Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 09/15/2024 *Starred Review* In a sort of spiritual sequel to their critically acclaimed Banned Book Club (2020), Kim and Estrada offer another semiautobiographical story about Korea in the 1980s. Hyun Sook is active on her school’s folk-dance team, which puts on traditional satirical plays. For her, it’s a way to criticize the government without actually criticizing the government, which is illegal. Also illegal? The contraband book she carries in her bag as she and her team set off on a hiking trip to the mountains. There’s an overall feeling of levity on the trip (aided significantly by the brightly colored, often comical cartoon artwork), even away from the prying eyes of the surveillance state, the undercurrent of fear never goes away. When she suspects a new student of being a government spy, Hyun Sook desperately tries to get rid of the book unnoticed, while other students contemplate their relationship to the authoritarian government in various ways. The vignette plot structure and large cast occasionally make the through line tough to follow, but what’s unmistakable is the crushing paranoia (and subsequent threat of police violence) these young adults feel in a society that strictly regulates what they’re permitted to read, listen to, and say. Teens acutely aware of the threats to freedom of expression in our current era will be absolutely hooked. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.