Book Review: A List of Cages by Robin Roe

10/13/2017

SYNPOSIS

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he's got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn't easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can't complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian--the foster brother he hasn't seen in five years.

Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He's still kind hearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what's really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives.

Synopsis from Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

This is a haunting, gut wrenching book and one of my favourite books of 2017. When I started reading, I wasn't sure where this book was going. My heart went out to Julian in every chapter, because we know that something is happening to him but we don’t discover just how horrible it is until much later. And when we do find out, I just ended up crying and covering my mouth in horror as we read what Julian is forced to go through.

There are so many things I loved about this book, so I'll try to be as concise as possible.

Amazing and Real Characters: Adam and his friends felt like they could have been any numbers of students in an average high school today. They have and overcome their differences and, in the case of Adam, thrived because of it. He channels his ADHD into everything he does and is a better friend, student, and person because of it.

Julian is every student that is overlooked or misunderstood. His withdrawn behaviour is punished and mocked by the very people that are supposed to be there to protect him (as a teacher myself, I was livid on his behalf and hated reading about how these teachers treated him). Every Julian POV had me holding breath and my heart was constantly breaking for him.

Perfect Use of POVs: the POV of every chapter was clearly thought about very carefully to figure out where the story would go and who it was more impactful to be reading it from the view of. At the beginning of the book, I was usually more excited to read Adam chapters. He has so much energy and gives us a lot of backstory into what is happening. But Julian’s chapters…heartbreaking. Even before we find out what’s happening at home, his admiration and idolization of Adam is so beautiful to read. The story moves so beautifully between the character POVs and I really felt like I knew each boy so well by the end.

A Beautiful Relationship: Adam is obviously someone who is friends with everyone, but it’s clear that his relationship with Julian is different. From both characters, we are able to see how they think of themselves and how they think about each other and it makes me cry every time. The brotherly love that they share…it honestly made me cry throughout the book. I can’t say enough good things about how Roe writes and develops the relationship between these boys; it’s beautiful to read about.

I’m so happy I decided to read this book and it’s one that I know I will re-read again and again. I highly recommend it to absolutely everything; it’s a hard story to read but one that you should really read it anyways.

FINAL RATING: 5/5