EDIT: sadly discovered author's disgusting transphobic comments after composing this review. There is no need to gatekeep or compare oppression. It is harmful and hurtful to do so. Just because you had it "worse" doesn't mean that other types of oppression are acceptable. How can someone who went through this not empathize with the basic human need for freedom to be one's true self?

Harrowing story, beautifully told with incredible nuance. What Yeon-mi's family went through was monstrous, and to have her explain at the end her relative privilege compared to other NK families was horrific. One very striking aspect of this memoir was her complicated feelings towards those involved with trafficking her, I understood those and even felt them by the end. That's a hard thing to communicate as a writer and she did it.