The Walled City

by Ryan Graudin

[Kelly]

4½ Stars
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/11/the-walled-city-by-ryan-graudin.html
The Walled City was absolutely phenomenal. Based on the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, where from the fifties until the seventies was run by the Triads that ran prostitution, drug and gambling rings. Now demolished, Hak Nam is the ghost of a city that thrived on crime, where the streets and alleyways were dark and it's inhabitants struggled to survive.

Courtesy of Google Images
The storyline follows three different points of view. Fourteen year old Jin who has hacked off her hair and poses as a boy, the alternative being a young girl sold into prostitution. She's lived on the streets with only a tarpaulin for shelter, a rotting blanket soaked with rodent urine, and mangy cat Chma are her only possessions. The day her father sold her sister to the Reapers, Jin left home at only twelve and has been searching the brothels within Hak Nam to find her. The brothel owned by Longwai of the Brotherhood is now her only hope of finding her sister alive. She's determined, tenacious and courageous, traits rarely seen within the walls.

Dai doesn't belong within the walls. He's an educated and well dressed young man that is searching for his own freedom. Banish by his father, his only chance at escape is to infiltrate the Brotherhood and obtain proof of their crime syndicate. He makes Jin an offer she can't refuse, access to the brothel where she believes her sister is being kept and the two begin working in a drug runner partnership for Longwai.

She's the girl that is fortunate enough to have the only window to the outside, but Mei Yee knows there's no escape. Kept to exclusively service the Ambassador, sold by her father into a meager existence. She's seen what her Master does to girls who escape, injected with Heroin to ensure their addiction keeps them loyal. But when a young man knocks at her window, promising the chance to escape in exchange for information on the Brotherhood, this may be Mei Yee's only chance at freedom and finding the sister she left behind.

The Walled City is a raw and emotional contemporary, rather than dystopian. A fictional storyline set amongst the seedy lanes of a very real city that was once the underbelly of organised crime. From the very first chapter, I was enthralled and emotionally invested in Jin's plight. The depth of not only the characters, but the imagined streets of Hak Nam are simply breathtaking. Ryan Graudin is a sensational author that has created a diverse and vivid storyline that will captivate readers and leave them wanting more.

Simply immaculate.

Thank you to Hachette Australia who provided this book in exchange for an honest review.