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cewritespoems 's review for:
The Sorcerer of Pyongyang
by Marcel Theroux
medium-paced
I don't often write negative book reviews. But damn. Despite me being hyped for the concept of THE SORCERER OF PYONGYANG, I ended up really disliking it.
The concept: A disabled boy living in North Korea happens upon a DnD Rulebook, forgotten by a foreigner at the hotel his father works at. This book becomes entwined in his future as he learns English to read it, allowing him to attend university in Pyongyang and changing his future in irrevocable ways.
I was hoping for was a coming of age story in line Ruta Sepetys or Viet Thanh Ngyuen's work, with the added twist of my favorite tabletop game. Instead, I got badly written women, ableism, pedophilia, etc
SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Childhood teacher being a gay pedophile and years later, remembering him fondly as 'not really good or evil but neutral like most people are.' I get that characters can be complicated and don't have to be redeemable. But come on. Douglas Stuart showed us how this kind of trauma can be written well. This was not.
2) The subplot of his mother being institutionalized made sense, since she was traumatized by her son being sent to a reeducation camp. But it turns out… his dad was let go and kept his normal life. Her husband reveals she was actually institutionalized bc she lost her mind bc she was cousins with the gay pedophile character and that 'it was only a matter of time before her bad genes messed her up too.' Not explored. She had no characterization before and then got fridged.
3) The love interest from the start is only characterized by being smart, wealthy, and having sex with powerful men. She has an affair with our MC and when he says he doesn't want to have sex anymore, it emotionally wrecks her? When he defects to England, she does the same to marry him.
4) Finally, there was this outside narrator that kept popping up. Totally different tone from our main character. Turns out… it's some British guy that meets our MC later in life and writes his story for him. It feels patronizing the way he looks down on our MC for believing in God in the end, ‘as a figure he needed to replace the role of a dictator in his life.’
I don't recommend this book at all.
The concept: A disabled boy living in North Korea happens upon a DnD Rulebook, forgotten by a foreigner at the hotel his father works at. This book becomes entwined in his future as he learns English to read it, allowing him to attend university in Pyongyang and changing his future in irrevocable ways.
I was hoping for was a coming of age story in line Ruta Sepetys or Viet Thanh Ngyuen's work, with the added twist of my favorite tabletop game. Instead, I got badly written women, ableism, pedophilia, etc
SPOILERS AHEAD
1) Childhood teacher being a gay pedophile and years later, remembering him fondly as 'not really good or evil but neutral like most people are.' I get that characters can be complicated and don't have to be redeemable. But come on. Douglas Stuart showed us how this kind of trauma can be written well. This was not.
2) The subplot of his mother being institutionalized made sense, since she was traumatized by her son being sent to a reeducation camp. But it turns out… his dad was let go and kept his normal life. Her husband reveals she was actually institutionalized bc she lost her mind bc she was cousins with the gay pedophile character and that 'it was only a matter of time before her bad genes messed her up too.' Not explored. She had no characterization before and then got fridged.
3) The love interest from the start is only characterized by being smart, wealthy, and having sex with powerful men. She has an affair with our MC and when he says he doesn't want to have sex anymore, it emotionally wrecks her? When he defects to England, she does the same to marry him.
4) Finally, there was this outside narrator that kept popping up. Totally different tone from our main character. Turns out… it's some British guy that meets our MC later in life and writes his story for him. It feels patronizing the way he looks down on our MC for believing in God in the end, ‘as a figure he needed to replace the role of a dictator in his life.’
I don't recommend this book at all.