Author: Hyeonseo Lee
One-sentence summary: A young girl escapes from North Korea and begins a harrowing journey to defection while helping others to escape as well.
B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 8
Our favorite thing about it: The glimpses into daily life in North Korea were fascinating.
Our least favorite thing about it: The truth of the injustices still happening.
Main Topics of Discussion: Indoctrination, Education, Government, Family, Sacrifice, Drugs, Corruption
Our favorite quote: “To know that your rights are being abused, or that you are abusing someone else’s, you first have to know that you have them, and what they are.”
Notes: All of us liked this book and found it so very interesting. We wanted to read this book since very little information gets out about North Korea. Consider our eyes opened. We admired Hyeonseo’s persistence and determination so much. Some other things we discussed:
1. We were all surprised by the circumstances of Hyeonseo’s departure from North Korea. No spoilers – but we expected something different here.
2. Not surprisingly the Kim’s keep their power through fear tactics. While the nature of their power was not surprising, some of the specifics still were. Threatening families of defectors or disobedient citizens is apparently very effective in keeping everyone in line. It’s not just that you yourself can come to harm if you try to leave; the larger point seems to be that they will kill your family if you do.
3. The amount of obstacles in the way of Hyeonseo truly defecting for good with no danger of being returned to North Korea was staggering. There were so many times when it would have been easy for her to give up, but she persisted. And successfully brought her brother and mother over as well.
4. It was so interesting to read about what life is like for those that do escape. Because of their extreme brainwashing, they have such a hard time living anywhere other than North Korea. Everywhere else is just so different. It reminded us of prisoners who get out on parole and find it very difficult to assimilate back into normal society.
5. We should have assumed the teaching about the United States would be extremely negative, but we were actually surprised by this a bit. Students are taught not just to dislike or distrust Americans, but to vehemently hate them as ultimate enemies. That is not an exaggeration. Students are taught from an early age that Americans are out to kill them. Plain and simple.
6. We were also fascinated to learn about the spin the Kim’s place on the history of the Korean war…most notably that South Korea started it!
7. Having grown up in America it was so foreign to us that people would not even know what human rights are. But North Koreans don’t even know what they are missing out on. They are literally shut out from the rest of the world.
8. Other interesting things about education: the education that North Korean children receive is largely propaganda about their own government. It amounts to no education at all in terms of academics.
9. It was shocking to us that it is widely accepted to make and sell drugs for money. That is what the government does for money and they see nothing wrong with this.
10. It was heartening to learn of Dick, the Australian, and the fact that people exist who will help strangers in a BIG way. He changed Hyeonseo's life most definitely.
Memorable Meeting Moments: We had our meeting outside, down by the lake at the lake house. We watched the sunset while we had our discussion.
What We Ate: Probably our beef tacos and cookies!
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