A List of Cages: A review

[TeenHelp]

A List of Cages: A review
By Jenna ( ~Abibliophobe~)

A List of Cages by Robin Roe is a book about two boys and the power of their friendship. The story focuses on Julian and Adam. Adam is a senior and he is an aide for the school counselor. The counselor assigns Adam to pick Julian up for an appointment since he has been skipping out on them. Adam and Julian used to be foster brothers until Julian’s uncle took him in. After picking Julian up from his class and taking him to the counselor a friendship blossoms between the two. Julian has a number of secrets and it is up to Adam to try and figure them out. This story is triggering for abuse but if you are not easily triggered or are aware of the trigger you might be able to get through it.

I was really eager to start reading this book because it has gotten a lot of great reviews from people on Booktube. I was a little unsure if I would like it because it does deal with some tough topics and a lot of the time, authors handle topics surrounding abuse in a cliché manner. However, the author of this book works with at risk youth and I think that might have given her insight into how to handle the topic so well.

I was honestly really impressed with the book. I read it in two sittings at a time when I was in a reading slump. This book is responsible for getting me out of that reading slump and it usually takes a lot to get me out of one. The book had really short chapters which allowed me to get through it relatively quickly as well.

I don’t have anything negative to say about this book which surprises me because I can usually find something I don’t like about a book. I thought Adam and Julian were such great characters. Adam was probably one of the most genuine characters I’ve read about in quite some time. He cared so much about Julian and tried to do what he felt was right. Julian is one of those characters that you want to see grow as the story progresses and he’s also one of those characters that you want to rescue because you see such a good person. He was also really kind to other people even if they did not treat him the best which caused me to love him even more. There were also a number of supporting characters that I loved as well such as Adam’s best friend Charlie and Adam’s mom. I think this was a very character driven novel and I do tend to like books like that.

I think the book ended up wrapping up relatively nicely as well. I was worried that I wouldn’t get any type of closure with the ending but I felt satisfied with how it ended. It also seemed like the story was well researched, which might be due to the fact that the author of the book is a counselor and so she probably has a lot of knowledge about the subjects brought up in this book.

The end of the story was bittersweet. I was glad that I got to read it and see what happened but I was sad to have to see the end of the characters' stories. It was also a very emotional read. I don’t tend to get overly emotional with stories or overly invested in the characters but I found myself experiencing both things.

If you are interested in reading a story that is character driven and that causes you to be overly invested in the characters as well as causes you to experience a number of different emotions then I suggest that you give this story a read. I don’t think you will be disappointed.