The Walled CityAuthor: Ryan Graudin
Publisher: Little, Brown, 432 pages
Expected Publication Date: November 4, 2014
*ARC received from publisher via NetGalley
From Goodreads:
There are three rules in the Walled City: Run fast. Trust no one. Always carry your knife. Right now, my life depends completely on the first. Run, run, run.
Jin, Mei Yee, and Dai all live in the Walled City, a lawless labyrinth run by crime lords and overrun by street gangs. Teens there run drugs or work in brothels—or, like Jin, hide under the radar. But when Dai offers Jin a chance to find her lost sister, Mei Yee, she begins a breathtaking race against the clock to escape the Walled City itself.
Review:
An interesting, gritty, and action filled book about a lawless city filled with poverty, street gangs, drug lords, and girls kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The book is based on Kowloon’s Walled City in Hong Kong, but it reads like a dystopian.
The book is narrated by three different POVs: Jin, who has to pretend to be a boy and has been living in the city for two years searching for her sister; Mei Yee, her sister, who was sold into prostitution by their abusive, alcoholic father; and Dai, who is spying on one of the gangster type guys and teams up with Jin. Dai's backstory remains a mystery for most of the novel, but finally it's revealed toward the end. I'm not sure I understand why it needed to be a secret because I probably would have connected more to his character had I known who he was and why he was in the Walled City earlier.
I liked this book. It's a well-written and engrossing story about courage, love, and redemption. It's a stand-alone and it wraps up nicely, with an epilogue that takes place six months later.
The book is narrated by three different POVs: Jin, who has to pretend to be a boy and has been living in the city for two years searching for her sister; Mei Yee, her sister, who was sold into prostitution by their abusive, alcoholic father; and Dai, who is spying on one of the gangster type guys and teams up with Jin. Dai's backstory remains a mystery for most of the novel, but finally it's revealed toward the end. I'm not sure I understand why it needed to be a secret because I probably would have connected more to his character had I known who he was and why he was in the Walled City earlier.
I liked this book. It's a well-written and engrossing story about courage, love, and redemption. It's a stand-alone and it wraps up nicely, with an epilogue that takes place six months later.
Posted by: Pam
Glad to hear you liked this one! I have an ARC of it, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. In fact, I haven't read a lot of my BEA books... Fail. Too many books, too little time. Bookworm problems, am I right? I didn't realize this was a standalone though and that makes me pretty excited!
ReplyDeleteSounds great, can't wait to read it. I didn't really like her All That Glows that much, so hoping this one will be more my type of read. I read On the Edge, which has a similar vibe to it, though it's not dystopian. Glad you enjoyed it! :)
ReplyDeleteI have this to read. Yet another book I need to read soon. Good review!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking I might read this one soon. It has me really curious and I think I will like the darker aspect to it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you liked this one! I got it from BEA and am looking forward to reading it. I like that it's based on a true story, too.
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