The Walls Are Closing In is a quiet, emotionally weighty novel that follows one man’s life across hardship, displacement, and the search for belonging. Told through a reflective, memory-driven lens, the story traces George, a half-Choctaw boy growing up in the rural South whose life is shaped less by his own choices than by the forces around him — poverty, racism, violence, and chance encounters.

What stands out most is the author’s restraint. The book does not lecture about injustice or label events for the reader. Instead, it presents lived moments plainly and trusts the reader to wrestle with their meaning. Racism, religious condemnation, and social exclusion are revealed through character actions and consequences rather than commentary, giving the novel moral gravity without feeling didactic.

The prose is fluid and accessible, yet the subject matter carries real emotional weight. Suffering is normalized in George’s world; tragedy arrives, he absorbs it, and he moves on. But the novel quietly asks whether moving on is the same as healing. Over time, it becomes clear that trauma does not disappear simply because it is buried — it accumulates.

George is not a traditionally proactive protagonist. He reacts, adapts, and survives. Others often choose for him, and he obliges. At first this reads as passivity, but by the end it feels more like a portrait of someone shaped by constrained options and repeated threat. His strategy is endurance, and the novel gently suggests endurance has limits.

Spiritual and symbolic elements — ghosts, visions, and recurring images like the Ferris wheel — add a contemplative layer without tipping into fantasy. The closing pages lean toward spiritual release, evoking a place without pain or walls and suggesting peace after a lifetime of pressure and grief.

This is not a plot-driven novel; it is a character study built on accumulation and echo. Readers who appreciate quiet literary fiction that trusts them to think and feel alongside the story will find much to admire here.

Simply put, this is a story about a half-Choctaw man who just wanted to find a home and a place to belong amidst a life encumbered by discrimination and many many tragedies.

This is one of those stories that I call "unfortunately realistic." So many terrible things take place in George's life to the point where you'll probably be thinking that surely nobody is this unlucky. However the reality is that growing up non-white in America—especially in the 1930s—meant that you were pretty much guaranteed to have a life filled with injustices. And while George definitely made some poor decisions at certain points that led to him continuing on what was most likely the more difficult path, the story still feels very believable and his choices make sense for his character.

I have to say that the title for this novel fits the story perfectly as well. Although "the walls are closing in on us" is a phrase used a couple of times in the story itself, the experience of actually reading the novel really takes things a step further. There were multiple points in the novel where I myself started to feel anxious as if the walls were closing in on me as well.

This is definitely one of those debut novels that feels more refined than one would probably expect! It's a compelling story that's able to bring up real emotions in the reader. I'd absolutely recommend this one to readers who enjoy character driven novels and don't mind reading a story that's more tragic than it is happy.