Definitely taught me things I never knew about North Korea; the most shocking to me specifically being their rigid “caste” system. Overall, I think that the book did a masterful job of weaving all of the stories with each other. The jump between one another never felt jarring. Really, my only complaint is that there were times where the author repeated the same fact/imagery, making it less shocking the more it was repeated. I can specifically recall her repeating people taking used cigarettes and smoking them again with paper. This wouldn’t normally bump down a rating, but I try to reserve my 5 stars to books I can see myself rereading over and over again, or at least thinking about constantly, and I just don’t know if this book will have that kind of impact on me. Maybe it’s my fault for pretty much reading it in a day.