It started very slow but once the storylines weaved together, I started to “enjoy” it. This book is brutal and very reminiscent of 1984, which pains me as it’s based on fact.

I am grateful for my upbringing.

I listened to the audiobook version of this. I haven't read many books that are centered around North Korea, so I was very interested in the premise. The writing was serviceable, but the characters weren't very well developed and definitely seemed like vehicles for the story rather than the core of the narrative. I think that kept me from rating this book higher. It wasn't bad, it was just lacking a connection for me.

The disappearance in 1998 provides the spark for this novel but the action properly gets going twelve years later in 2010. John cleverly tells his story, while shedding light on this unfathomable regime and the mysterious country over which it presides, by focusing on three main characters: Jenna, a university professor and the missing woman’s sister; Cho, rising through the ranks in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang; and Mrs Moon, a resourceful farm worker scratching a living in Hyesan, in the northern province of Ryanggang.

I enjoyed the way in which Star of the North‘s narrative switches between these three. John leaves it just long enough between each changeover, that I never felt as if I was losing the thread of anyone’s story. This helped me come to know each character, care about them and their fate, to the point where I still wonder how they are and what they’re doing even after having finished the book.

John not only chose his characters well but he made them feel real to me. They’re all brave at times but they are also refreshingly human, despite of or perhaps in spite of their training or conditioning. It’s those moments where they are emotional or plain reckless that I felt the tension in their lives coming to the surface, threatening the fragile equilibrium of their lives and, more importantly, their safety and that of those around them.

With fascinating and often horrific detail, Star of the North places you firmly inside one of the world’s most secretive regimes in a fight for survival, often feeling as if it’s a race to rescue characters I didn’t want to see fall prey to the vagaries of this brutal state. It may veer a little off the rails close to the end but I was fully willing to go with it because it was irreverent fun.

Reading Star of the North feels like being on an adrenaline-fuelled covert op. Not that I’ve ever been on one, mind you. (Well, not that I could tell you anyway!) I can’t recommend this one enough. Star of the North is a terrific, topical, and truly terrifying thriller.

The good: the detailed descriptions of oppressed life in North Korea, and the way it could affect people. There is a wealth of side characters, and they are quite well developed, the North Koreans more so than the Americans.

The so-so: the plot. It wavers between engrossing and clever on the one hand, and over-the-top Hollywood-style insult to intelligence on the other. I can't divulge the ending for obvious reasons, but it is so ridiculous that the rating lost a full star.

The bad: it's mentioned abundantly in other reviews, but the style is cumbersome, cliched. And the one character that doesn't cut it at all happens to be the protagonist. How long can you be so desperately mourning over a lost sister that you'd rather risk WW3 than come to terms with your loss?

3.5 rounded up to 4

I had very high expectations for this book since it was my first fiction book set in North Korea but I guess after reading so many non-fiction, stories of defectors, this one didn’t win my heart. It’s not a bad book or even a poor plot, it just dragged. Also I didn’t liked how open the ending was. Nonetheless I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about life in North Korea.

A fascinating book that I picked up just because none of my requested books had yet arrived at the library. It’s an easy read about a subject (North Korea) that I know nothing about. The characters were interesting and the plot compelling. I especially liked the Author’s note at the end, which briefly examines which parts of the book were actually true. When I read good fiction about a subject I have no context for, I often wonder which parts are real, so I appreciated the explanation.

Perfectly done!

I rushed through this, couldn't put it down!! Riveting! It's my first time reading a book about North Korea, fiction or otherwise, and really piqued my interest in the subject!