Friday 8 May 2015

The Cage...and What You Shouldn't Do in It, You Weirdo's. (The Romance is Over When You Keep Picturing the Love Interest as an Oscar)





The Cage
Author: 
Publication Date: May 26th 2015
Publisher: Balzer+Bray
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 


The Maze Runner meets Scott Westerfeld in this gripping new series about teens held captive in a human zoo by an otherworldly race. From Megan Shepherd, the acclaimed author of The Madman's Daughter trilogy.

When Cora Mason wakes in a desert, she doesn't know where she is or who put her there. As she explores, she finds an impossible mix of environments—tundra next to desert, farm next to jungle, and a strangely empty town cobbled together from different cultures—all watched over by eerie black windows. And she isn't alone.

Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora's past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer—a handsome young guard called Cassian—appears, they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: Their captors aren't from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.

As a forbidden attraction develops between Cora and Cassian, she realizes that her best chance of escape might be in the arms of her own jailer—though that would mean leaving the others behind. Can Cora manage to save herself and her companions? And if so . . . what world lies beyond the walls of their cage?

The Cage is rather...weird. That's one word for it, different is another. You'd think weird and different would be right up my street, and usually it is, but this one...not so much. Not because of the actual story or world or plot or even characters, because for the most part of all of it, all of that worked.

The "Cage" was interesting in the fact that it feels like a paradox. Things look right, but they're wrong. Things look wrong, but they're right. The towns made up of different pieces of the countries from where the six characters lived. There's a beach, a jungle, mountains, a swamp, different temperatures and climates, all in a circle, all near each other but can take hours to get to, but then when returning to the centre of the town, it can take five minutes to get back.

And the whole thing feels like an human experiment, some things there as a way to push buttons, to raise emotions and increase paranoia, it's like a habitat., and actually, it is really clever, even though it's not exactly about the humanity side of things as a whole, but more to do with something else, which, obviously I can't tell you about but, it's clever. It's very, very clever.

The characters were great...in the beginning, I can't say too much about their deterioration because again, spoilers, but it just shows how being taken away from an environment and thrown into a new one, can show who you really are. Some become stronger for it, and some show their true nature, and the exact depths of what they would do and sacrifice to save themselves. It's funny, since, as I said, a few things were there to push buttons, but the rest they created themselves. Human nature.
Now, you know there's a but waiting, don't you?

Of course there is.

As it usually goes, and as it usually messes the story up when it's rather creepy, the romance! And not the romance between the actual human characters, because although that seemed artificial from the beginning, there's a reason for it. So I can get behind that. What I can't get behind, is the attraction between Cora and Cassian, the closest to human, alien and Cora. I...no. Okay, it's 1) creepy. 2) Gag. 3) Stockholm Syndrome. And 4) The way Cassian and the others like him are described, just kept reminding me of this...





So of course every time he popped into the story, all I kept picturing was that. And then Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight  said a cross between an Oscar award and something from a Will Smith movie, and I latched onto iRobot, so they were forming like this...




 So it's really not salvageable when the love interest is clearly an OsBot (OscarBot? You pick.)

The Cage makes you think about humanity and human rights, they're experiencing what an animal is experiencing in a zoo, and while most of the story it didn't feel like there was any plot, and the yucky romance, the last 10% saved it for me. 

Rating: 3.5/5


16 comments:

  1. This book though! I think I was waiting for it to come out in the beginning of the year but I have read too many mixed reviews about it. I do good I like it though - it's great that it made an impact for you to think about humanity. Lovely review! <3 Benish| Feminist Reflections

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    1. Hope you enjoy it! It is really unique and get's you thinking about humanity, I just couldn't get passed the romance.

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  2. YES! OsBot!!! Ugh, why did they even have to go there? I just don't get it...at all. Plus, I really hated some of the characters (NOK). But, that ending. That's what got it to a 3.5 for me.

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    1. Yeah, seriously, why? I mean, okay, thinking about the whole thing and the ending, I get why, but no.

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  3. My comment was eaten :( Sad face. Luckily, it still auto fills in the other comment boxes!! I SHALL POST IT AGAIN!

    BWAHAHHA. I love the picture! This book... aw hell, I LOVED IT. I don't even fully understand why. I mean, all the things you said? 100% accurate- and I am going to link people to your incredibly accurate review... because mine likely won't make sense. WHY did I like the romance, even though it was creepy and I shouldn't have? I don't know! I worry that there is something seriously wrong with my taste in books.

    (And that is the only part that auto-saved, but I THINK I yammered on for a bit about why some of the weird stuff in the beginning kind of made more sense to me in the end. But that might all just be me losing my mind, I don't know.)

    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

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    1. I hate it when it does that! I's been doing it a lot lately too. :( Haha, no there's not. I did like it towards the end (and especially the why it was there part) buuuut, the beginning part felt creepy. But that 10% at the end was totally awesome and HOLY CRAP.

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  4. This sounds really interesting! I might just give it a shot! Great review!

    Laura @BlueEyeBooks

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    1. It is, a bit weird. but mostly good.:)

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  5. Too bad about the change of the characters along the story but it's always so nice to have something different and original. I need to read more reviews about this one! thanks for yours!

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    1. It's definitely original, and it is pretty awesome, just the romance really ruined it for me, though there are reasons for it.

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  6. Aha, love the title! Well you've definitely piqued my interest now - I'm confused but intrigued xD Not excited about that romance though.

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    1. Haha, thank you! :D I had way too much fun with it. It's so hard to talk about it without ruining things, but it's definitely interesting. :)

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  7. Ew yeah the romance doesn't seem appealing at all. I am so sick of Stockholm Syndrome like romances so I'll probably pass on this one.

    Nice review! <33

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    1. Yeah, that's what I hated about it, there was a good reason for it though, at least. But totally ruined it (the rest was weird and awesome). :)

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  8. Megan Shepherd writes the bazaar, there is no doubt about that, and that's why I love her. I can't wait to make the time for The Cage. Nicely said review.

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    1. It's my first one of hers (though definitely interested in The Madman's Daughter now), totally love her writing style. :)

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