I am so excited to be on the blog tour for Walls by L. M. Elliott! Walls was released on [July] 27th, so you can go order your copies of this amazing book now! Anyways, I don’t have anything else to say, so I’m going to get right into the review!
Walls by L M Elliott is a truly remarkable novel. Though the book started off a bit slow, once it picked up I couldn’t stop reading it.
One of my favorite aspects of the book was how we were able to see the drastic differences in life in East and West Berlin during the cold war.
Drew has a cousin named Matthias living in East Berlin, and through him Drew learns what communist Russia was like, and the reader learns with him,
The book takes you through the time leading up to the construction of the Berlin Wall, in sections covering each month. Something I loved was how at the beginning of each of the little sections, there are a few pages writing about what was happening in Berlin during that time. There was also a really interesting part with information on what was happening elsewhere in the world, and that gave me some perspective to what was happening, and to see what was happening all over the world.
The brutality and relentlessness of the Soviet Communism, on kids especially, was written so well, and in such a way that you had to really empathize with the kids who had been taught the same things their entire lives, the same Russian propaganda shoved in their faces.
The references to Animal Farm were also really interesting to read. I read Animal Farm a couple months ago, and I’m really glad that I had the knowledge of the book while reading Walls because of the references to it, and how the main character Drew was constantly noticing the parallels between Animal Farm and Stalinism.
The side characters were all very well developed, and were all really given their own arcs. Bob, another son of a military official stationed in Berlin was an interesting character, and so was Shirley, another military kid.
Drew was also really close to his sisters, and their relationship was always sweet to read about. Because of moving so much, they were very close, and the author showed that well.
Conclusion:
Walls is a really great book, and I am so glad I was able to read it!! I learned so much from the book, and it was such a unique historical perspective. I definitely recommend it to people interested in the time period, and in general to fans of historical fiction!
Aria is a teen reader and reviewer in Eugene, OR and the creative force behind the Book Nook Bits blog. She can be in the stacks of Tsunami Books in about two minutes from the time she leaves her house.
