A review by nairam1173
Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen, Robert J. Harris
2.0
This is one of those that after getting about thirty pages in I realized I would be finishing out of duty to understanding my genre, not because I was particularly interested.
This is sad, because technically there were a number of things that were very interesting--the characterizations of Elizabeth and Isabel in particular were more nuanced than one usually sees with those "molds" of characters, and I liked how Marjorie's perception of them shifted as the story continued. Neil was also a character I enjoyed. Marjorie herself was not that interesting, although she is sympathetic.
Unfortunately, the novelty of Marjorie's situation wears off fairly quickly, and shifting between past and present only thinly disguises first that the past is boring and then that the present is rapidly becoming boring. The villain was drawn along very traditional lines and not really that scary to me. The relationships with all but one of Marjorie's "court" seemed too underdeveloped for their significance in the end.
note: This was shelved in the juvenile section of my library, so it surprised me when some of the more gruesome things were described and there was some language. At the same time I can see why it wasn't shelved in YA, so...
This is sad, because technically there were a number of things that were very interesting--the characterizations of Elizabeth and Isabel in particular were more nuanced than one usually sees with those "molds" of characters, and I liked how Marjorie's perception of them shifted as the story continued. Neil was also a character I enjoyed. Marjorie herself was not that interesting, although she is sympathetic.
Unfortunately, the novelty of Marjorie's situation wears off fairly quickly, and shifting between past and present only thinly disguises first that the past is boring and then that the present is rapidly becoming boring. The villain was drawn along very traditional lines and not really that scary to me. The relationships with all but one of Marjorie's "court" seemed too underdeveloped for their significance in the end.
note: This was shelved in the juvenile section of my library, so it surprised me when some of the more gruesome things were described and there was some language. At the same time I can see why it wasn't shelved in YA, so...