[Review: The Cage by Megan Shepherd]

"The Cage"
Author: Megan Shepherd
Series: The Cage #1
Pages: 400
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi
Date Published: May 26th, 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review

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Summary:

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?

-Goodreads

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My Thoughts:

 An Open Letter To The Cage,

I think I need to break up with all books about aliens. You've reminded me of the fact that I don't really like them. Add in the fact that two POVs is my max, and you had five, and I just didn't get along with you. I'm sure a lot of other people will dig you though, even if we aren't friends.

-The White Unicorn

The Cage wasn't a bad book. In fact it was decent, but I didn't like it. The story was fine, the characters were even pretty cool, but I just didn't connect to it, at all. This stems from the fact that I don't care for books about aliens. I gave Shepherd a chance to change my mind, and I have to say that she didn't. I found the tropes that she used to be predictable and common place. 

The characters were interesting, but I also felt like they were fairly cookie-cutter. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the character bases weren't all that interesting, but Shepherd managed to give them all interesting quirks and back stories. So they all managed to bore me while they kept me interested. There are also five (count them...five) POVs in the book. My cut off is usually two, so that didn't help. I do think that it helped Shepherd tell her story the way she picked to tell it, I just didn't love it.

Also, the whole human girl falls in love with an alien thing is getting old. I wanted Cassian to be an evil jerk. But I guess that's just a personal preference. Honestly, if you like all the things that I have found to dislike about this book, you're going to love it, and since it's pretty well written, that's exciting to me. I just can't back it.

Rating:

 2 Unicorns = It was okay, but something just didn't work for me!