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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
THE WALLED CITY took a little bit to get going, but the second half of the book flew by. I stayed up into the early morning to read it. It was action-packed almost the whole time. I really liked the different POVs, too. But my favorite part was the family aspect. The three main characters--Dai, Jin Ling, and Mei Yee--were so sweet with each other. They all have very distinct personalities, but it's impossible to choose a favorite! I loved them all. I also thought it was cool that it was set in China. Most YA books seem to be set in America, but I like it when authors branch out and pick a different country. Some of the drug runs and infiltration missions Dai and Jin Ling pulled off reminded me of the TV show "Firefly."
All in all . . .
All in all . . .
MEH I wasn't really a fan of this book which is a shame considering how much I loved Wolf by Wolf by the same author. The main disappointing thing was the characters. There are three main characters whose perspectives we get and the annoying thing was that I couldn't tell them apart. All their chapters kind of blurred together because they didn't stand apart individually. There were a few times where I had to flick back to the start of the chapter and double check who I was reading about. I didn't like the characters. They were boring and didn't really have anything remarkable about them They all felt forgettable.
The plot also left something to be desired. It was meant to be very fast paced and exciting but I found myself skim reading a lot of the time because nothing grabbed me. One of the characters is meant to be mysterious but we go more than half of the book without any explanation as to why he is on the run or anything! It would've been okay if his entire character wasn't dependent on that point.
The writing was okay but metaphors were overused to the max. Every sentence had one. Every description had ten. I'm just not a fan of writing like that. This book had an interesting concept (it's based on a real place in Hong Kong) but I just couldn't get into it.
The plot also left something to be desired. It was meant to be very fast paced and exciting but I found myself skim reading a lot of the time because nothing grabbed me. One of the characters is meant to be mysterious but we go more than half of the book without any explanation as to why he is on the run or anything! It would've been okay if his entire character wasn't dependent on that point.
The writing was okay but metaphors were overused to the max. Every sentence had one. Every description had ten. I'm just not a fan of writing like that. This book had an interesting concept (it's based on a real place in Hong Kong) but I just couldn't get into it.
Nice and easy quick read. The ending was too quick for my liking.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
I don't know why I thought this was a dystopian/fantasy type book. But there is no fantasy about it and it's based on an actual city that existed in Hong Kong.
The Walled City follows three POV's: Dai, Jin, and Mei Yee. All trapped within the walls of the city and all for different reasons. Mei Lee was sold by her family and is now basically a prostitute in a high end brothel run by a drug lord. Jin is Mei Lee's little sister. Jin ran away from her family after Mei Lee was taken and followed her into the walled city. She has been searching everywhere trying to find her all the while living on the streets and pretending she's a boy so she too doesn't get whisked away to a brothel. Then there's Dai, who's trapped within the walls trying to make amends for his past. He's on a countdown though and if he doesn't succeed in his mission, he will be a prisoner for the rest of his life.
The world itself is it's own character. It's gritty and dark and pulsing with shadows. It fed well into the plot and had me actually looking up the real walled city: Kowloon Wall City. And the plot was steady. Constantly moving with new troubles around every bend. Graudin doesn't shy away from the dark nature of people, showing them at their worst.
But it was the characters that lacked umph. They all kind of blended together, only sticking out because of their own goals. They seemed very one dimensional and it was hard to really feel for them. I wanted to be in the story, not watch it from the sidelines.
Overall, it was a story where the world itself was more interesting to me than the characters. Unless you count the cat. Honestly, I cared more about if the cat lived than anything else.
The Walled City follows three POV's: Dai, Jin, and Mei Yee. All trapped within the walls of the city and all for different reasons. Mei Lee was sold by her family and is now basically a prostitute in a high end brothel run by a drug lord. Jin is Mei Lee's little sister. Jin ran away from her family after Mei Lee was taken and followed her into the walled city. She has been searching everywhere trying to find her all the while living on the streets and pretending she's a boy so she too doesn't get whisked away to a brothel. Then there's Dai, who's trapped within the walls trying to make amends for his past. He's on a countdown though and if he doesn't succeed in his mission, he will be a prisoner for the rest of his life.
The world itself is it's own character. It's gritty and dark and pulsing with shadows. It fed well into the plot and had me actually looking up the real walled city: Kowloon Wall City. And the plot was steady. Constantly moving with new troubles around every bend. Graudin doesn't shy away from the dark nature of people, showing them at their worst.
But it was the characters that lacked umph. They all kind of blended together, only sticking out because of their own goals. They seemed very one dimensional and it was hard to really feel for them. I wanted to be in the story, not watch it from the sidelines.
Overall, it was a story where the world itself was more interesting to me than the characters. Unless you count the cat. Honestly, I cared more about if the cat lived than anything else.
Good story - nice setup with the countdown of the number of days. YA level storyline. Liked the tough girl heroine - too bad she doesn't get the guy instead of the classic prettier older sister in the right age range. Good cat character, too. Weakest piece of the story os the hero's background, abandoned by his family but then welcomed back with open arms...
I really can't decide if this deserves 3 or 4 stars, but we're going with 3. The characters, world-building and everything but the writing style was amazing!! I just couldn't really picture the world and I had no real attachment to the characters, but the last 75ish pages were really good. Overall, read it if you want to, but if you don't, don't bother, really.
Edit 2/21/2017: i keep on thinking about this book lately, idk. 3.5 stars is a good rating. this novel had really good world building, looking back.
Edit 2/21/2017: i keep on thinking about this book lately, idk. 3.5 stars is a good rating. this novel had really good world building, looking back.
I wish I could say The Walled City starts out with a bang. I wish I could tell you the author dives right into the plot and that each scene is high on adrenaline. I wish I could say the story will captivate readers from page one.
But if I said all those things, I would be lying.
The Walled City actually begins much more slowly than I had expected. Based on the blurb, which describes each character's desire to escape the Walled City and establishes a strict time constraint, I expected cinematic countdown with the deadline quickly approaching and each day full of action. However, while readers quickly learn that Dai needs to obtain an item from brothel owner and notorious criminal Longwai in order to escape, they do not discover what item, why he needs it, or why he is under a deadline until about halfway through the novel. As a result, the plot seems almost aimless during the first segment, with a character who has a vague goal but no known motivation to achieve it. The other two protagonists' stories help support the plot, but while they are engrossing on their own, support seems to be their main function. The three tales eventually intertwine, but Dai's is always the dominant one. And since his story does not truly seem to start until 200 pages in, many readers may struggle to become invested right away.
However, the plot's initial slowness is not all bad; Ryan Graudin fills space between the creaky scenes of the exposition with captivating world-building. The Walled City creates a setting like no other, a center of crime completely exempt from the laws of the rest of the Asian nation in which it resides. Gang violence and other nefarious activities result in heart-pounding chases and deadly confrontations, creating explosive subplots that destroy any hint of boredom that the idle opening may cause. Perhaps it is the fact that the Walled City is based on a real place—the Kowloon Walled City, which stood in Hong Kong in the 1900s—or perhaps it is Graudin's gift for bringing a setting to life, but readers can almost immediately visualize this book's backdrop, rising in all its ashen glory, pulsating with the lives of thousands of vagrants and those trapped in nefarious games.
Even better, the plodding introduction makes the final few days of Dai's countdown, when the intense action starts to take place, seem incredibly satisfying. I loved watching all three main characters unite, developing risky plots to achieve Dai's goal, which, over the course of the novel, becomes their shared goal. Readers will be riveted as the characters' plans continually encounter kinks and complications, forcing them to think quickly to save themselves and each other. By the final page, The Walled City provides enough thrills to more than make up for an exposition that focuses more on world-building than plot.
Scrolling through this book's reviews on Goodreads, you will encounter reviewer after reviewer who put this book down before the 50% mark, too disinterested to continue. While I absolutely understand this decision, I highly recommend powering through if you are close to halfway done or if you can handle books with a slow build. The beginning is not boring—I never would have finished the book if it was—it is simply focused on world-building. And if you can make it through the first 50%, you will be rewarded with a stellar second 50%, making it 100% worth it to stick with the story until the end.
This review originally appeared at www.foreverliterary.blogspot.com.
But if I said all those things, I would be lying.
The Walled City actually begins much more slowly than I had expected. Based on the blurb, which describes each character's desire to escape the Walled City and establishes a strict time constraint, I expected cinematic countdown with the deadline quickly approaching and each day full of action. However, while readers quickly learn that Dai needs to obtain an item from brothel owner and notorious criminal Longwai in order to escape, they do not discover what item, why he needs it, or why he is under a deadline until about halfway through the novel. As a result, the plot seems almost aimless during the first segment, with a character who has a vague goal but no known motivation to achieve it. The other two protagonists' stories help support the plot, but while they are engrossing on their own, support seems to be their main function. The three tales eventually intertwine, but Dai's is always the dominant one. And since his story does not truly seem to start until 200 pages in, many readers may struggle to become invested right away.
However, the plot's initial slowness is not all bad; Ryan Graudin fills space between the creaky scenes of the exposition with captivating world-building. The Walled City creates a setting like no other, a center of crime completely exempt from the laws of the rest of the Asian nation in which it resides. Gang violence and other nefarious activities result in heart-pounding chases and deadly confrontations, creating explosive subplots that destroy any hint of boredom that the idle opening may cause. Perhaps it is the fact that the Walled City is based on a real place—the Kowloon Walled City, which stood in Hong Kong in the 1900s—or perhaps it is Graudin's gift for bringing a setting to life, but readers can almost immediately visualize this book's backdrop, rising in all its ashen glory, pulsating with the lives of thousands of vagrants and those trapped in nefarious games.
Even better, the plodding introduction makes the final few days of Dai's countdown, when the intense action starts to take place, seem incredibly satisfying. I loved watching all three main characters unite, developing risky plots to achieve Dai's goal, which, over the course of the novel, becomes their shared goal. Readers will be riveted as the characters' plans continually encounter kinks and complications, forcing them to think quickly to save themselves and each other. By the final page, The Walled City provides enough thrills to more than make up for an exposition that focuses more on world-building than plot.
Scrolling through this book's reviews on Goodreads, you will encounter reviewer after reviewer who put this book down before the 50% mark, too disinterested to continue. While I absolutely understand this decision, I highly recommend powering through if you are close to halfway done or if you can handle books with a slow build. The beginning is not boring—I never would have finished the book if it was—it is simply focused on world-building. And if you can make it through the first 50%, you will be rewarded with a stellar second 50%, making it 100% worth it to stick with the story until the end.
This review originally appeared at www.foreverliterary.blogspot.com.
I just want to preface this review with...I HATE labels. I would have read this book so much sooner and with so much more enthusiasm and vigor if it wasn't labeled as a dystopian novel because it most certainly is NOT. It's an amazing story that takes place in a setting that is hard to believe and imagine for first world dwellers like myself and many reading this book. But the events in this book can absolutely happen in our world and for all we know, IS happening. I loved this story so much and only wish I was able to enjoy it much sooner.
First of all, Ryans writing is amazing. Its beautiful but it isn't excessive or obnoxious in its beauty. She has a way of describing a scene or the feelings of the characters using very little words but with just enough detail to pack a mean punch and set the scene and tone for whats going on in the story.
The reason I say this isn't a dystopian novel is because the stuff that goes on in this book are things that could and are probably happening today. Poverty, street gangs, child prostitution, human trafficking, corruption, the list goes on. All of these things set the stage for a very unbelievable however extremely plausible story...
Jin is looking for her sister who was sold by their abusive drunk of a father, to the head of the biggest gang in The Walled City, Longwai, who also runs a brothel. Its been two years of surviving on the streets, pretending to be a boy to remain free, stealing food and clothes and searching high and low for her sister, yet Jin does not give up.
That's what I really loved about this book. Jin's fire. Her passion, determination, dedication, loyalty and love for her sister drove her for two years and when things got tough and it seemed like getting her sister out of her predicament was impossible, she still kept trying and kept fighting. There's nothing I love more than a strong female character who will do whatever it takes to get things done.
Of course she couldn't do all of this on her own. This is the biggest gang in the city we're talking about, with a leader who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. That's where Dai comes in. For a long time you don't know who Dai is, what he's doing in The Walled City or why he's there. All you know is, he wants to get inside Longwai's brothel and uses Jin and the pretense of sitting in while Jin makes drug runs to do so. But when you finally find out why he's there and how all of their stories come together, things really start to go down.
I will say that while I completely enjoyed this book, despite it taking me a week to read it, I was pretty bored with Mei Yee's chapters. I don't know if it was because she was stuck in a room the entire time and couldn't really lend much to the forward movement of the story besides giving information, but I found myself sighing a lot when it was time to read her chapters. There was just so much going no with Jin and Dai, I really didn't want to read her parts. In the end they were important to the overall story and I do appreciate her chapters...Just didn't care much for them.
This was such a great story though. I loved everything about it, even the parts I didn't like very much. The way the chapters were counting down the days, so that with each decrease in the number, there was a greater sense of panic and frenzy. How the different perspectives were so distinct but cohesive and fit together seamlessly. The way in which the secondary characters were developed and helped to depict the degree of despair and poverty all of these people were really in. Ryan just did an amazing job with this book and I am just in awe. Definitely read this book if you haven't already. So good.
First of all, Ryans writing is amazing. Its beautiful but it isn't excessive or obnoxious in its beauty. She has a way of describing a scene or the feelings of the characters using very little words but with just enough detail to pack a mean punch and set the scene and tone for whats going on in the story.
The reason I say this isn't a dystopian novel is because the stuff that goes on in this book are things that could and are probably happening today. Poverty, street gangs, child prostitution, human trafficking, corruption, the list goes on. All of these things set the stage for a very unbelievable however extremely plausible story...
Jin is looking for her sister who was sold by their abusive drunk of a father, to the head of the biggest gang in The Walled City, Longwai, who also runs a brothel. Its been two years of surviving on the streets, pretending to be a boy to remain free, stealing food and clothes and searching high and low for her sister, yet Jin does not give up.
That's what I really loved about this book. Jin's fire. Her passion, determination, dedication, loyalty and love for her sister drove her for two years and when things got tough and it seemed like getting her sister out of her predicament was impossible, she still kept trying and kept fighting. There's nothing I love more than a strong female character who will do whatever it takes to get things done.
Of course she couldn't do all of this on her own. This is the biggest gang in the city we're talking about, with a leader who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. That's where Dai comes in. For a long time you don't know who Dai is, what he's doing in The Walled City or why he's there. All you know is, he wants to get inside Longwai's brothel and uses Jin and the pretense of sitting in while Jin makes drug runs to do so. But when you finally find out why he's there and how all of their stories come together, things really start to go down.
I will say that while I completely enjoyed this book, despite it taking me a week to read it, I was pretty bored with Mei Yee's chapters. I don't know if it was because she was stuck in a room the entire time and couldn't really lend much to the forward movement of the story besides giving information, but I found myself sighing a lot when it was time to read her chapters. There was just so much going no with Jin and Dai, I really didn't want to read her parts. In the end they were important to the overall story and I do appreciate her chapters...Just didn't care much for them.
This was such a great story though. I loved everything about it, even the parts I didn't like very much. The way the chapters were counting down the days, so that with each decrease in the number, there was a greater sense of panic and frenzy. How the different perspectives were so distinct but cohesive and fit together seamlessly. The way in which the secondary characters were developed and helped to depict the degree of despair and poverty all of these people were really in. Ryan just did an amazing job with this book and I am just in awe. Definitely read this book if you haven't already. So good.