Courageous ... Haunting and elegiac, The Stone Home is fearless in its clear-eyed recounting. It asks readers to consider our own secret histories, to allow hard truths to be heard and, in so doing, to never let such barbarity happen again.
As the story progresses, the reader is immersed in thrashings, starvation, destroyed eyes, and psychological torment ... Aims to break down the self-protective distance that forms when one learns about a tragedy, to move the reader beyond thinking and into feeling. In that, it succeeds. But approach this novel with caution: You’ll be right there, suffering alongside the characters on every page.
Riveting ... Kim generates empathy for all the characters by showing the anguish and desperation that drive their harrowing deeds. This confirms Kim’s reputation as a formidable talent.
Kim has written such a poignant, heartfelt book that the only disappointment is a sense of missed opportunity. By relying on fragments, clipped sentences, and vague descriptions, Kim too often sacrifices clarity for lyricism, particularly in the first half of the book. When she’s willing to tell this story of torment more plainly, narrating the action of the second half with more direct language, it ignites into a searing portrait of survival.
