Review of The Vanished

[Huini Hellen]

[i][Following is a volunteer review of "The Vanished" by Pejay Bradley.][/i]

[rwc=id378927-125]4 out of 4 stars.[/rwc]Human beings will go to extreme ends to protect their sovereignty and independence. Intellectuals will sacrifice their academic lives and become revolutionaries all in a bid to liberate their countries. Such selfless acts are what have sustained most nations that were initially under colonial rule. It is the very same spirits that fuelled countries whose citizens used crude weapons, countries whose soldiers were not professionally trained; these countries manipulated their barbaric ways to achieve their independence. [i]The Vanished[/i] by Pejay Bradley is a historical fiction account of the Korean quest for independence from Japanese colonization.



Embon, the grandson of a prince in Korea, had everything good that a young man would ever wish for. The best education, all the affluence that royal family members are accrued, and best of all, he had his mother's, undying love. However, after sailing abroad to further his education in China, his life gets a new meaning. He meets other Korean students, who fuel his desire to liberate his country and reinstate its sovereignty. This is a mission that requires complete detachment of one from their family and even marital responsibilities.



This book is professionally edited and contains only one grammatical error, which can be fixed by another round of editing. I truly loved the detailed historical analysis that the author provided. Set in the Josun Kingdom that is ruled by King Gojong, the author explored a variety of Korean cultural traditions and practices. The vivid descriptions of the palace environment enabled me to form mental pictures of the beauty and splendor that royal families in Korea thrived in. I was equally fascinated by the traditions followed during Korean weddings, such as the fact that a bride had to keep her head down and eyes closed all through her arranged wedding ceremony.



The author's inclusion of Korean dialect and vocabulary in this book also gave the book some originality and added to its aesthetic beauty. The book began with first-person narration by Embon's mother before simultaneously shifting to the third-person narrator. I found this use of shifting perspectives quite enriching because it helped to reduce the monotony of using a single narrator for the entire novel.



I recommend this book to history students and readers of historical quests for independence. It can act as a rich reference source for Korean old practices and traditions. Readers will also indulge in the various interactions between the Koreans, Japanese, and even the Chinese and understand how their relations fared. However, the book contains gory descriptions of body mutilation, and this may not augur well with sensitive readers. I, therefore, wholeheartedly rate this amazing book [b]four out of four stars[/b].

******
[i]The Vanished [/i]
View: [url=http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/shelves/book.php?id=378927]on Bookshelves[/url] | [amazon=B07PBL1TYB]on Amazon[/amazon]