REVIEW | Run Me to Earth — Meonicorn

run me to earth.jpeg — RATING: 3/5
AUTHOR: Paul Yoon
ISBN: 1501154044
ISBN13: 9781501154041
PUBLISHER: Simon Schuster
RELEASE DATE: January 28th, 2020
PAGES, 272
EDITION LANGUAGE: English
SETTINGS: Laos

I read this book for the BookTube Prize of 2021, Octafinals Fiction group C.

This is a book that’s rich in the historical background, and heavy in the subject matter, had great potential in story development but wrapped up too roughly.

portal to booktube

The book sets in Laos in the late 1960s during the Laotian Civil War, where the field was being bombed (equivalent to one bombardment every eight minutes), people lost their homes and lived in terror. In the beginning, we are introduced to 3 orphans who worked for a medical doctor, and the stories unfold from there. We follow the characters through devastating situations, seeking hope in the dehumanized environment, keep their notions of helping people escaping from the horrible lives, and moving on to new land.

Characters feel real in the book, strength show through the depressed air. Freedom in the book is a unique concept that comes from hope, not their physical situation. They constantly need to fight against the horror of living, and the hatred and fear of the authorities. Certain scenes of struggling would make your heart cringe, and the atmosphere is so real that makes the reader cannot breathe too.

But at the same time, there are so many underdeveloped traits of the characters. In such a dark time, the historical background is sometimes told directly to the readers, rather than showing through the stories. Even some of the changes the characters went through are written in a more distanced format, rather than shown within the stories.

Furthermore, the wrap-up of the book is very sudden and that troubles me. We jumped over timelines, and are told the fate of every character and the changes in their life, and the new challenges they are facing. But the foreshadowing of these events was weak and links failed to connect the readers.

However, this is still a book that well worth reading, it drew people’s attention to the Laotian Civil War, which is often overshadowed by Vietnam War that happened at the same time. It leaves so many questions for people to think about — what’s justice, what’s humanity, why people need to look for help from the nations that are harmed them in the first place? What keeps people living in terrifying times? I wish this book were longer and even deeper.