I approach this book with the feeling of apprehension and dread, knowing that from my previous experience with Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy, it's going to be a depressing ride. Her book left me traumatized for the whole week, but it also made me hunger for more stories about the life in North Korea. And so the preceding week after that brief bout of depression, I began searching for every documentaries, books and first-hand accounts available. Suffice to say, my interest with matters relating to the hermit kingdom has now become a curious fixation of my life.

What struck me the most while reading Escape was that I no longer felt the same horror from the punishment and cruelty that Shin experienced in his life as prisoner in Camp 14. Shaking my head in anger and disgust, yes, but no more terrified as I was with Demick's book. Maybe all of my previous readings somehow made me numb with these horror stories.

Shin's account as an escaped Gulag prisoner however, proven to be interesting one and unique at that. I always felt that stories or memoirs from other escapees were at times stunted and too brief, often due to the fact that they were too traumatized to recount their experience. Moreover, none of them were born inside the camp itself. That alone, made Shin's stories worth every bit to be retold and to be read.