The Walled City

I don't know what I was expecting from The Walled City but this book exceeded my expectations! In The Walled City, we follow three POVs, a girl pretending to be a boy while on a mission to rescue her sister, a boy with 18 days to complete a mission, and a girl imprisoned in a brothel these two both find themselves in on their missions. I loved all of their POVs. For a moment there, it was hard to keep the three straight but their journeys are all so different and distinct, it soon becomes very clear where each of them are on those journeys and how they all connect. I loved all three perspectives, I felt very grounded in each one and I really enjoyed seeing the different dynamics each person had with the people around them, relationships that often helped them live to see the next day.The setting is China which was wonderfully brought to life by Graudin. Round of applause for her research here because it shows and pays off so well. The setting of this walled city, ruled by drugs and human trafficking, is actually based on the real life Kowloon Walled City which astounded me because I didn't even know about Kowloon. Talk about danger and mystery. This is not an easy book to read as it's set in a very dark and disturbing setting where the stakes are very high and the tension is so thick, your heart will race. You will root for these characters to stay afloat in a city where everyone seemingly drowns. There's plenty of action in this novel but there are also very poignant moments and the balance in tone here is beautiful. I really enjoyed it all.If you're looking for a pick me up book, The Walled City is the exact opposite of that. You have to have thick skin to read this book. It's not an easy one to get through simply because of the subject matter at hand. But the characters. They fight. They fight to survive and they fight to tear down the walls in their lives and seeing that fight is worth every single minute. I knew that I'd like this book but I didn't know I'd enjoy it as much as I did and I'm so happy to say that this one really surprised me in the best way. I loved how the story unraveled and came together and I think Graudin is a fabulous storyteller and writer. Definitely give The Walled City a read if you're looking for a really intense stand alone novel.

This is one of my favorite books. I was on edge to start reading it because the synopsis didn't catch my interest but i decided to give it a go and it was awesome.

Loved the book. Too bad I’ve read all her books already. Hopefully she will keep them coming.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a quick read. The ending was happy but a little far fetched.

Compelling read. Great mix of YA action and historical details. That said, some of the action would definitely be a very hard PG13 and I would advise parents to preview the novel to determine if it is age appropriate for their child[ren].

With such a clean and masterful writing style, Ryan draws you into the lives of three teens and makes you see, hear, smell, taste and touch their amazing story of freedom and finding home.

Book was well written. The book had Plenty of suspense with a fair finish. Could have more condensed in certain areas.

My favorite thing about this book was all the different points of view from the three main characters. I would recommend this to everyone.

The book was a pretty good read but was ruined for me at the end when the author said it was based on a real walled city. The author did not manage reflect the real city in his writing and should have kept his story as a complete work of fiction.

This is a dark novel, full of bad things and desperate young people, doing what they must in order to survive. It's a compelling read, counting down the days until Dai's time is up. While the themes are dark and adult at times, it's not hugely explicit. There is violence and drug use, and it doesn't shy away from implying further sufferings, but neither does it glorify or dwell too deeply on the bitter truth of this place. It is eye-opening without being haunting, though the fate of Sing is horrifying.Jin Ling was my favourite of the three main characters. She's independent and strong, with a deeply protective heart. She's Mei Yee's younger sister, but acts so much older than her years, doing everything she can to find her sister again, and survive in the streets. I loved everything about her, from the way she survives on her wits and her speed, to her cat Chma. There's a strange innocence to her too, which makes her all the more special considering her life.Dai is bitter. He's made mistakes and he's living them. He has history and a past and so much baggage it's a wonder he can walk around anywhere. Yet there's hope for him too. He's not completely lost to his guilt or his grief. He does still have a conscience. I really liked seeing how Jin Ling changed him, just by being herself. The way his story unravels is fascinating, adding a touch of mystery to this tale.Then there's Mei Yee. In someways she's both better and worse off than the others, trapped in the brothel, yet well cared for. For me her plot strand was so much darker than the others, for all that it's the least described. At least the others can move around, make their own choices, live a sort of freedom. Mei Yee is owned. I really appreciated the way that she was so different from her sister, with strengths of her own, ones that she grew into as the story progressed. No, she will never be physically strong, but that doesn't mean she is weak. Just because she is beautiful, that doesn't mean she is just an object. Her situation is hopeless, yet she's not lost to despair.A dark story with a heart of truth about human trafficking and life on the city streets, this is a well written novel, in a vividly imaged place, showing some of the depths of human darkness, yet at the same time some of the good points of humanity. A fast read, intense and absorbing, with some really good characters.Firstly, the last paragraph of the blurb is misleading. I mistook the word fantasy to mean fantastical in the genre sense. This is not a Fantasy novel, there is nothing magical or otherworldly about it. It's just based on a real-life place, without actually being that place. So don't let that fool you, because this is a book that deserves to be read on its own merits.

The Walled City is an adventure set in and around a fantasy location based on the authors impression of Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. The background to the story with it's undercurrent of gangs, brothels and threat of violence is well worked. This is YA fiction and the darker side of life is mentioned but never elaborated upon. The novel never becomes gratuitous but is certainly dark and gritty.Jin Ling, a girl disguised as a boy for her own safety, is searching the city for her sister Mei Yee. No-one knows where Mei Yee is or even if she's alive or dead but Jin Ling will not give up hope but; it looks as though all the leads have dried up, there's only danger left for Jin Ling, until the mysterious Dai arrives and asks for her help. She's tempted to turn him down but if she helps Dai there's a chance she'll draw closer to the whereabouts of her sister......maybe?.I enjoyed the character of Jin Ling. She's Mei Yee's little sister but acts with a huge amount of courage and determination. She's a nice blend of smart and vulnerable. Her relationship with Dai who is so much darker and damaged is slowly developed and becomes almost another story within the main plot. Nice contrast.The Walled City has plenty of tension and adventure and I admire the author taking on the darker aspects of life and presenting them in such an intelligent, appropriate way. There's enough intrigue here to appeal to most readers and I'm happy to recommend.

On the back, this novel is recommended to fans of the Hunger Games (aren't they all?) but it isn't a dystopian novel. It is described as a thriller and it is set in a place that did exist. It is written from three viewpoints, in the present tense, in the first person and it has an immediacy which will appeal to a teen reader. The background to the novel has clearly been very well researched.The back of the book suggests it has literary merit and so I imagined this was going to be a good candidate as a crossover. However, I think it might be mainly suitable for the teen reader. Many novels about the East have a poetic and lyrical feel to them. Even though some have described this work as lyrical, I never really got that feeling from it. Neither did I get a really strong sense of place. The setting is certainly described in lots of colourful detail but I didn't get a feeling or a sense of it coming through in the narrative. I think this was because some of the vocabulary and syntax struck me as quintessentially American rather than Eastern. I did rather miss the Eastern lyricism from this work.That said, the author has clearly made efforts to adopt an engaging and accessible writing style suitable for the teen reader.

In a former fort near Hong Kong, a city has built within it's walls; a place where laws and governments don't apply.This is the setting of The Walled City, a gripping thriller told from the perspectives of Mei Yee - a girl sold into the sex trade by her own father and now works in a drug lord's brothel, her younger sister - Jin Ling - who followed her into the city with dreams of rescuing her, and Dai - the boy with a ton of secrets who offers to help the girls whilst clearly hatching a scheme of his own...._ I think that The Walled City successfully straddles the line between a young adult and adult book; the story certainly isn't sunshine and rainbows, but it isn't as heavy and dark as a similar plot feels in an adult book.The removal of a star is because I found the chapters that come from Dai's POV to often be frustrating for a while as he is very secretive, so I had a few questions about would keep bobbing around my head and weren't answered for what seemed like forever. Why has he got 18 days to find something? What will happen if he doesn't? What is he looking for? Waiting for my questions to be answered kept me reading for sure, but I'm rather impatient, so it was also annoying.But when that's my only criticism, I know I'm onto a winner...