This is a very insightful, detailed and saddening book. Keith Lowe lays everything out so clearly and succinctly that it makes one fear for the future.

While long, this book was engaging. I quite liked how Keith put individual stories in each chapter. It helps illustrate points when the stories can be associated with real people. That being said, some of the stories are heartbreaking (Choi Myeong-sun: what a horrible life this poor woman endured!). Overall, this is a very sad book. It’s sad to see what people do to each other in the name of nationalism, money, greed and fear.

My favourite sections were Part I, II and VI. I found the section on Heroes and Monsters quite interesting and it’s easy to see exactly how people operate using these mentalities. Dreadful business. I found part IV dragged a bit but that’s probably just a personal interest thing.

I would (and in fact already have) recommend that people read this book. It’s so important to see how history has shaped our landscape and how we can prevent future atrocities from occurring.

I won this book via Goodreads Giveaways! I’ve never on a book before so that was pretty exciting! Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for this advance proof!