Personal Freedom is something that Apina Hrbek has learned to live with and without, for she was born and raised under Communist rule; however, she managed to escape to freedom in America with her husband and two children.

"Pandemonium: A Journey to the New World," is a story that will draw the tears from deep within you. It is a story of an infant girl born shortly before the Communists take over of her country’s government, which has a tremendous effect on the rest of her life. Her mother, born into wealth, loses all riches once the Communists begin their rule. Due to the loss of her wealth, the infant girl’s mother begins to direct her anger onto her child, through extreme verbal, mental, and emotional abuse. Throughout her childhood, her loving and gentle father is unaware of the situation his daughter endures at the hand of his wife.

Over the course of time, this same child grows up, marries, has her own children, and escapes to freedom. Her achievement of freedom comes at a very high price of many sacrifices and dangerous predicaments. However, she faces each obstacle with determination, faith, and a zeal for the protection of her children, who are her priority in life.

Though I could leave the review on this note, it would be a great injustice to the author, Apina Hrbek. This is because the book, "Pandemonium: A Journey to the New World" is not simply about escaping the Communist rule and achieving personal and physical freedom. In my own opinion, it is more a tale of achieving a deeper freedom within ones very being.

Though there is a mental oppression that the character, Edita, is subjected to from her mother and their government, in reality it is deeper than that. It is about a mental oppression, in which an individual allows themselves to be placed under, by surrendering their very persona through living in fear and not following their dreams, speaking their opinions, or sharing their thoughts. I gleaned from the book that mental oppression begins when we quit on our own ideals and beliefs, and silently follow the standards, ideals and visions of another.

Those of us fortunate enough to live in the United States of America and enjoy the freedoms such as we do, would do well to heed the words of Apina Hrbek as she so eloquently shows us the vast difference between our freedoms and those who have survived the Communist rule. Yet, we must also ask ourselves if this is the only lesson contained in this story. I must say that I do not believe it is. Personally, I find the lesson to be more of the freedom to speak, the freedom to pursue our dreams and the freedom to choose life, in all of its beauty.