Jo (The Book Geek)'s Reviews > Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

I've read a few books now, focusing on North Korea and about the atrocities to humans, and to their own people in fact, that are allowed to be carried out. I have to say, the North korean regime makes me feel an incredible repungence towards them, and what actually makes this worse in every sense, is that the world does not seem to care.
Everything we know about about North Korea is worse than we could possibly imagine. Sure, there's brainwashing, but this book explores the utter horror that Shin lived through, and really, is still suffering from the impact of it all today. Shin lived the majority of his life in camp 14, where he was abused, starved, and was forced to watch the executions of his mother and brother, their punishment for attempting to escape the camp. The harrowing treatment of people at the hands of these leaders of the camps, is almost unbelievable. I also cannot understand, how even outside of camp 14, people are still starving to death, because there is no food. The way money always comes first, before basic human rights is pretty much beyond me.
I have given four stars not due to the writing, but purely the content. I think this is a very important and powerful book.