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A review by haia_929
The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
4.0
This is a trimmed down version of my review, to view the full review visit The Book Ramble.
I received a copy of this book from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 teenagers living in the Walled City must find a way out of the city by New Years Eve. One is a criminal on the run, one has been sold into prostitution, and one is trying to save her sister. Together they must save themselves, each other, and everyone around them before the Walled City is destroyed. This take on historical events in 1980s Hong Kong is a thrilling, chilling, and amazing journey into the underbelly of society and acts as a reminder of the terrors that happen everyday not just in other countries, but in our own communities.
As soon as I saw the words The Walled City I knew this book was about Kowloon Walled City. Reading the description made me even more confident that it would be. Starting the book I was delighted to see that, yes, this book was a take on the world within Kowloon Walled City. The author captures the tone and realities of Kowloon in her novel even with the pan-Asian setting and 2010s time period. I found this book thrilling, interesting, and hard to put down.
The historical setting of this book is really interesting and I, for one, was super excited to see a book about it. Especially a book for teens who may not know a lot about this particular piece of history. I do think the book has been marketed poorly as a dystopian even though this is not a dystopian novel.
The characters were really well developed. The backstories were interesting and also based on realistic events that would produce the kind of teenagers who lived in the Walled City. Jin and Mei Yee are sisters who grew up on a rice farm, their father wanted a boy and routinely beat them. He eventually sold Mei Yee to a brothel and Jin followed to save her. Dai is the son of a rich family who gets involved in the crug community and eventually is wanted for the murder of 3 people and so he runs to the Walled City where there is no police presence. I enjoyed these plot lines because they worked well within the Walled City of the book, but also the historical point of reference for the book.
I enjoyed the writing and found it really easy to get into. I honestly found this book hard to put down, and wound up reading the last 60% of the book in about an hour while waiting for some car repairs to be done. It was super absorbing while also making me think a lot about the realities of the drug trade, human trafficking, and the historical point of reference for the book.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I think the tone of the book was excellent when the historical point of reference is in mind. It seems well researched, which creates a realistic world. I highly recommend this book and I'll likely buy it myself.
I received a copy of this book from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 teenagers living in the Walled City must find a way out of the city by New Years Eve. One is a criminal on the run, one has been sold into prostitution, and one is trying to save her sister. Together they must save themselves, each other, and everyone around them before the Walled City is destroyed. This take on historical events in 1980s Hong Kong is a thrilling, chilling, and amazing journey into the underbelly of society and acts as a reminder of the terrors that happen everyday not just in other countries, but in our own communities.
As soon as I saw the words The Walled City I knew this book was about Kowloon Walled City. Reading the description made me even more confident that it would be. Starting the book I was delighted to see that, yes, this book was a take on the world within Kowloon Walled City. The author captures the tone and realities of Kowloon in her novel even with the pan-Asian setting and 2010s time period. I found this book thrilling, interesting, and hard to put down.
The historical setting of this book is really interesting and I, for one, was super excited to see a book about it. Especially a book for teens who may not know a lot about this particular piece of history. I do think the book has been marketed poorly as a dystopian even though this is not a dystopian novel.
The characters were really well developed. The backstories were interesting and also based on realistic events that would produce the kind of teenagers who lived in the Walled City. Jin and Mei Yee are sisters who grew up on a rice farm, their father wanted a boy and routinely beat them. He eventually sold Mei Yee to a brothel and Jin followed to save her. Dai is the son of a rich family who gets involved in the crug community and eventually is wanted for the murder of 3 people and so he runs to the Walled City where there is no police presence. I enjoyed these plot lines because they worked well within the Walled City of the book, but also the historical point of reference for the book.
I enjoyed the writing and found it really easy to get into. I honestly found this book hard to put down, and wound up reading the last 60% of the book in about an hour while waiting for some car repairs to be done. It was super absorbing while also making me think a lot about the realities of the drug trade, human trafficking, and the historical point of reference for the book.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. I think the tone of the book was excellent when the historical point of reference is in mind. It seems well researched, which creates a realistic world. I highly recommend this book and I'll likely buy it myself.