The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma {review}

The Walls Around Us 
by Nova Ren Suma
♦publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
♦release date: March 24th, 2015
♦hardcover 336 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review

“Ori’s dead because of what happened out behind the theater, in the tunnel made out of trees. She’s dead because she got sent to that place upstate, locked up with those monsters. And she got sent there because of me.”

The Walls Around Us is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices—one still living and one long dead. On the outside, there’s Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement. On the inside, within the walls of a girls’ juvenile detention center, there’s Amber, locked up for so long she can’t imagine freedom. Tying these two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls’ darkest mysteries.

We hear Amber’s story and Violet’s, and through them Orianna’s, first from one angle, then from another, until gradually we begin to get the whole picture—which is not necessarily the one that either Amber or Violet wants us to see.

Nova Ren Suma tells a supernatural tale of guilt and innocence, and what happens when one is mistaken for the other.

Review: This book. Wow. I’ve read other books by Nova Ren Suma before and she has such a gorgeous, haunting, and sometimes gritty writing style. The Walls Around Us is definitely no exception to that.  I haven’t read anything like it before and I thought it was stunning.

In this story, two girls tell their tales of guilt, regret, truth, and vengeance.  Violet is a serious ballet dancer, clawing her way to the top.  She’s about to leave for Julliard, doing one last show with her current school, when she receives a gruesome gift that makes it clear that the past is not forgotten. Three years ago, her best friend, Orianna, was charged with murder and sent to a detention facility, and only Violet knows what truly happened.  The other girl, Amber, is an inmate at the facility who crosses paths with Orianna---but she’s been dead for three years.

Amber and Violet are both bold, unforgettable voices full of emotion, hurt, guilt, and near madness at times. It’s incredibly fascinating getting inside each one’s thoughts and emotions, seeing how they think after the the things they have both done and been through. The two (three actually, if you count Orianna, though she is only spoken of by the other two) characters are developed in a way that makes you care for them and not trust them and so curious about what will happen to them all at once.  The story in unrelenting in its intensity, told in line after line of beautifully crafted prose that sear themselves into your mind. There are scenes in this story that I don’t think I will ever forget. And it’s all in the way they are written---the truth seeps out in almost abstract ways that sneak up on you, then suddenly it’s crystal clear and knocking you sideways. 

It's an absolutely mezmerizing story from start to finish. The Walls Around Us is a daunting and gritty tale, but one that you do not want to miss. 

Find Nova Ren Suma online: Website  •  Twitter 

Purchase the book:  Indiebound  •  BookDepository  •  Amazon