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Title: A List of Cages Author: Robin Roe
Published On: January 10, 2017
Started Reading On: January 4, 2018 Finished On: January 10, 2018
Average Star Rating: 4.32 out of 5 stars
My Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
My Thoughts (Spoilers)
This was a very deep, and emotional contemporary book, and those tend to be the ones that I lean towards. I have heard so much buzzed about this book as soon as it was released, last January, especially from the youtuber emmmabooks. I saw it in the library the last time I went and after reading it I have to say the hype was worth it.
Going into the book the focus was pretty much automatically about Julian's and Adam's friendship and Julian's at home issues. And as I always mention here, I love stories that center around friendships. They are some of the most interesting stories and you can see a lot about the characters. I could see as the story went on that Adam's concern and worry towards Julian was very much like an older sibling. He was constantly going and checking up on him, and being there at the play he put on for school, and letting him hang out with his friends. It was very endearing, but showed the more friendship part of their relationship compared to their sibling one. Because I have to tell you, I'll be the first to admit that I don't always want my siblings to be around if I am hanging out with my friends.
Adam's character really reminded me of my best friend. Some people may find it weird to see a character that is constantly happy and spreading their positivity, but this is how my best friend is. It is very rare to see him upset and he was always ready to lend a hand when it is needed. However his happy-go-lucky nature isn't the only part of his personality, he does get upset and he does get angry, he just tries not to let it get to him and control him. It makes him seem human. Another thing about Adam is that he has ADHD, it wasn't made into a big deal and it was shown through some of his actions, and talked about how he deals with it.
Julian my poor summer child did not deserved what ended up happening to him. With Julian the author brings in the hard topic of abuse. After being adopted by his uncle, he has been constantly whipped and isolated. His uncle was such an asshole, and I have to say I wasn't at surprised to see Adam's response to finding out what is going on with Julian's home life. There also ends up being a big conversation about the abuse going on, along with the whole official business part of the foster system and justice system relating to abuse.
One of my favourite conversations that went done in the novel was between Adam and Julian. They were talking about Adam's ADHD and Julian's dyslexia, and Adam is asking Julian about his dyslexia. He says something about it not being as bad, even though that isn't one hundred percent true and Adam mentions that he can manage his ADHD better, after his mother did research on other ways to help since meds weren't working. I found it cool how the author brought up that medication doesn't work for everyone and there are other ways to do it.
“It's strange how many ways there are to miss someone. You miss the things they did and who they were, but you also miss who you were to them. The way everything you said and did was beautiful or entertaining or important. How much you mattered”
“Why is time like that? Why does it slow down in the places you don’t want it to, but it speeds away when you’re happy?”
“If I really had powers, I could turn off pain the way I can shut my eyes. But I can’t. I feel it. Skin doesn’t get thicker. Instead, it remembers.”
“Because people heal a whole lot faster when they're with someone who loves them”