Review: THE WALLS AROUND US by Nova Ren Suma

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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 the Aurora Hills juvenile detention center, there's Amber, locked up for so long she can't imagine freedom.

Tying their two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls' darkest mysteries…

What really happened on the night Orianna stepped between Violet and her tormentors? What really happened on two strange nights at Aurora Hills? Will Amber and Violet and Orianna ever get the justice they deserve—in this life or in another one?

In prose that sings from line to line, Nova Ren Suma tells a supernatural tale of guilt and of innocence, and of what happens when one is mistaken for the other.

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I’ve just this moment finished The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma, and I have to write about it.

This book, simply, is incredible. It’s haunting and deep, moving and disturbing. Suma lures us into a dark tale of murder, guilt, and justice, gives us more than one unreliable narrator, and fills us with lyrical words, images that just claw at us, and a twisting storyline.

I knew this book was going to be good, I just didn’t expect it to be THIS good. Really, it is.

Told from the dual perspectives of Amber and Violet, the novel focuses on these two girls and how they’re connected by a third, Orianna Speerling, who’s been imprisoned for murder. Violet is Ori’s best friend from before her arrest, and Amber is her new cellmate. Both narrators are amazingly unreliable; they both draw you in, and right away, we know something’s not quite right with each of them. We know not to trust them. Yet we want to. I particularly wanted to root for Amber.

The characterisation is brilliant. Seriously brilliant. I felt like I really knew who each of these girls was. I felt their pain.

The lyrical writing was probably my favourite part of this book—though the plot and characters are simply great too! But the writing itself is beautiful. Evocative, pure, and disturbing.

The ending? Wow. I was speechless. It was both cathartic and hypnotic, alluring and moving.

This is an addictive read, a modern ghost story, a book about friendship, betrayal, and murder. But it is also so much more than that. It speaks deeply to its readers, it grabs our souls and refuses to let go.

I’ll definitely be picking up more books by Nova Ren Suma.