Stephanie S. (skywriter319) - , reviewed on 1/5/2014 + 784 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

If you dont know anything about North Koreas human rights violations, this is a good place to start. Hardens prose is unsophisticatedand, at times, may feel a tad too simplisticbut even the bare bones of what Shin had to endure in Camp 14 is enough to stir anyones feelings. Prose-wise, though, I felt like ESCAPE FROM CAMP 14 didnt shine whatsoever: my empathy for Shin and the other sufferers come more from my prior readings about Nazi concentration camp survivors rather than from Hardens own oversimplified writing, which reads more like a listing of facts and psychiatric symptoms than immersive narration.

Nevertheless, Harden was working with a powerful topic, one that can carry itself through whatever inadequate writing style imposed on its telling. Whereas many people know about the WWII Holocaust, only a fraction of that number knows about whats going on in North Korea today, and for that one important reason alone I would recommend this book to everyone.

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