Gilded Cage by Vic James

Gilded Cage is set in an alternate version of Great Britain in which the monarchy was overthrown by people with “magic” calling themselves Equals. This revolution led to the creation of the Slavedays Compact, which requires that each citizen spend 10 years of their life as a slave, leaving the Equals free to govern.

This novel follows a teenage boy working in a slavetown and several other characters in/around a prominent Equal family, include the boy's sister Abi (who is a slave working for this family). Given its relatively short length, Gilded Cage follows a LOT of characters–even the character in a coma gets a viewpoint! None of the characters had a lot of depth, but some of them were interesting, especially one whose motivations are mysterious.

This was just interesting enough (and short enough) that I finished it, but it did have slow pacing, lots of exposition, (mostly) unremarkable prose, and bland dialogue. However, it also had a strong beginning and ending and a few characters who are at least somewhat interesting (even if their narratives seemed rather dull at times).

Rating: 5/10 (It's ok)

Full Review on My Site

Imagine having to serve 10 years of your life as a slave to the wealthy and elite. If you were born without magic, you have to. Abi thought if she could get her whole family to serve their time together at the estate of one of the most powerful families in history, everything would be great. It has to be better than the factories right? Needless to say, things don't go according to Abi's plans. This is a great story, the world created is completely screwed up and utterly fascinating. I received a copy of this book from Net Galley

Though there are times when the introduction and explication of these themes sometimes feels a little heavy-handed...the fact remains that they are front-and-centre in this novel ??? something I feel is important in a YA novel, recent examples of which have had a terrible tendency to shove important themes aside in favour of whatever romantic polygon happens to be ongoing in the plot. Other readers have actually complained about how the book is so ???political???, but I for my part welcome the political nature of this novel. While many YA books claim to highlight those vital themes, not all of them actually use them as anything more than plot elements to support a romance.

Full review here: http://wp.me/p21txV-Ao