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.
“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
“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
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