Not all of the alleged lies are huge, many are smaller and wouldn't have a great deal of impact on the story anyway; however, the large ones would. It doesn't matter that in some of those appearances she was wearing a lot of makeup (even her classmates failed to recognize her and first) and also had a fake name. I'm a Special Education Teacher that teaches high schoolers with cognitive/intellectual disabilities and I started a book club about diversity. But we are repeating history – there are thousands of testimonies, you can see the concentration camps from satellite photos, so many people are dying.

The interview I watched happened to be an older one and that's how I learned of the inconsistencies. A couple of days ago, it was reported that the same college had honoured an ex-student, Teresa Cheng, China's hardline justice minister with a fellowship, despite her central role (for which the US censured her) in cracking down on the pro-democracy movement movement in Hong Kong. Full of tears and angst, Park does not coat her story with flowery tales and sing-song moments, while transitioning from the darkest corners of one country about which the world knows so little. When viewed in its entirety: escape, survival, and victory - this story definitely has a miraculous component. Park mentions that she was prematurely born at 7 months, and that she always was smaller than the rest of the kids.

They fled to China, where Park and her mother fell into the hands of human traffickers and was sold into slavery before escaping to Mongolia. I found myself needing to keep my academic hat firmly in place and remind myself that someone has synthesised this book before it went to print, even though Park professes to have a strong grip on the English language by the time she completed her draft. I’m not going to say anymore here because Yeonmi’s account is simply honest, educating and truly truly important. There were times when I wondered whether, if it wasn’t for the constant hunger, I would be better off in North Korea, where all my thinking and all my choices were taken care of for me".

However, I’m seriously disappointed with those who lowered their score because of the reason saying her stories are fakes and fabrications. However, this story also tells us the nastiness of human trafficking in China and how Yeonmi and her family were forced into situations they have felt ashamed of ever since. This is because Chinese gangsters probably don't have any kind of entourage, and they are in need of 13 year olds to keep the business going.That this is also a buddy read with a good friend of mine only adds to the interest when it was suggested I read this memoir by Yeonmi Park. Eventually, with the 'help' of a trafficker, she and her mother cross to China where they are sold for the trafficker to recoup his costs. Of course any book will have people who didn’t like the subject matter, found it boring, or just want to troll, but I was surprised to see all of the challenges to the veracity of Park’s story. Throughout her story, Yeonmi is honest and open about her experiences to the point where it almost feels cathartic. The spark of human dignity is never completely distinguished, and given the oxygen of freedom and the power of love, it can grow again.