I’ve been looking forward to reading A Heart for Freedom for years. Somehow, I had it in mind that this was a fictitious story, perhaps set in North Korea or China (obviously, I never even took a look at the synopsis!). This turned out a lot better than that, though. Nothing’s quite so good as non-fiction that teaches you history while you read!

Chai Ling went through so much as she was growing up and in her young adult years. Sometimes she had very little guidance from wiser adults, and that really ended up hurting her in the long run in some ways. She got involved in a political group when she was in her early twenties, and that quickly led to a hunger protest in Tiananmen Square asking for governmental reform. From there, the movement became an even larger event, with thousands of students begging for change—and Chai Ling became Commander in Chief of the operations.

I think my favorite part of this story was seeing the history come to life through Chai Ling’s narrative. I’m sure she didn’t handle everything the way she should have, but she did have an influential role in what happened there, and she was trying to initiate something good. Having not read or heard much from either side on this part of Chinese history, I found this “front-row” seat quite fascinating.

There were some things in the book that I didn’t agree with, and other parts I wished could be sped up somehow. It was all good, but some things were told about here that I don’t know where so necessary. I’m thankful to her editors for cutting the book down as far as they did (she said they halved it!!), but I almost wished it could have had a bit more pruning, because the last part of the book really seemed to drag.

Overall, though, if you’re interested in what happened at Tiananmen Square, I’d highly recommend you read at least that section of the book. That part kept my attention very well the whole way through!

Things you may want to know about: Sex outside of marriage and infidelity is mentioned several times, and several abortion stories are told (two are fairly graphic). The violence and killing at the square were told in as general of terminologies as possible, but there are a couple more graphic stories. Buddhist teaching and some rituals are described in a couple places.

I requested a free review copy of this book from NetGalley (thank you!), and this is my honest opinion of it.