The Cage

TITLE: The Cage
AUTHOR: Megan Shepherd
RELEASE DATE: May 2015
PUBLISHER: Balzer + Bray
PAGES: 405 pages 
SERIES: Book 1 in the The Cage series (Book 2: The Hunt due out May 2016)
GENRE: Science Fiction
OVERALL RATING: 4/5
APPROPRIATE AGE: grades 8-12

SUMMARY: Cora wakes in an unknown world with five other teenagers. One of them is dead. None of them know where they are or how they got to the strange place with different environments and outdated decor. No matter how hard they try to escape, all roads lead back to the center of town. When their captor, Cassian, materializes out of nowhere, they realize that their prison is more terrifying than they could ever realize. 

WHAT I LIKED: Two words: "people zoo"! When I told friends about this book, the first mention of the word, aliens, turned them off completely. But I can't say enough good things about this story. A lot of the time, I can predict the end of a book within a couple of chapters. However, with this book, it seems like every time I made a prediction, the opposite happened. Each character had a story that throughout the book you realize is just a lie for a completely different kind of life. 

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: I really enjoyed this story, once you get past the whole "alien abduction", the storyline is interesting; reminds me of an old episode of The Twilight Zone. The only thing that bothered me were the characters. I often found myself wanting to yell at them, call them stupid, or just question their choices. Seriously... how can you be locked in a cage by aliens and just accept it? Who does that?!

READALIKES: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

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