About this book...
A powerful and moving stand-alone novel for anyone who loved A GATHERING LIGHT or BETWEEN SHADES OF GREY, in which a teenage girl struggles against the odds for survival in a North Korean prison camp...From the author of A Brighter Fear. Yoora is a teenage girl living in North Korea, dreaming of the lights of foreign cities while eking out a miserable existence in a rural northern village. But then she makes a mistake: she falls in love. With someone far removed from her social class. Someone dangerous to know. When tongues start to wag, her father is executed and she is taken to a prison camp in the mountains. There, escape seems even further from her grasp. But Yoora is about to learn an important lesson: love can surprise you, and it can come in many forms..
My thinking...
Yoraa is one of the more annoying main protagonist I have come across in ages.
In the beginning she is selfish, self absorbed and and and, SHE is a pain. She does the unthinkable after giving a friend over to the authorities due to his radio not being on the correct radio station.
She blames herself for the result of her selfish action as well she should.
I am not one of those people who believe that a teenager has the right to be idiotic due to their age. We expect as a society more from a 10 year old.
Then...
Then she starts to live and suffer the consequences of her choices. This is not easy. Even though she shows remarkably slow growth and even then stifled at most she does show some and she does get to a point where she starts to get the fact that following blindly is not maybe ideal.
I loved the communist angle. And that said, I also loathed the almost romanticism that the author uses in the start to play up the tyranny. Only later on did the contrast hit me and when I did I was astounded.
The ending, actually the post script is the part of the book that will stay with me. I admire the fact that the author brings to light a problem mostly discarded by main stream media.
All in all, a brilliant book and yes, even though the main protagonist is annoying, her personality fits perfectly with the story line.
WaAr
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