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A review by zoejjj
The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I was skimming hardcore through this. I had such high hopes and it left me wanting every time.
My biggest issues were the tone and setting. The author went for weirdly poetic language at random times. It was jarring and took me out of the book because they’d be talking about the boeing 747’s flying ahead and then the mom’s miscarriage that was described as “holding my mother and her screams and rivers of blood” or something like that. Or when someone got stabbed it was described as “braids of veins and blood”. The tone couldn’t settle as either poetic and flowery or regular speaking.
I never had a grasp or understanding of the setting. It was written like the walled city was medieval and rudimentary technology but then all the sudden there were jets in the sky and Mercedes cars?? The only descriptions of the city were over dramatic ones that made it sound like a fantasy city. Finding out that it was based in a REAL city in Hong Kong was jarring.
The characters were all cliches. This was hard to get through
My biggest issues were the tone and setting. The author went for weirdly poetic language at random times. It was jarring and took me out of the book because they’d be talking about the boeing 747’s flying ahead and then the mom’s miscarriage that was described as “holding my mother and her screams and rivers of blood” or something like that. Or when someone got stabbed it was described as “braids of veins and blood”. The tone couldn’t settle as either poetic and flowery or regular speaking.
I never had a grasp or understanding of the setting. It was written like the walled city was medieval and rudimentary technology but then all the sudden there were jets in the sky and Mercedes cars?? The only descriptions of the city were over dramatic ones that made it sound like a fantasy city. Finding out that it was based in a REAL city in Hong Kong was jarring.
The characters were all cliches. This was hard to get through