The Walled City is billed as YA but is full of brutal and heart-breaking issues.

The Walled City itself is a kingdom of thieves, prostitutes and drug lords. Three teenagers live there – Mei Yee, who was taken from her family as a young girl and forced to be a prostitute for the drug lord Longwai, Jin Ling, Mei Yee’s younger sister who traveled to the city to find her and has been searching for two years, and Dai, who has a much more complex reason to be living in the slums of the city.

The point of view is passed between the three of them, one in each chapter, which really helps to reveal each story gradually and keeps the reader on edge. It took me a while to get through this book, and not just because I happened to be reading it at a busy time for me. There are some beautiful descriptions through this story that really help to bring Hak Nam and its inhabitants to life, but they also help to slow the pace somewhat, especially early in the story.

There are some heavy issues in this book – human trafficking, prostitution, drug use and violence, including among children. Unfortunately, the city of Hak Nam is based on a real place – the Kowloon Walled City was a very similar tall, dark and walled city run by the drug lords. While the city no longer exists in Hong Kong, the issues still stand all over the world and that is what makes this book so interesting and incredibly sad.

Each of the characters had their own agenda and I loved how each plan wove together almost by accident at the end. I also loved Jin’s cat, Chma. He adds a bit of levity to an otherwise dark story.

I’d recommend The Walled City to fans of dystopian sci-fi – while not a dystopia itself, this story certainly feels like it’s about one.

Althouth this reads like it is set in a futuristic dystopian China, it's based on life in the real slum-city of Kowloon Hong Kong in the late 90s. Edge-of-your-seat suspense, memorable characters and beautiful writing combine to make this a stand-out of the year.

I don't even know where to start with this book. It was not what I expected at all. Such a pleasant shock. The plot was exceptional with so many twists which left you wanting more. I couldn't put it down. The characters suck you into their story and you find yourself rooting for them to survive and win. The author found a way to make such serious and controversial issues intriguing to the reader with such subtlety. This book should be a staple in any book collection.