A List of Cages by Robin Roe came out of nowhere at the end of 2016. One of my favorite BookTubers, Emma from the channel emmmabooks, had received an ARC (advanced reader copy) of the book in exchange for a review, read it, and then raved about it as soon as she finished it. When the book came out January 2017, other popular BookTubers followed in her stead with the praise.
Seeing all these reviews and reading the synopsis for myself, I broke my New Year’s Resolution of “borrowing before buying.”
A List of Cages follows Adam Blake and Julian Harlow, high school students and former foster brothers who are reunited after five years. Adam is an aide for the school psychiatrist and is charged with escorting a freshman—Julian—to his sessions. In no time, the boys’ friendship is rekindled. However, the older boy starts to notice some bizarre behavior with his little brother that makes him wonder if the latter is being truthful about his home life.
When reading A List of Cages, I never would have guessed it was the author Robin Roe’s debut novel. She has a beautiful way of writing. It flows well, and the pacing matched the length of the book. She fleshed out all the characters, not just Adam and Julian, but everyone else around them, too. They actually behave like real teenagers, unlike some other authors’ characters such as John Green.
Plus, Robin Roe herself is a counselor and a mentor for at-risk teenagers. She has likely worked with kids like Adam and Julian throughout her career. It occurred to me that, some of the scenes in this book, might have actually happened to a child she worked with. If you read the book, you will find how unsettling this notion is.
For me, though, the thing that made A List of Cages for me was the friendship and brotherhood between Adam and Julian. That is why I compared it to The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Like Sam and Patrick did with Charlie, Adam takes Julian under his wing. He gets the younger boy talking and introduces him to his friends, who accept him as one of their own. He doesn’t make fun of Julian for loving children’s books. Despite his popularity status, which he appears ignorant of, Adam is nice to everyone and never hesitates to offer a smile. He is an all-around good kid anyone would have wanted to be friends with in high school.
As for Julian, his kindness and his innocence broke my heart. He has a love for books and a dazzling imagination. No matter how poorly people treated him, he always forgave them. He actually believes that people only hurt others because they are unhappy and, though he hates some of them, he still has sympathy for those people who mistreat him. When I learned how terrible his situation actually was, I cried because I wanted to protect Julian and I couldn’t. He is such a good kid; he doesn’t deserve what happens to him.
I can’t possibly think of anything negative to say about A List of Cages by Robin Roe. In case you could not already tell, I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. If you want a young adult contemporary novel that is more about family than romance, I highly recommend this book.
Actually…I recommend this book to everyone.
