I requested this one back in the day as I had every intention of reading it. However, its been years and I still haven't gotten around to it and while I feel guilty at not reviewing a book I think that I need to admit to myself that I won't be reading this one anytime soon....if at all.

This is a very realistic and important portrayal of life in North Korea modified for young adults. I look forward to putting this book on my classroom shelves and giving my students one more window into a life that is very different from their own. This text does not sugarcoat things, but also includes details of happier things that occurred in Lee's life. It is the perfect edition to any young adult library.

Like "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Zlata's Diary", this is a story of a child living in a horrific situation caused by the politics in that country. The country is North Korea. The time is now. Until he was 12, Sungju lived a privileged life with his parents enjoying school, the TV show that they were allowed to watch, the nice apartment they lived in and he wanted to be a military man like his father to serve their wonderful eternal leader in their wonderful country. Then, his parents told him they were going on a "vacation" in the country. In reality, his father had done something that displeased the military and they went to join the majority of North Korean society - poor, desperate and oppressed. After his parents left to find a better life and food and never returned for him, Sungju became a street boy and part of a gang of street boys. The story paints a tragic picture of life in North Korea and is a must read. I think this will educate children as well as adults about the situation there.

This was sad. Really hard for me to read but it was also very relevant and something I felt was important to be shared. It loved this book very much though and I highly recommend it for everyone to ready especially if you're interested in North Korea. You can tell this story is aimed more towards young adults, but it was still beautifully written, about a young man's escape from North Korea and the difficulties he faced in his life.

I unfortunately was not able to read this book before the archive date. Someday I hope to read and review it for my blog.

Incredible story of hope, love, strength. Beautiful plot, fantastic characters, and written in a way that I was completely immersed and invested. I loved this book and will definitely be buying hard copies for myself and my classroom.

Already reviewed and feedback sent ages ago. Not sure why these are duplicating. But please find review content at my archived blog www.behindonbooks.wordpress.com

- Thanks! Sorry this is a little haphazard. Just trying to clear my Shelf here. :)

I will be unable to provide a review of the book at this time, but do appreciate the approval from the publisher to have a chance at reading this as an advanced read. Thank you.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC of Every Falling Star.

Sungju loves his country and loves his leader. Living in North Korea, to do any differently could surely mean danger for him and his family. But Sungju's seemingly posh life at the capital comes to an abrupt halt as they up and move to a small impoverished town. Here, education is undervalued, people are starving, and treasonous citizens are executed in the street.

But Sungju's story really begins when he discovers the disappearance of both of his parents and what he must do to survive.

This is a very harrowing glimpse into what life is like for North Koreans, especially displaced children. I always imagined N. Korea to be a place of absolute order, with little room to get away with much. So I was very surprised to learn about how much homelessness and gang related activity exists there. I learned a lot, but it's not an easy read.

Every Falling Star
Photo from Goodreads
General

Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee & Susan McClelland

Pages: 336 (Hardcover)

Published: September 13th 2016 by Harry N. Abrams

Genre: Nonfiction, YA, Children's, Memoir



Links: Goodreads/Amazon

Overall rating: 4/5

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley, but that does not have a sway in my reviews. I am a human being with thoughts of her own, and I am not obligated to automatically give this book five stars.



The Review

"Gods don't die!"
The young narrator yelled these words to his parents after properly mourning the death of Kim Il-Sung. These three words resonated with me throughout my read. From the beginning of this memoir, we are told of a fearless leader who braved battles, turned sand into rice, and pinecones into grenades. The death of Kim Il-Sung was the downfall of so many. The takeover of Kim Jong-Il was the turning point for this northern country and for this young narrator; it was the catalyst that made Sungju realize his country wasn't the most amazing country in the world, that it was merely a lie.

As Lee weaves the tale of his life, he educates the reader about the different life lived in North Korea. For example, he explains that North Korea wasn't always so bad. In Pyongnam, he lived a fairly good life. He ate good food every day, played with toys and watch government regulated TV, and he even had a pet dog. To him, he was the happiest boy. As a reader, this was necessary to me because I always thought North Korea was an impoverished country due to the communist regime, but it was really impoverished because Kim Jong-Il was a greedy egotistical leader who didn't know how to care for a country.

In the end, those three words, "Gods don't die," comes back around in a way that reveals to the narrator that there are no such thing as gods. It's a loss of faith, but a regaining of hope. The narrator lost faith in the gods of North Korea but regained hope in life outside of the northern borders. The history of his country may be painful, yet he carried it with him and was able to write and share it with the world. This to me is true power. Not war. But the act of surviving and sharing your survival.

With the current state of the US and North Korea, whether you're political or not, I feel that this story is very relevant. It may be meant for younger readers, but I believe the content will interest people of all ages. It goes over race, poverty, war, xenophobia, etc. and it is real.

This story needs to be read and now seems pretty timely, don't you think?

I didn't read this on Netgalley. Instead, I got a hard copy from my library. I read it and was enthralled at this unique story which I'd never heard before. The account given by Lee of his experience surviving and eventually escaping North Korea was heartbreaking. I kept wanting things to just start going right for him (and could sympathize that, at some moments, to survive he needed to resort to crime). It also made me think that there must be other countless people who have or had these same experiences.

I find North Korea endlessly fascinating. It’s a country run by a dictator god and propelled by an immense propaganda machine. The country is isolationist and focused on keeping the people under control. This is the setting in which Every Falling Star takes place. It is the place Sungju, our hero, is born.

What I really liked about this true story was that it was cohesive, engaging, and didn’t flinch away from the harsh realities of Sungju’s life. The novel begins with Sungju growing up a happy boy. He lives in the capital city of Pyongyang and his father is a prominent member of the party. But, when his family loses favor, they are forced to move to rural Chosun (the North Korean name for North Korea) and that is where their problems begin.

Many people don’t know that after Kim Il-Sung passed away there was a devastating famine in North Korea. It killed so many and made an already difficult life impossible. Much of this story takes place during that time. The reader watches as hunger kills more people than the government ever could. It also showcased the disillusion that the rural people had for the government and the secret languages they used to communicate these opinions. It was these parts of the novel, about the suffering around Sungju, that I really enjoyed. They were well written and so emotional.

Overall, this is a great, true, story. Not many escape from North Korea. Fewer tell their stories. This novel offers a glimpse into the reclusive nation and shows the conditions those living under the regime face.

In an effort to be honest with myself and my own reading habits, I have to admit defeat with this one. I was curious about the premise and was interested in reading more in an area that I don't think has been explored as much in YA ... but I've had this book for many months and it has gone unread. Something about the book, something about the ways I choose my next read ... meant that this book has gone overlooked for far too long.

This was a book. An incredible book. And I think you all need to read this and remember that this is the world we live in, this is happening right now in North Korea. This book is a memoir of a guy who lived through all this stuff whilst I was growing up. It's scary to think of this happening but then remembering that it's happening in your life time makes it so much worse. It made me just so genuinely sad. Whilst this obviously has a good ending as Sungju is alive to tell his story, so many people don't get that good ending, so many kids die fending for themselves in North Korea.

It's about Sungju's life as a teenager trying to survive in North Korea after his father is sacked and they have to move to the incredibly poor countryside after being used to the well off city life. But honestly it's just so much more than that.

I thought I knew a lot about North Korea going into this as I have a keen interest in South Korean culture and you can't learn about South Korea without learning about North Korea but man alive I did not know the half of it. I had no idea about people reselling houses after parents went missing, I had no idea that kids had to literally form violent gangs just to stay alive.

Every single part of this memoir is so richly described, I could picture every event that takes place and every environment that Sungju was in.

After I finished this book I just sat there for a long period of time just shocked. I can't describe to you how I felt reading this, there was a hole in my heart. I felt sick and distraught reading this but I could not put it down because it was written so well and had me on tenterhooks NEEDING to know what happened. I still just feel so affected by it that I don't even really know what to write in this review because I don't think a review can do it justice, so please just read it.

If you would like to read further into people's experiences of North Korea there is a book called In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park. I haven't read it yet but I've heard nothing but good things about it and is even more recent.

This is the case of its me and not the book. I've tried many time to read this one but I feel I'm not fully invested. So I DNF'd it as not to waste anymore time. I will say from the synopsis that Every Falling Star seems like an important book that everyone should give a try.

Maybe I'll come back to this one later in the future. For now it's unfinished.