Hyun Sook Kim

In South Korea in 1983, Kim Hyun Sook goes to college to study literature, but finds herself swept up into a protest movement.

Black-and-white art is clear enough to follow; each character is distinct. There are some scenes of abuse/torture. An epilogue takes place during a reunion in 2016.

Quotes

"You can learn a lot about history by figuring out what people wanted to hide." (43)

"[Chun] doesn't care if we believe him or not. He created such a divide between the people who believe his lies and those who don' that the country is too torn apart to come together and properly oppose him." (63)

"I'm here to learn, same as you. I just want to learn more than what they want us to know." (168)

"So you gotta wonder. Do they ban books because they see danger in their authors, or because they see themselves in their villains?" (170)

"Are you surprised that after all that, we still have to fight the same fights?"
"Not at all. Progress is not a straight line. Never take it for granted." (188)… (més)

Yay for another graphic novel to add to my list! One of my 2020 goals was increasing the amount of graphic novels I've read (and have on my shelves) and this book seemed perfect!

Our lead, Kim, goes off to college to learn bright and new things. Suddenly, she's found herself apart of a book club but not just any book club... it reads banned books, which is quite the scandal in South Korea during the 80s. This political true story is an incredible read and I think it's in the perfect format to tell this story.

Reasons why this book is awesome:
1. The cover is wickedly cool and grabbed my attention.
2. Cartoon-y art style that gave it a fun personality.
3. Banned Book Club = super intriguing premise AND ITS A LEGIT THING SO EVEN COOLER.
4. Non-fiction graphic novels/mangas = THE BOMB. Not literally, the cool 80/90s term everybody always used and suddenly didn't use anymore.
5. I always love a good memoir. Graphic novel form is just way cooler.
6. I learned a lot about South Korea from this book and doing a little research about what was going on at the time. BONUS FOR LEARNING!

Overall, this is a truly marvellous story in a great artistic form. I will definitely want to pick up more books by Kim Hyun Sook in the future.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Iron Circus Comics and Letter Better Publishing Services for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.… (més)