How I Became an North Korean

Laura, I've got two books come to mind is just like quick read-a-likes for adults looking for similar books. When you mentioned that the main character was reading books that were forbidden, that reminded me of the sorcerer of Pyongyang by Marcel Thiru. And it's about a North Korean boy whose dad works in a hotel and he finds a Dungeons and Dragons manual that a Western visitor has left behind. So that was one thing that occurred to me. The other is how I became an North Korean by Chris Lee, which is about a boy who came from a very privileged family, but then his father fell out of favor and was assassinated  and he escaped into China.