thread lightly if you’re easily triggered.
This was one of the most eye opening memoirs I’ve read, a reality I knew was bad transformed into something beyond comprehension, because even reading about it gives me only a glimpse of the horrific lives North Koreans are subject to. 
At such a young age Yeonmi is free, an example of fight, love, perseverance, and an advocate for her people. I truly hope she can also one day fulfil the promise she made her grandmother and father, and see her people free and an united Korea.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Rape, and Suicide

Famine

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.

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Content Warnings

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

iamahmedkhalifa's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Hate crime, Physical abuse, and Slavery

on_your_raedar's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

I’ll be the first to admit that I never knew what happened in North Korea because I never thought about it. I watched a YouTube video about the 8 ways to defect from the country and this story was mentioned, I knew I had to read it, educate myself about what’s happen in the world.

This entire story is heartbreaking and is a necessary read. It took weeks to get through because things were so hard to stomach but I truly cannot express the appreciation I feel toward Yeonmi for being brave and willing to share her experiences. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Stalking

kiaragennaro's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

reading_bear's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking

Moderate: Cancer, Confinement, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and War

ran_sophia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

The book contains a very powerful story that is worth reading.  Although it was difficult to read, because what the author wrote about and what she experienced was very sad and terrible.  I liked that the story was well written and pointed.  And I also liked that she wasn't afraid to talk openly about what she was going through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Alcohol