The Cage by Megan Shepherd

TL;DR teens kidnapped for a zoo run by aliens

TBR #848, added May 8, 2014

library ebook hold placed 9/17, #1 in queue; received 9/25

finished 10/4/16

This really wasn't my thing and I probably should've just DNFed it to save me the hassle.

It definitely has some good points -- I haven't seen a human zoo used as a YA topic before this -- but I didn't enjoy it. I think I could've kept my opinion at "yeah, it's okay" if I'd DNFed it, but by the time it even occurred to me, I was 85% done and to quit then would be a waste of the effort I'd put in to purposefully read The Cage over other ebooks I had.

The biggest problem for me was that the narration and the characters weren't interesting enough for me. The narration felt dull and I didn't like any of the characters. I can understand a degree of contrived-ness since they were specifically chosen for the program, but they felt inconsistent and their actions benefited the plot (which also felt contrived) much more than it ever did their own character growth. The narration also felt impersonal from being third-person, and despite being multi-POV, it focused so much on Cora that any of the other characters' chapters felt thrown in like Four's did in Allegiant. (Not quite as bad, though.)

The plot didn't quite feel like it had a solid direction, and the revelations at the end of the book were boring. I also did spoil myself by glancing at the sequel at Barnes and Noble and double-checking its synopsis on Goodreads. The ending didn't justify all the events that had lead up to it. I have no interest with what's supposed to happen after the end of The Cage, and I didn't even before I looked up spoilers.

TL;DR there wasn't any point where I really enjoyed reading this, and it's definitely not the kind of book I like, so I'm not going to continue with the series. It's definitely not the worst book I've read but I'm struggling to decide if I would recommend this to anyone.