Very excited today to part of the blog tour for
The Walled City by Ryan Graudin!
About the Book
Title: THE WALLED CITY
Author: Ryan
Graudin
Pub. Date:
November 4, 2014
Publisher:
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 448
Formats:
Hardcover, eBook
Find it: Amazon, Barnes
& Noble, 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.
About Ryan:
Ryan Graudin grew up
in Charleston and graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in
Creative Writing in 2009. She is the author of All That Glows and The Walled
City. She resides near Charleston with her husband and wolf-dog. You can find her
online at www.ryangraudin.com.
Her work is represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary.
When I read the blurb for this book I was pretty interested. It sounded different from books I'd been reading recently, and the concept just sounded unique. What I found was a fast-paced, at time heart pounding story.
First the story is told by three different main characters. There is Dai who is full of mystery and ironclad determination. He is a boy that knows what he has to do and sets out to do it without letting anything get in his way. I completely admired that about him! He is also surrounded by a cloud of mystery. You know he's not like all the other kids in the walled city, but you don't know completely how he came to be there and why. As the story progresses more and more of his background is shown. I grew to really like him as a character and wanted him to succeed in this plan he pulls Jin and Mei Yee into.
Then there is Jin. I was blown away by her! Here is a young girl in the heart of a very cruel world. This is a place that will chew you up and spit you out without a second thought! She is pretending to be a boy just to survive - if found out she could end in a very bad situation. I loved her tenacity. I wish I had half her fight! There were times though that I wanted to shake her because of some of the choices she was making. I understood those choices and that she made them out a place of desperation - but man were they hard to watch her live with! I loved how she ended up at the end of the book. By the end I had a really soft spot for her.
Now Mei Yee - this girl was amazing. Jin and Dai both had to learn how to survive on the streets of the walled city, but she had to learn how to survive in a completely different way. Many girls around her didn't survive it at all, but Mei Yee's ability to figure out what to do to keep herself safe and whole was made me really like her. I loved that she became part of the fight instead of turning into the one that had to rescued. She wasn't the helpless girl locked in the tower needing saving. She helped save them all.
The plot is almost non-stop action, and when it's not action it's breathless tense scenes where one small move could blow everything. I felt completely worn out by the time I finished it!
Over-all it was a great book. The characters were so compelling that I couldn't help but like them and want to see what happened, and the plot pulled me along at such a force I couldn't stop!
One last note - the city in The Walled City is based on a real place in Hong Kong. I had to stop part of the way into the book and read about. It was absolutely fascinating. That only added to how much I liked the book.
Tour Schedule
Week
One:
10/27/2014- Novel Novice- Interview
10/28/2014- Seeing
Double In Neverland- Review
10/29/2014- Reading YA Rocks- Guest Post
10/30/2014- The O.W.L.- Review
10/31/2014- Parajunkee- Interview
Week Two:
11/3/2014- Xpresso Reads- Guest Post
11/4/2014- Reading with ABC- Review
11/5/2014- Bibliolatry Me- Interview
11/6/2014- Once
Upon a Twilight- Review
11/7/2014- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post
Giveaway
Details:
(1) Grand prize pack: It includes: A finished copy of THE
WALLED CITY, rice candy, a miniature lucky cat, a traditional Chinese paper
cutout of a dragon, and a pamphlet from the real Walled City Park! US ONLY
(9) winners will receive: A finished copy of THE WALLED CITY.
US ONLY.
This does sound like an interesting book. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteMary DeBorde
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of multiple (3 in this case) POV. Sounds very gritty & fast paced and I cannot wait to read this :D <3
This sounds like an interesting read, I'm looking forward to reading it in the future.
ReplyDelete