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Summary
Summary
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
An NPR Best Book of 2015
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2015
A Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction of 2015
A BookRiot Best Book of 2015
A 2016 YALSA Best Book for Young Adults
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of 2015
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2015
A 2015 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult
"With evocative language, a shifting timeline and more than one unreliable narrator, Suma subtly explores the balance of power between the talented and the mediocre, the rich and the poor, the brave and the cowardly . . . To reveal more would be to uncover the bloody heart that beats beneath the floorboards of this urban-legend-tinged tale." -- The New York Times
The Walls Around Us is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices--one still living and one dead. On the outside, there's Violet, an eighteen-year-old ballerina 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: 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?
#1 Spring 2015 Kids' Indie Next List Pick
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Author Notes
Nova Ren Suma is the author of the YA novels Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone, which were both named 2014 Outstanding Books for the College Bound by YALSA. She has a BA in writing & photography from Antioch College and an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has been awarded fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the Millay Colony and an NEA fellowship for a residency at the Hambidge Center. She worked for years behind the scenes in publishing, at places such as HarperCollins, Penguin, Marvel Comics, and RAW Books, and now she teaches writing workshops.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In alternating narratives that ultimately converge in supernatural ways, two girls share a connection, though, ostensibly, their stories are separated by three years. Violet is an 18-year-old ballet dancer, recently graduated and soon to start at Juilliard. Amber is incarcerated at a juvenile detention center for allegedly killing her abusive stepfather. Tying them together is Orianna, Violet's best friend, who was found guilty of a double murder three years earlier and becomes Amber's cellmate at Aurora Hills. As their stories unfold, listeners learn the truth of what happened the night Orianna was arrested and the grisly tragedy that unfolded at Aurora Hills shortly after she arrived. Dual narrators bring this haunting tale of guilt and innocence to life. Georgia King gives Violet's voice an edge that perfectly conveys the sense of superiority she displays. Sandy Rustin utilizes a more matter-of-fact voice that reflects Amber's observational nature and her tendency to use first-person plural, speaking for the inmates of Aurora Hills as a whole, which, paradoxically, both obscures and foreshadows future events. VERDICT This psychological thriller also explores the rigorous and competitive world of ballet, inequities in the criminal justice system, and life in a juvenile detention center; it is utterly engrossing right up until the shocking conclusion.-Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
At first glance, Amber and Violet have nothing in common. Amber, imprisoned at Aurora Hills juvenile detention center for her role in the death of her stepfather, spends her days dreaming of the momentary freedom she and the other inmates experienced when a summer storm knocked out power to their cells. Violet, a ballet dancer on her way to Juilliard, has a long, free life ahead of her-were it not for the guilt drawing her toward Aurora Hills. Their connection comes through a third girl, Ori, who became Amber's new cellmate after the storm, and who was sent to Aurora Hills because of what she did to protect Violet. Suma (17 & Gone) interweaves past and present with a haunting sense of unease, drawing readers onward with well-executed suspense and the compelling voices of her two narrators. The occasional vagaries of the plot are more than redeemed by the strength of the prose, and a startling final twist brings the three girls to a satisfying, if unorthodox, kind of justice. Ages 14-up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Suma (17 Gone) delivers another psychological thriller with traces of magical realism. Here the story alternates between Violet, the privileged ballerina, and Amber, the convicted and incarcerated murderer. Each girl is readand perfectly capturedby a different narrator: Amber is reserved, observant, and acquiescent, while Violet is haughty, domineering, and impervious. Both readers take full advantage of Sumas lush prose, bringing her characters to life. As the narrative flits back and forth, the performers tease out the subtle machinations of plot and character as Suma explores the dark places of the human psyche. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The intertwined stories of two teenage girls: a convicted killer and a Juilliard-bound ballerina. Amber's an inmate at Aurora Hills Secure Juvenile Detention Center, with a story to tell about the night the doors all opened at the prison. Violet's a dancer bound for New York City and artistic success. The girls have secrets, and each takes the chance to let tidbits of truth slip into her narrative, each using her own unique and identifiable voice in alternating chapters. Amber rarely speaks only for herself, identifying almost exclusively with the other prisoners. "Some of us knew for sure," she solemnly explains, speaking collectively. "Some of us kept track of days." Violet, on the other hand, is deeply self-absorbed, worried over the three-years-past death of her incarcerated best friend but only for how it affects her and her chance at Juilliard. As the girls' stories unfold, it becomes increasingly clear that Amber's and Violet's musings occur three years apartyet are nonetheless intimately connected. The wholly realistic view of adolescents meeting the criminal justice system (with a heartbreaking contrast portrayed between the treatment of a wealthy girl and that of her poor multiracial friend) is touched at first with the slimmest twist of an otherworldly creepiness, escalating finally to the truly hair-raising and macabre. Eerie, painful and beautifully spine-chilling. (Supernatural suspense. 15-17) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* We were alive. I remember it that way. We were still alive, and we couldn't make heads or tails of the darkness, so we couldn't see how close we were to the end. Spoken by Amber from inside the secure juvenile-detention center that has been her home for years, these chilling words foreshadow her terrible secret, the one she can't even admit to herself. As Amber's story of how Orianna, the Bloody Ballerina, became her cell mate unfolds, another ballerina takes the stage with her own dark tale to tell. Eighteen-year-old Violet, a Juilliard dancer, is haunted by a secret relating to the time her best friend, Orianna, killed two girls, went to prison, and died. Intensity and dread build as the girls' stories coil and uncoil around each other, revealing the sinister truth in a startling, fantastical final twist. Suma excels in creating surreal, unsettling stories with vivid language, and this psychological thriller is no exception. Along the way, Suma also makes a powerful statement about the ease with which guilt can be assumed and innocence awarded, not only in the criminal-justice system but in our hearts in the stories we tell ourselves. A fabulous, frightening read.--Hutley, Krista Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
A girls' prison serves as the grim setting for this intricately plotted psychological horror story about a young ballet dancer who comes to a bad end. From a distance, the dancers Violet and Orianna appear to be best friends. But like a fictionalized Salieri, the wealthy Violet secretly seethes over the less fortunate Orianna's Mozart-like talent. When a shocking act of violence separates them, Orianna finds herself locked up in the Aurora Hills Secure Juvenile Detention Center while Violet remains free to dance all the starring roles. In prison, gentle Orianna is assigned to Amber's cell, and soon guilt-ridden Amber comes to believe in Orianna's innocence so deeply that she would do anything to rescue her from a life behind bars. But how can Amber help Orianna when she is just as trapped? Growing on the prison walls is a poisonous vine laden with hallucinogenic flowers promising escape of a different kind that may provide the answer Amber seeks. With evocative language, a shifting timeline and more than one unreliable narrator, Suma subtly explores the balance of power between the talented and the mediocre, the rich and the poor, the brave and the cowardly - and the unpleasant truths that are released when those scales are upset. To reveal more would be to uncover the bloody heart that beats beneath the floorboards of this urban-legend-tinged tale. Suffice it to say that each girl gets what she deserves in a supernatural twist of Shyamalanian proportions. Jennifer Hubert SWAN is the director of library services at the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. She blogs at Reading Rants.