A List of Cages by Robin Roe (2017)

The first time Adam and Julian met, they were in elementary school, Adam was assigned to help Julian how to read. The second time the met, both of Julian’s parents had just died, and he was coming to stay with Adam and his mom. The third time Adam and Julian met, Noah was a senior in high school and Julian was a freshman. Adam was an aid for the school psychologist, and was sent to find the kid that kep avoiding his appointments- Julian. When they reconnect, Adam is ecstatic, but Julian is more than a little hesitant to resume their friendship. Slowly, they start to create a bond, but Julian still won’t tell Adam -or anyone- about his homelife. Julian may have finally found a best friend, and might even be happy, but it’s all about to unravel. Unless he let’s Adam help.

In August, I was given a huge collection of ARCs from my library. Granted, most of them had already published, but a few of them, like A List of Cages, had yet to be published. I saw this book and was like “Yes! I’ll have a review out before it was published and be super cool!”. So basically, I was going to read it for all the wrong reasons. Until the time came for me to read it (three days ago). I’ve been in this huge book slump. Almost no book has seemed appealing, but I decided to still try to read A List of Cages. Not only did this book bring me out of my book slump, but provided me with one of my new favorite books, because I was blown away.

It seems like almost every Young Adult book has to have romance. And this one does, but not in an overwhelming way. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider the romance to be a big factor of the story, but rather a small, nice touch. The big relationship in this story is the friendship between Adam and Julian, which was really refreshing. Both Adam and Julian have chapters in the book, something that worked really great. The dual character perspective made both characters more dynamic, since you could here how they thought, but also how other people interpret them. At the same time, it made me frustrated, because I knew the secrets of both of them, but they didn’t know each other’s secrets. Especially since it’s so obvious that they care about each other so much, and just want to help.

Having a disability, I am always looking for characters that have disabilities. Going into A List of Cages, I wasn’t expecting to find any. Instead, I found two. First, there’s Adam, who had ADHD. In his experience, he talked about having problems with medications, and ultimately turning to other remedies to help function with ADHD. Second, there’s Julian, who had dyslexia. By the time he was in highschool, he had no support or outlets to help him in school or just in daily life, so he was fighting an unnecessary battle. When Adam came along (the third time), he was able to help Julian figure out solutions to help him, but also taught him that there is nothing to be ashamed of by needing extra help, or alternative ways of doing things.

This book is dark. Not going to lie. Like, really dark. Child abuse is a major topic in this story, and there’s some really tough scenes in the book that just about brought me to tears. With the dual perspectives, the reader is both able to read from the point of view of someone who is being abused, and someone who just wants to help. It also brings into light why asking for help is so hard, but also why it’s so hard to accept help.

I would definitely recommend this to just about everyone, but with caution due to the content of the book. Look out for A List of Cages on sale this January.

5 Stars