Review of The Walled City by Ryan Graudin

Advance Review of Ryan Graudin's The Walled City

Release Date: November 4th, 2014

Synopsis as found on Amazon.com:

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 traffic 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.

 

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Read in the views of three different characters, The Walled City, is many things... and one of them is not forgettable. This is a realistic story set in the very real Walled City that was destroyed in Hong Kong in the 1990's, where each of the characters has their own reason for being inside a city of murderers, thieves, drug dealers, and the like. Jin Ling is looking for the sister that was sold into slavery by their alcoholic father. Mei Yee is looking for a way out of the brothel she was brought to after being kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night. Dai is searching for something that will help get back home that he can only find by becoming a drug runner for the Brotherhood.

 

This is not a typical book that I would read & had I fully understood the concept from just reading the synopsis, I may not have read it. Although at times, I felt the story dragged a bit, I was pretty happy with it overall by the ending. It is rife with drugs, street gangs, and human trafficking & is perfect for people who like to watch or read any kind of detective shows like Law & Order (with a very underground Asian backdrop).