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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Um, wow...All I can say is that this book is raw and beautiful and GO READ IT NOW.
4.5 stars!!!
this book was SO DAMN GOOD. if you like gritty historical fiction which covers a part of history that you probably have never heard of...maybe. well i had never heard of it prior to this book and the walled city is FASCINATING. i want moooooore about this place and the countless endless stories that took place in such a crazy place.
this book was SO DAMN GOOD. if you like gritty historical fiction which covers a part of history that you probably have never heard of...maybe. well i had never heard of it prior to this book and the walled city is FASCINATING. i want moooooore about this place and the countless endless stories that took place in such a crazy place.
It’s easy to forget that “YA dystopian fiction” isn’t merely a paint-by-numbers genre, needing a futuristic, wholly invented world with a feisty heroine with special skills to take down the nasty government. Unfortunately this seems to be the case with many of the recent YA offerings, so you can imagine how refreshing it is to come across a book that actually has a new take on a dystopian world. The Walled City has just that – and the best part? It’s based almost entirely on historical fact.
Graudin’s Walled City is entirely based on the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, with a few simple name changes giving her a little more creative license than if this was straight historical fiction. However this is certainly not sci-fi, despite its dystopian leanings, and it’s interesting to see how difficult people have found it to separate the two genres. After all, a dystopia is simply a “society characterized by a focus on negatives such as mass poverty, public mistrust… squalor, suffering, or oppression, [which] that society has most often brought upon itself” (thank you, Wikipedia!). The Walled City is all of those things and more, and the research that has gone into recreating this world is obvious.
Graudin never shies away from the darker aspects of the world she is exploring, but also knows where to draw the line – rather than descend into gruesome detail, she leaves just enough to the imagination, though still I wouldn’t recommend this for very young readers. Occasionally the character voices do begin to blend together, but the very different experiences they each go through keep this from becoming confusing. Although The Walled City stumbles around the occasional cliché – how many more cases of instalove can the literary world take? – the plot is unpredictable enough to keep you guessing until the end.
Full review here
Received from the publisher through NZ Booklovers
Graudin’s Walled City is entirely based on the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, with a few simple name changes giving her a little more creative license than if this was straight historical fiction. However this is certainly not sci-fi, despite its dystopian leanings, and it’s interesting to see how difficult people have found it to separate the two genres. After all, a dystopia is simply a “society characterized by a focus on negatives such as mass poverty, public mistrust… squalor, suffering, or oppression, [which] that society has most often brought upon itself” (thank you, Wikipedia!). The Walled City is all of those things and more, and the research that has gone into recreating this world is obvious.
Graudin never shies away from the darker aspects of the world she is exploring, but also knows where to draw the line – rather than descend into gruesome detail, she leaves just enough to the imagination, though still I wouldn’t recommend this for very young readers. Occasionally the character voices do begin to blend together, but the very different experiences they each go through keep this from becoming confusing. Although The Walled City stumbles around the occasional cliché – how many more cases of instalove can the literary world take? – the plot is unpredictable enough to keep you guessing until the end.
Full review here
Received from the publisher through NZ Booklovers
Voici un livre que j'ai acheté au salon du livre jeunesse ! Je l'ai choisi notamment parce qu'il y avait une fille qui se déguisait en garçon et parce que c'était un tome unique (bah oui, ça fait moins de livres à acheter et pas besoin d'attendre la suite !). J'ai été... un peu déçue. C'est donc l'histoire de trois personnages (que j'ai eu un peu de mal à identifier au début). Il y a Dai, dont on ne comprend pas bien le but au début, mais en gros il doit piéger un trafiquant de drogues. Mei Yee qui est une prostituée, vendue par son père pour servir dans une maison close, elle rêve bien sûr de s'enfuir. Et enfin Jin Ling, la soeur de Mei Yee qui se fait donc passer pour un garçon et qui fait tout pour la retrouver. Le problème, c'est que je n'ai pas réussi à situer le contexte. On est à côté de Hong Kong, mais je n'arrivais pas à savoir à quelle époque.
Il y a beaucoup d'action, mais au détriment du contexte si vous voulez mon avis. C'est vraiment une bonne idée, l'intrigue est bonne et on a envie de savoir comment tout cela va finir ! Mais il m'a vraiment manqué le petit truc en plus pour accrocher. Résultat, je ne saurais le conseiller, même si objectivement, c'est un bon roman.
Il y a beaucoup d'action, mais au détriment du contexte si vous voulez mon avis. C'est vraiment une bonne idée, l'intrigue est bonne et on a envie de savoir comment tout cela va finir ! Mais il m'a vraiment manqué le petit truc en plus pour accrocher. Résultat, je ne saurais le conseiller, même si objectivement, c'est un bon roman.
I enjoyed this read, although it took me quite a bit into the story to become engaged and wanting to binge read. The gruesomeness and dark reality of some of these scenes could not be suitable for some teens if they aren't into that type or writing, however I quite enjoyed it. The way the ending plays out is very engaging and had me on the edge of my seat. Worth a quick read :)
this book had a lot of cliches and it was underwhelming but it was still enjoyable
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
listen the concept is cool but this is just wayyyy tooooo slowwwwwww...