Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
I picked this ARC up based on the beautiful cover, and I am glad that I did. It has been a while since I enjoyed a book with multiple POVS, and this one has three different main characters. And thankfully the author labeled each chapter with the character's names, some don't and I hate that. This book was a shock to read, because the author deals with subjects like crime, murder, and human trafficking, but does it in a way that makes you ache for the victims.
I recommend checking out this book, but there a lot of touchy subjects in it, so if you cannot handle things like human trafficking or violence this is not the book for you.
I recommend checking out this book, but there a lot of touchy subjects in it, so if you cannot handle things like human trafficking or violence this is not the book for you.
FIRST THOUGHTS:
4.5 stars. Such an impressive novel! The world Graudin depicts is crazy and dark and filled with all sorts of terrible things. But the three characters who narrate - Dai, Mei Yee and Jin Ling - are pretty great. Very much worth a read!
REVIEW:
(Originally posted on Alexa Loves Books)
Impressive is the first word that comes to mind when attempting to describe The Walled City. These are the words that follow after: Gritty. Harsh. Dark. Compelling. Author Ryan Graudin sets the stage with the unforgiving, terrifying place that is the Walled City. Combined effortlessly with her three character narrators – Dai, Mei Yee & Jin Ling – and a story that will has readers wondering what will happen next, Graudin has definitely written something memorable.
Honestly, it’s probably best to go into The Walled City knowing just the bare bones of things. The story is comprised of three different goals that tangle together: Dai is running out of time to accomplish an important task, Jin Ling wants to find her older sister and Mei Yee dreams of a life outside the brothel. Graudin deftly juggles their different points of view, allowing readers to really get into the heads and heart of these characters. Readers will find themselves drawn to these characters, because Graudin depicts them as they really are – a complicated mess of good and bad qualities, shaped by their history and current situation. It is definitely a quality that makes The Walled City interesting, and the reason readers will be invested in finding out what happens next.
The Walled City is the kind of story readers will find it hard to tear their eyes away from until the very end. (Proof: I totally sat on a bench in a subway station to finish it before I went off to work.) Dai, Jin Ling, Mei Yee – these characters will definitely stay with readers long after they have finished. Different it may be, but that is certainly why The Walled City is worth the read.
4.5 stars. Such an impressive novel! The world Graudin depicts is crazy and dark and filled with all sorts of terrible things. But the three characters who narrate - Dai, Mei Yee and Jin Ling - are pretty great. Very much worth a read!
REVIEW:
(Originally posted on Alexa Loves Books)
Impressive is the first word that comes to mind when attempting to describe The Walled City. These are the words that follow after: Gritty. Harsh. Dark. Compelling. Author Ryan Graudin sets the stage with the unforgiving, terrifying place that is the Walled City. Combined effortlessly with her three character narrators – Dai, Mei Yee & Jin Ling – and a story that will has readers wondering what will happen next, Graudin has definitely written something memorable.
Honestly, it’s probably best to go into The Walled City knowing just the bare bones of things. The story is comprised of three different goals that tangle together: Dai is running out of time to accomplish an important task, Jin Ling wants to find her older sister and Mei Yee dreams of a life outside the brothel. Graudin deftly juggles their different points of view, allowing readers to really get into the heads and heart of these characters. Readers will find themselves drawn to these characters, because Graudin depicts them as they really are – a complicated mess of good and bad qualities, shaped by their history and current situation. It is definitely a quality that makes The Walled City interesting, and the reason readers will be invested in finding out what happens next.
The Walled City is the kind of story readers will find it hard to tear their eyes away from until the very end. (Proof: I totally sat on a bench in a subway station to finish it before I went off to work.) Dai, Jin Ling, Mei Yee – these characters will definitely stay with readers long after they have finished. Different it may be, but that is certainly why The Walled City is worth the read.
This one had been on my list for a while and my husband had already read it and loved it. This book took me longer than expected to read and I think that’s because I didn’t really feel particularly connected to the characters. I loved the setting and the way that the streets and the Walled City itself is described, but the characters were a little lacking for me. I didn’t feel like they had all that much depth. I could sympathize with the characters, but towards the end of the book when the plot was most suspenseful I didn’t feel myself agonizing over whether or not the characters would make it (as I did during Winter by Marissa Meyers). One thing I did really like about this book is that it features Asian characters. In the end, I liked this book and I might even read it again someday, but it was no Wolf by Wolf.
Overall: 4
Language: Moderate
Violence: Heavy
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Moderate
Overall: 4
Language: Moderate
Violence: Heavy
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Moderate
I found this book enjoyable but I didn't love it. The writing was a little weird (and the overuse of the word vagrant......) and it was hard to tell the difference between the three points of view because they all sounded almost the same. But it was a fun and fast paced read
A very strong 3, possibly 3.5, ⭐s. I really love Ryan Graudin's writing, and this story and it's historical antecedent were fascinating. Most of my lower rating comes from the fact that this took me forever to read (my life problem, not a book problem) so I sort of felt detached from it, AND there were several minor instances of fatphobia, which I can't stand. Overall, very solid book.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I am admittedly pretty bad at letting YA books be what they are. I like the tagline: "Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife." Set in a world inspired by Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. The POV characters were hit or miss and none of the relationships really worked for me.
What a story. At first, I didn't know what to think of these three people narrating from this entirely different, scary world but the more I read the more I felt like I could see how suffocating their situation was. Jin, Mei Yee and Dai have all been through so much and they all have these barriers up because of it. This novel is worth a read to unravel their pasts and see how it's led them to where they are and to learn about this crazy city (based on a real one).
Today we're leaving the genre of fantasy and science-fiction to talk about a historical fiction/romance/mystery thriller novel: The Walled City. A terrifying and heart-pounding book that had me questioning myself all throughout.
This book has taken the meaning of reading to a whole new level! In this heart-warming story of family and risking your life to save a loved one, we have many different POV's and narratives. There are three main narrators of the book: Dai, Jin Ling, and Mei Yee. I can't even express how much I loved the three diverse point of views featured in this book!
The first protagonist we meet is Jin Ling, a girl who is disguised as a guy to search for her long lost sister beacuse being a girl means you would be taken to the brothels. Dai is a ex-con just trying to clear his name with the help of Jin Ling. And finally Mei Yee, well she's trapped in a brothel! Yes a brothel! As scary as that sounds and as miserable, she's desperate to find a way out of the tight cells and the lurking hands of the men that pay for a little one on one time with some of the girls. I thought that Graudin took the aspect of this sad topic and turned it into something adventurous. There isn't a lot of world building, and I wouldn't expect there to be. This book takes place in a real setting- Kowloon the Walled City. The setting that this author chose was actually quite a hard one to elaborate on, and I'm surprised she did such a great job. I loved her story that she chose to place in this particular setting.
The Walled City was such a dark and compelling story of love and terror, even in the most terrifying and frightening places of the world. And the author deals with touchy topics such as murder and human-trafficking. My heart has been moved by this book. And it's really a genre that's great for those mixed genre lovers. We see the aspect of historical fiction in the setting, a little mystery in the plot, and a lot of romance and contemporary in the relationship between Dai and Mei Yee.
I wish I had gone into this book not knowing anything about it. It probably would have worked out better that way, since we get so little from the synopsis anyways. Dai has 18 days to clear his name, which is why the book is split into 18 parts. Each part is labeled with the number of days he had left, and oh my god, I loved it so much. This book was amazing and because I read it in 2014, it's eligible to make it on to my 2014 Top Book List. Highly recommended. Just leave this blog post right now and please check it out before the year ends.
This book has taken the meaning of reading to a whole new level! In this heart-warming story of family and risking your life to save a loved one, we have many different POV's and narratives. There are three main narrators of the book: Dai, Jin Ling, and Mei Yee. I can't even express how much I loved the three diverse point of views featured in this book!
The first protagonist we meet is Jin Ling, a girl who is disguised as a guy to search for her long lost sister beacuse being a girl means you would be taken to the brothels. Dai is a ex-con just trying to clear his name with the help of Jin Ling. And finally Mei Yee, well she's trapped in a brothel! Yes a brothel! As scary as that sounds and as miserable, she's desperate to find a way out of the tight cells and the lurking hands of the men that pay for a little one on one time with some of the girls. I thought that Graudin took the aspect of this sad topic and turned it into something adventurous. There isn't a lot of world building, and I wouldn't expect there to be. This book takes place in a real setting- Kowloon the Walled City. The setting that this author chose was actually quite a hard one to elaborate on, and I'm surprised she did such a great job. I loved her story that she chose to place in this particular setting.
The Walled City was such a dark and compelling story of love and terror, even in the most terrifying and frightening places of the world. And the author deals with touchy topics such as murder and human-trafficking. My heart has been moved by this book. And it's really a genre that's great for those mixed genre lovers. We see the aspect of historical fiction in the setting, a little mystery in the plot, and a lot of romance and contemporary in the relationship between Dai and Mei Yee.
I wish I had gone into this book not knowing anything about it. It probably would have worked out better that way, since we get so little from the synopsis anyways. Dai has 18 days to clear his name, which is why the book is split into 18 parts. Each part is labeled with the number of days he had left, and oh my god, I loved it so much. This book was amazing and because I read it in 2014, it's eligible to make it on to my 2014 Top Book List. Highly recommended. Just leave this blog post right now and please check it out before the year ends.
Some parts would have deserved 3,5*, others 2,5, so I guess 3 stars is a great compromise.
I LOVED the setting and I was really intrigued with the walled city's concept, that's why I was sad there weren't more in depth descriptions and insights about life and survival in this horrible place. I would have really enjoyed more details and more focus on this aspect.
I get this book is YA so everything needed to be toned down, but all the depravity and corruption and bad things, if not well explained even in their most upsetting and crude parts, seemed very off and unbelievable.
I liked the fact that prostitution, abduction, murder, addiction and starvation were topic the author wanted to write about, but they were too lightly approached and so they seemed fake, unrealistic and, sadly, stupid. Except maybe for Jin, the characters were the weakest part of the book: kinda boring and two-dimensional, none of them was interesting enough to hooked me up.
Lastly, I am so done with this trend YA books have to describe a character as a bad, dangerous person and then let you realize the guy is actually good and all the bad things he has supposedly done were actually not his fault. For once I would like to see a true villainous kind of guy or a true antihero. I don't think it's too much to ask for.
Anyway, good concept, mediocre realization.
I LOVED the setting and I was really intrigued with the walled city's concept, that's why I was sad there weren't more in depth descriptions and insights about life and survival in this horrible place. I would have really enjoyed more details and more focus on this aspect.
I get this book is YA so everything needed to be toned down, but all the depravity and corruption and bad things, if not well explained even in their most upsetting and crude parts, seemed very off and unbelievable.
I liked the fact that prostitution, abduction, murder, addiction and starvation were topic the author wanted to write about, but they were too lightly approached and so they seemed fake, unrealistic and, sadly, stupid. Except maybe for Jin, the characters were the weakest part of the book: kinda boring and two-dimensional, none of them was interesting enough to hooked me up.
Lastly, I am so done with this trend YA books have to describe a character as a bad, dangerous person and then let you realize the guy is actually good and all the bad things he has supposedly done were actually not his fault. For once I would like to see a true villainous kind of guy or a true antihero. I don't think it's too much to ask for.
Anyway, good concept, mediocre realization.