Book Review: Gilded Cage by Vic James
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of Dark Gifts
Publisher: Del Rey (February 14, 2017)
Length: 368 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Rarely have I read a story where my thoughts at the end are such a complete turnaround from my thoughts at the beginning. When I first started Gilded Cage, I was beyond pumped–the excellent writing, solid world-building, and strong portrayals of the main characters all made me think this book was going to have everything I wanted. Yet by the time I finished, I could barely even put my feelings into words. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. The whole thing just left me cold.
In the alternate world of this young adult dystopian, Great Britain is nation starkly divided along class lines. The Equals are the ruling elites who run the government, live on sprawling estates, and enjoy the power granted to them by their magical gifts. Then there are the commoners, who may be the majority, but they have no representation and are expected to submit themselves to a mandatory ten-year term of service to the Equals. This period is called their “slavedays”, in which they will have all their rights stripped away and no longer be considered citizens.
When the story begins, we are introduced to a family about to begin their slavedays. Siblings Abi, Luke, and Daisy Hadley have been arranged to accompany their parents assigned to the Jardine estate, home of one of the most prominent nobles in Equal society. However, on the day the Hadleys are scheduled to depart, a misunderstanding occurs and 16-year-old Luke is instead separated from his family and shipped off to the slavetown of Millmoor. Feeling desperate and alone, he befriends a group of fellow slaves who teach him how to survive, which in turn makes Luke realize there are more ways to fight back than he’d previously believed.
Meanwhile at the Jardine estate, the rest of the Hadley family are exposed to all the political intrigues and scheming of the Lord and Lady Whittam, along with their three sons Gavar, Jenner, and Silyen. Nevertheless, Abi ends up falling for one of the noble-born young men against her better judgment, putting her in the terrible place of questioning her loyalties and having to decide between freedom and love.
Despite its hackneyed dystopian premise and the overly simplistic concepts, I really did enjoy the first part of this book. From Animal Farm to The Hunger Games, you see a lot of the same themes get used over and over for these types of stories, and yet I never seem to get enough. While the core ideas behind Gilded Cage might not be anything we haven’t seen before, I did enjoy seeing Vic James’ take on them and her attempt to inject a few twists. The prologue was a perfect ten what it came to capturing my attention, and what I read in first few chapters made me want to know more. The writing was also delectable.
So I was shocked when it hit me; somewhere around the quarter to midway point, all my previous enthusiasm had somehow drained away, and I hadn’t even realized it was happening. It just occurred to me suddenly that I was bored, I didn’t really care about the characters, and I was zoning out more and more. The feeling was ambivalence, also known as the death knell of a book under review.
Here’s what I think happened: 1) over time, the strength of the story began eroding due to too many POVs. I couldn’t help but feel the author was trying to emulating the structure and style of an epic fantasy, except, of course, Gilded Cage is not an epic fantasy. 2) The story got hung up on too many unnecessary details. Don’t get me wrong, though. Details are nice. Details are important. But when I find I can zone out or forget everything that was said for several pages at a time, and then have it make absolutely no difference at all in the end, that’s a problem. 3) The split storytelling between the Jardine estate and Millmoor was an interesting decision, but I’m not sure that it was carried out too well. While it was nice seeing a picture of both sides of the world, the ultimate effect was neither here nor there. I couldn’t form a connection to either storyline, and ended up shrugging off both.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m disappointed. What started off so promising ended up making me feel so…blah. Still, that’s not to say the book didn’t have it strengths. I recommend giving it a try if the description interests you. It has also been received very positively by a lot of other readers, and I encourage everyone to check out their reviews for another perspective because they do a fantastic job covering all of the story’s charms and high points. Simply put though, the strengths were not enough to overcome the ennui I felt for most of the book, which stumbled after a great beginning and unfortunately never recovered its momentum.
The BiblioSanctum 
Sorry to hear this was a disappointment. That’s always a bummer when a book starts strong and then fades… I had one do that not long ago. Details and # of POV’s- those can both be such a fine line, and too much of either can definitely make the eyes glaze over sometimes!
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Yeah, it was such a shame. I still don’t really know what happened. Once the POVs split, I just felt that whatever positives this book had going for it became diluted.
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I hate it when my interest vanishes as I progress through a book. I used to read a lot of dystopia but I started to get switched off by the bleak future books with slaves, harsh ruling regimes, downtrodden population etc, and I pretty much only read the apocalypse side of the genre now. Great review, I enjoyed reading it!
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Interesting, I never thought about this! I do love the dystopian genre, but I would say I prefer it when they are post-apocalyptic in nature too.
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Eh, I will give it a pass
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Yeah, I can’t really recommend this.
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If you are excited to read a book and then are less and less excited the more you read, the author did something wrong…
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I think she had a lot of good ideas, but perhaps not enough substance to carry the story…
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Since I have this on my TBR, I’m really sorry to learn it disappointed you so much. I might not be in a hurry to read it now. Thanks for the great review.
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There were already a lot of mixed reviews out when I started. I had hoped to fall on the side of the positive, but it just didn’t work out 😦
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I’m a lot more hesitant to read books featuring a slavery concept, because so many of them do it so badly.
It’s a pleasant surprise to find a dystopia NOT set in something resembling the USA, however.
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Yes, I liked the setting. But you are correct, so few books handle the slavery concept well.
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I’ve been putting off reading this because of all the mixed reviews, but I’m still terribly curious to see what my reaction is going to be. It seems to be one of those love it or hate it books. So weird how it fell apart for you near the middle:-(
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I’d be interested to hear what you think! Because you’re right, the reviews are so mixed, it seems like an either-hate-it-or-love-it book. I wonder where your thoughts will fall 🙂
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Thanks for the warning. I’ll be skipping this one.
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Yeah, I can’t really recommend it.
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Completely agree with everything you said. Starts off strong. The number of POVs makes it hard to really connect to any of the characters in a book this length. Also, I had major issues with the insta-love that happened.
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The insta-love was sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back. It probably wouldn’t have bothered me as much if the story was interesting 🙂
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When I first heard about this book I was just as excited as you were: the premise sounded fascinating and the background compelling. Then the first reviews started trickling in, and my enthusiasm waned bit by bit – it’s quite possible that your review managed to dissipate any residual interest I had in this story: the writing could be good, but it’s not everything. We need to CARE for the characters and what happens to them, and reading about your lack of interest – your zoning out – did not help at all…
Thanks for the warning! 😉
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I remember seeing the reviews trickling in too, and they were all over the place! When that happens, I usually find my thoughts falling somewhere in between. Surprisingly though, I found myself relating a lot more to the negative reviews to this one. I just couldn’t get into it.
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Passing. Too many reviews that read about like yours. Strong start, cool premise…meh
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That’s the real shame of it, really. It had such a great start, but somehow it just fizzled.
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Uhoh, sounds like this was pretty disappointing. Glad I haven’t picked it up so far!
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Yeah, I’m disappointed it didn’t work out, especially since the premise was so interesting.
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I have seen too many mixed reviews of this book to be interested by it. Also it doesn’t help that I could name a couple of other YA dystopian books that seem to have the exact same premise so that’s a pass.
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Haha, it’s true, after a while all the dystopian novels just start to blend together because they have similar elements.
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So sorry about that, esp. since you’re such a Dystopian fan! I felt much the same way…loved the original setup of Luke to the Mill and everyone else off to the Gilded Cage, but the large array of perspectives caused me some problems, too. I hope your next Dystopian starts and finishes terribly perfectly 🙂
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Yeah, at first I really enjoyed the set up of both stories. I couldn’t decide which I liked best, the one at the estate or the one at the mill. How unfortunate that at the end, it was neither here nor there for both storylines.
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Yeah, I had a lot of niggles with this but mine were primarily to do with the world building. Things just didn’t add up. I can understand that certain people are enjoying this but I just expected more. I think my favourite part was the slave town – but the whole ‘slave days’ idea just perplexed me completely. Too many holes for me to just be able to relax and enjoy it.
Lynn 😀
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You hit the nail on the head, I think. I just expected more! I also thought the slave days idea was interesting, but yeah, perhaps it was not too well thought out.
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I saw your review a while back and am just now getting the chance to comment.
I agree with your critique of Gilded Cage. I was deeply disappointed by it too because when I started the story, I thought it would be something I would enjoy, despite the negative and semi-positive reviews I’d seen.
I was hooked on the story the entire time, at first because I was curious and later because I hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as it was stacking up to be. The world building fell flat for me and by the end of novel, I no longer cared for any of the characters. However, because I was interested in it initially, I would like to try another book by Vic James.
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Bummer. I’m sorry it all fizzled out that way for you. I’ve been on the fence about reading this one, but I have a feeling I would feel the same way as you.
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