Book Review of The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

This review was written in February 2015, right before The Walls Around Us was released the next month. I'm posting it here on the blog for the first time because I wanted to refer back to it in another review recommending YA magical realism with diversity, and also because it's an amazing book, and if any of you guys haven't heard about it, you might want to check it out! A bit of a reading update--since I wrote this review, I've read 3 other books by Nova Ren Suma, and some short stories. She has become one of my favorite authors--a must-read anytime her new works are published.

I have to be honest... when I got this ARC in the mail, I wasn't expecting much. I hadn't heard of the author before, and was only aware that this buzzy new YA book coming out in March was supposed to shake its readers to the very core. To me, the cover design was both loud and tacky. Also, it didn't translate into any kind of mood or theme to prepare me for what I was about to read.

...but then, I started reading. It was difficult to get into, at first. Part of my frustration was being unable to get a firm footing as far as the two settings of the book: a dance studio and its surrounding world, and a juvenile detention facility, both in modern day upstate New York. But pinpointing that, along with trying to untangle how the three narrators: Amber, Orianna, and Violet are related to each other took some work, and without having read any of Suma's other writing, or having a clear understanding of what this book set out to deliver, well, I wasn't sure if it was worth it or not.

All of a sudden, however, somewhere around 100 pages in, which is usually the point when the last few stragglers unsure of whether or not they want to be reading a book if they're waffling about it usually throw in the towel and decide to be done, that feeling dissolved. All I can say is, similar to the feeling Violet, a teenage ballet dancer, describes after she's done dancing and a hush falls over the audience and nobody is clamoring for the exits, I just sat there, probably for a good 20 minutes after I finished reading this book... simply being quiet and sad, moved, confused, and awed by the journey on which this author whom I hadn't fully trusted had taken me, despite my doubts. Her two other YA books (Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone) didn't get added to my wishlist so much as flew onto it.

I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to ruin the mystique the book held for me, as I came to it from a place of almost completely no context, but I do want to do two things: urge anyone who likes YA to read it, and reassure those readers that, if they share the feelings I had, there are many valid reasons to push through until the 100 page mark, or so, and, that if you do, you won't even notice the next hundred plus pages as they whip by. 

This book has a profoundly moving story, beautiful imagery and symbolism, and gives a realistically graphic portrayal of life in a juvenile detention facility. There's much diversity, and it is done thoughtfully, in ways that add to the characters and the story. But, more than that, Suma opens up new worlds to her readers, who may not realize for quite some time exactly that they intertwine more than they collide.

The publisher has been describing it as "Orange Is The New Black Swan," and that totally fits. Highly recommended.