I'm not a huge fan of memoirs, and I honestly wasn't expecting this to be as memoiry as it is. I was expecting a reported nonfiction account of life inside North Korea--which much of the book is--but the book too often veers off into being about a Korean-American woman who's upset that she can't openly talk to her 'lover' in Brooklyn because of the restrictions/spying in North Korea. And the end gets into a little too much of the teacher-as-savior "l love my students so much!" teacher narrative nonsense that, even though I'm a teacher, always upsets me for some reason. When the book is focused on life for North Koreans, especially those who aren't fortunate enough to attend a school for the elite youth of the nation, it is a terrifying look into a real-world dystopia. The descriptions of the students and their willingness to lie and apparently spy on each other gives some insight into how the regime works to maintain its power and illusion of divinity.