In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park - Review

Hello Book Lovers!!!

I've finished In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park and it was incredible. She is such an inspirational woman and I'm so glad I have read her story.

If you don't know what this book is about, it's a true story of Yeonmi Park's escape from North Korea. Her life in North Korea was awful and the way North Korea is run is horrendous so Yeonmi's mother knew she had to get herself and her family out. They couldn't afford much at all and so food was rationed between the family leaving them with next to nothing to live on making them ill.

Yeonmi's sister also tries to escape however not with Yeonmi and her mother and this causes the family to be apart for years, leaving Yeonmi to think she's never going to see her sister ever again. They cross the boarder over to China thinking their lives will be better over there but they end up being victims of human trafficking splitting them up for a while.

We are also taken through their jouney to South Korea and how they are originally treat over there until they are allowed to have freedom. The idea that freedom isn't a thing worldwide is saddining and needs to be changed. 

This story is heartbreaking yet incredible and like I said before Yeonmi is such an inspirational woman and has done so well with her life since managing to escape from North Korea. Her support for her family is amazing and even when she was desperate, she still put her family before herself doing anything she could to ensure that they were safe.

The chapters when Yeonmi and her mother were in China and were victims of human trafficking are awful and to think people actually go through this is sickening. These are things that shouldn't even exist never mind be actually happening.

Reading this has taught me a lot about North Korea and I'm fascinated to learn more about their culture as I can't understand at all how North Korea is run and maybe I'll never understand as it's not even something I could imagine. I just hope one day that the world will be a much more peaceful place.

I think this is a book that everyone needs to read at some point in their lives as it really puts into perspective just how lucky we are and how we definitely take the little things for granted. Like I said before I'm so glad I have read Yeonmi's story and I hope she carries on inspiring people all over the world.

Rating /5

5

Happy Reading!!!

xHannahx