The Walls Have Eyes
By Clare B. Dunkle. New York: Atheneum, 2009. 225 p.
Edited by Ginee Seo for Ginee Seo Books.
A sequel to The Sky Inside.
A science fiction novel for ages ten and up.

Simon & Schuster UK released the UK edition in August, 2009. That edition is paperback.

Simon & Schuster Australia is releasing the Australian edition in October, 2009. That edition is paperback.

“Martin’s exciting adventures will keep the reader hooked to find out what will happen next. ... This spellbinding science fiction book is a fantastic book that all middle school children will truly enjoy.”
—Children’s Literature

“A cautionary tale ... This book convincingly portrays a citizenry that has blindly accepted the monotony of a technological dictatorship. ”
—VOYA

“Readers who like science fiction and dystopian settings will be delighted. ... I highly recommend the series. ... It would be a great pick for reluctant readers, especially boys.”
—Stiletto Storytime

“An intriguingly weird world ... fast-paced adventure.”
—LOCUS

“Comforting, enjoyable adventure ... In a genre populated by gifted, destined and otherwise special child protagonists, Martin’s pure normality is a breath of fresh air.”
—Kirkus

“Well – I had NO idea that this series was going to head this way. Of course I figured Martin was going to agitate enough to change the structure of his world permanently (what teenager wouldn’t given the chance) – but I didn’t see this particular path. Kudos to Dunkle for her very active imagination and skillful writing. Can I hope for a 3rd book?”
—Kiss the Book

“Dunkle’s original dystopia was pretty dark, but in The Walls Have Eyes, things get considerably worse — and as the title indicates, increasingly paranoid — as we begin to discover what secret the government is protecting.

“Dunkle has an edgy way of having the adults in her novel think they know less than they actually do, as if there is some kind of mass hypnosis going on. But that’s only a symptom. Rather, it is a ‘bread and circuses’ situation. Inherently unfair, it functions on willing blindness, fear and a massive collective guilt. The dome dwellers are safe from the vicissitudes of life, but someone has to pay for the bread, and someone must die in the circuses. ...

“Martin is one of those characters who maintains a righteous insistence on adhering to simple truths. He asks a medical researcher pointedly, ‘Did you kill babies?’ The answer is a yes—but: ‘I’m not a monster. I focused on positive outcomes. The eradication of deformity, genetic damage, hereditary disease. ... I fought for a reduction in experimental subject terminations." Martin doesn’t waver: ‘The point is, kids died, and you helped.’

“The author stays on point, too. What happens when one discovers that one’s own existence is the result of horrors? This is not the magical ‘willing victim’ of ‘Narnia.’ This is Socrates on Auschwitz.

“One does not set out to write a dystopian novel without having a host of misgivings about the world one inhabits. Dunkle takes the issues of our time and steps them up a notch so that the reader doesn’t just wonder about the ethics of cloning or medical experimentation, but sees how a well-intended but cold-hearted effort on behalf of all humankind can evolve into an unconscionable crime against all humanity. ... If writers like Dunkle find the readers they deserve, perhaps the next generation’s response to the moral and political conundrums they face will be better thought out than those of the present generation.”
—Bryce Milligan for The San Antonio Express-News