Happy Thursday,
I just finished reading To Cage A God and wanted to give my thoughts while the details are fresh in my mind and because I had meant to finish and review this book before I was distracted by other books. I would like to mention that I was sent a digital copy via Netgalley from the Publisher as well as a physical ARC from DAW though all thoughts and opinions are my own.
So without further ado, I present to you my thoughts:
My Review:
This book had an interesting concept that was heavily inspired by Imperial Russian history mixed with Slavic folklore and a heavy dash of fantasy. The rich people are called alureans that have Gods with powers from another world (known as zmei) that appear to have been from birth though the actual origins of these Gods and how they came to be in human bodies has been hard to learn of because that information was destroyed due to paranoia of the Higher Class that those they considered beneath them would find out and get their own power. AT least that is what appears to have been much of the reasoning.
Told from the points of view of Sera, Katya, Vitaly, Galina and Vasilisa, they each have an important role to play though none of them is for sure what those roles will be and how they will play out.
There is also a revolution on the rise as people getting fed up with being barred from speaking their native language, having the alureans rub their wealth in the faces of those they deem below them and there’s also a tyrant of a ruler known as the Empress who also happens to be Vasilisa’s Mother who used to be a decent person but after years of abuse from her husband and then becoming power hungry as she became the ruler, she’s turned into someone who is much worse that her husband. There’s a match that’s just waiting to be lit and someone who seems like the least unlikely to help may very well surprise a number of people.
In the midst of all that’s happening, there’s also two romances. One (a male/female relationship) is a reuniting of two people who are drawn to each other (Vitaly and Sera) and have been through a lot over the years and I think it rather romantic that Vitaly was determined to search for Sera when she disappeared for a while and then was able to find her back in the area where their love started. Sera however has been keeping secrets to protect her foster sister Galina and also in a way to protect Vitaly. Though Vitaly doesn’t really need protection as he’s able to survive just fine so long as he’s not trying to blow things up and is for sure a morally gray character who also happens to believe that he’s helping to stop the oppression to his people that the Empress and her Cronies have forced on citizens.
The other romance is one that’s brewing between Galina and Vasilisa (female/female relationship) who come from such different levels of society and yet they each have their own cages in a sense and expectations from loved ones that are nearly impossible to accomplish. Though I seriously doubt that the Empress actually knows what it’s like to love anyone other than herself.
Overall, this was an interesting book and while it had a slow start, I think that was mostly my brain trying to get a feel of the world and I felt as though I had been dropped into the middle of a brewing revolution that I needed some time to wrap my head around. I appreciated that one of the characters is someone who has to deal with chronic pain and how it’s slowly becoming more main stream to have characters with chronic pain in books. I’m looking forward to continuing this series and maybe even delving deeper into the mystery of how the zmei became trapped in human bodies to begin with.
Content/Trigger warnings: eugenics practice, ableism, a character with chronic and disability who is forced to keep her illness away from the public, self-harm to have access to a God’s powers, violence, murder, immolation, explosions, injuries, gore, death, alcoholism, suicide, stabbing (self-inflicted and not), cutting, emotional abuse, manipulative relationships (parental), self-medication, eugenics, frank depictions of living with chronic pain, PTSD, other possible triggers so please be aware.
Well that wraps up my bookish ramblings for today. I hope you’re having a great week and I’m so glad that it’s finally Friday. I am off to get some reading in of books I’m in the middle of which are staring at me right now! I will return soon with more bookish ramblings. Thank you so much to DAW for sending me a physical ARC to read.
Happy Reading!
Slainte
~Meg
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Celticguardian 