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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars
I loved seeing Dai and Jin's brother-sister relationship develop through the book. They're both wary of working together at first but do so anyway for personal needs and wants, all centered around the Brotherhoods brothel. Their cute and friendly banter was unfortunately contrasted with Mei Yee's overly romantic, overly emotional dialogue though. Her chapter's stood out too much from the rest of the book and frankly, her character, her story, it bored me. Yes, she put up a fight of her own, but I personally have a distaste for light and fluffy characters. A part of me wonders if she would have been as willing to help out the 'window-boy' if our window-boy wasn't so handsome, and just the right age. But I guess we wouldn't have these stories if anyone bothered with the what-if's, this is probably just the result of my disinterest for her character honestly speaking.
*Spoilers*
There was one part in the story that had me threatening tears. When Mei Yee gets pulled out of the brothel by Osamu only to be valiantly rescued by a group of Jin Ling. Hand in hand they ran until it seemed safe in a tight alleyway. The scene in my head: Jin Ling is out of breath, she turns and finally takes a good look at her sister, whom she'd been searching for for the last 2 years. Full of hardships. "Mei Yee." Sniff sniff. It still gets to me a little. Maybe because I have an older sister of my own, but the emotion in this scene, is stuffed to the brim with just the way I imagined Jin saying her name.
Overall, it was different to read a fiction novel based in my family's native country/city. I was unaware of the previous existence of Kowloon's walled city; I'm thoroughly intrigued and plan to visit the park the next time I visit family. Though I won't lie, I had to constantly remind my self of their heritage, stopping now and then to revise the images in my head to create Chinese book characters instead of the typical Western ones. The best part of the book was definitely Dai and Jin Ling's relationship!
I loved seeing Dai and Jin's brother-sister relationship develop through the book. They're both wary of working together at first but do so anyway for personal needs and wants, all centered around the Brotherhoods brothel. Their cute and friendly banter was unfortunately contrasted with Mei Yee's overly romantic, overly emotional dialogue though. Her chapter's stood out too much from the rest of the book and frankly, her character, her story, it bored me. Yes, she put up a fight of her own, but I personally have a distaste for light and fluffy characters. A part of me wonders if she would have been as willing to help out the 'window-boy' if our window-boy wasn't so handsome, and just the right age. But I guess we wouldn't have these stories if anyone bothered with the what-if's, this is probably just the result of my disinterest for her character honestly speaking.
*Spoilers*
There was one part in the story that had me threatening tears. When Mei Yee gets pulled out of the brothel by Osamu only to be valiantly rescued by a group of Jin Ling. Hand in hand they ran until it seemed safe in a tight alleyway. The scene in my head: Jin Ling is out of breath, she turns and finally takes a good look at her sister, whom she'd been searching for for the last 2 years. Full of hardships. "Mei Yee." Sniff sniff. It still gets to me a little. Maybe because I have an older sister of my own, but the emotion in this scene, is stuffed to the brim with just the way I imagined Jin saying her name.
Overall, it was different to read a fiction novel based in my family's native country/city. I was unaware of the previous existence of Kowloon's walled city; I'm thoroughly intrigued and plan to visit the park the next time I visit family. Though I won't lie, I had to constantly remind my self of their heritage, stopping now and then to revise the images in my head to create Chinese book characters instead of the typical Western ones. The best part of the book was definitely Dai and Jin Ling's relationship!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Finally I'm done with this. I was bored with this book, disappointed with it. I anticipated much more, and got nothing new, just a simple story with an exceptionally bad romance. The characters and the writing fell flat to me and the author wasn't brave with the character's story, so all in all this wasn't a very good book.
3.5.
o instalove da mei yee e do dai é horrível, os dois n tem química nenhuma. mas o livro valeu apena pela jin ling que é de longe a personagem mais carismática
o instalove da mei yee e do dai é horrível, os dois n tem química nenhuma. mas o livro valeu apena pela jin ling que é de longe a personagem mais carismática
Enjoyed the story overall but found my attention wandering often.
3.5/5
This was a tad difficult to rate. It was mostly enjoyable while I was actually reading, but now that I'm not it's....fading. While there were things happening, I don't really feel like all that much happened. It seemed like a bunch of running around and avoiding getting killed, with no real plot. We don't find out what Dai's purpose is (or what the point of the numbers is) until closer to the end. There was a lull around 20% or so where I became very bored with the story and had to push myself to pick it back up.
I do have to say that I was attached to this book for one main reason: Chma. OMG I loved him soooo much!!! Honestly, he was the only character that I really cared about. I love love LOVE when the main character of the book has a sidekick kitty, even if they can't talk (Chma was just a regular kitty). He stole my heart!
Spoiler
The part where Jin comes into an alley and sees the enemy kid (can't remember his name) holding Chma with the threat of a knife, I seriously yelled "NO!" out loud and instantly burst into tears. I was so upset at the thought of something happening to him that I couldn't even focus on what was happening with Jin until I skimmed through to make sure that Chma wasn't going to die! (I probably would have DNFed right then and there!) Then after they had to leave Chma behind, I nearly cried again out of relief when he showed up okay!I think about when I found Chma - a shuddering whimper of a kitten - being battered like a football among a group of vagrants. I was outnumbered. Four to one. It didn't matter.
[Chma] curls against against my full belly, rattles me with a lullaby of purrs.
My kitty Gizmo does this! <3
"You killed a boy for your cat?"
It was said incredulously, but Jin's actions were perfectly fitting for the moment. What else is there to do? Stand there while the kid kills the cat instead? If someone was threatening one of my furbabies I would do whatever I had to do!
Jin Ling was pretty awesome, but I didn't connect to her like I wanted to. The only thing that really endeared me to her (besides the fact that she was a fighter) was her attachment to Chma and the fact that she rescued him and took care of him. But I do like stories where a female is disguised as a male for some reason! Dai was just...there. And so was Mei Yee. Honestly, the switching POVs was kind of hard to follow sometimes. If I had to stop in the middle of a chapter, when I came back to it I would forget who I was reading and have to go back and check. Every character sounded exactly the same. In fact, I really struggled to tell Jin Ling and Dai apart in the beginning because Jin was playing the role of a boy.
I do have to say that the prose in The Walled City was beautiful. Ryan Graudin has a very unique writing style: Many of the sentences were very short, but not to the point of making it sound choppy. Ryan is a pro at bringing her setting to life, though - I had no problem picturing the world in my head!
I kind of just want to cuddle Chma XD
This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.
I really liked this one. Very enjoyable. I probably could have finished this sooner if I wasn't watching basketball. Maybe more of a 4.5 than a 4 for me.
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes