I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

Those Beyond the Wall came at me like a combination of Vonda McIntyre's The Exile Waiting and a "post-apocalyptic iconoclastic road warrior" novel from the eighties. (Though it might also be said to be a "post-apocalyptic iconoclastic road warrior novel as written by someone who is NOT a conservative, kinda racist anti-intellectual gun nut." That also works.) Our Protagonist is a mechanic/runner called "Mr. Scales." Our Protagonist works for the emperor of a community called Ashtown, which has repeated conflicts and well-justified beefs with the walled city of Wiley.

A number of mysterious murders both inside the city of Wiley and in Ashtown causes the emperor to put Mr. Scales on the case. (It turns out that Mr. Scales at one point lived inside the city as a citizen but ended up in Ashtown as a young teen. She's the best able to get into the city without a "day pass" and without being randomly attacked by the Wiley police force.) She's partnered with another runner named Mr. Cross who she has some history with. Extremely bad history with--but the only possible back up for Mr. Scales because he's white, and will be able to walk in without being asked if he has a permit.

This leads to a complicated story that is both about an invasion from an alternate universe and also about ruthlessness in the service of creating a better world. (Where it actually creates a better world.) This is an angry and violent novel, full of angry and violent people--but the violence here is cathartic rather than for it's own sake, or to glorify the idea of humanity being inherently violent. The anger is directed toward injustice and the cruelty of systemic racism.

Those Beyond the Wall is a fast-paced novel that packs in a lot of tension. (To the point where I ended up peeking at the end to make sure it had a relatively happy, non-horrific ending.) A significant theme that I found interesting was about the creation of stories and the use of propaganda to create support for civil justice actions. This theme has ties to the theme of "ruthlessness in the name of creating a better world," in a number of heartbreaking ways. Overall, I really enjoyed this novel which was a good balance between "thought-provoking" and "action-adventure with lots of boom for your buck."

This review is based on a galley copy received from NetGalley.

I do love a good dystopian vibe and I think this one was executed well. I found the writing to be easy-to-read and the story was engaging. I also quite liked the MC!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an early copy of this book!

I was fortunate enough to be able to read The Space Between Worlds as a . . .Read Now, I believe, and then I eagerly purchased a copy of it to own. Those Beyond The Wall I am more fortunate to read early, but I will have to wait to purchase this. I do think that being able to read it this month is extremely sharp, with a further anger of institutional racism in the United States.

It is difficult to not draw comparisons between the ways that governments have wrecked environmental destruction and denied shelter to those they ensured were in more-than-harm's way. It would be more difficult to not bring at least a name to any of them, or bring a name to many of the stories given-- all those Mr. Wills could be, the brutality of Wiley City guards, the inhumanity of those closing the gates and making murder on those who only are trying to survive. And the watchers, and those who are the only ones doing something, carving out their own.

Mr. Scales was a smaller character in TSBW, and it was incredible, to see the differences between herself and Cara. Cara is desperate, secretive, guilty, and ambitious. Mr. Scales? Mr. Scales is *angry*, loving, fiercely loyal, and extremely community-oriented. Her brother, her friend, her people-- and not in that order because of how much she loves all. A deeper, different look into this world's Ashtown from a Nik Nik-loyal runner, from one much closer to Nik without the trauma Cara had and with a far more positive view.

Ashtown is also about the stories-- what they say, how they mean, and why it matters. They do not have to be strictly truthful to have the understood meaning. They do not have to agree for people to know what happened. Three variations of the same story make it all true, because this is what people said, what people heard, and what they took from it, and how it set a fire in people.

Wiley City and Ashtown were not at peace. They never were, and Ashtown must survive without Wiley City killing them.