Anonymous (116)

This is an incredibly difficult review for me to write. And most of it I'll put under spoilers for anyone who wants to go in blind. I tried, I honestly tried to read it without having any idea what to expect. But I found I couldn't. I was struggling with one of the MCs. I was actually debating putting the book aside and just giving up. However I decided to dig a little. Read some of the other reviews hidden under spoilers. And that was the best thing I could have done. Because OMG this book! show more

It's absolutely brilliantly written. You get completely sucked in, live the lives of the MCs. It takes a truly talented writer to achieve this kind of depth in a story. I've labelled it "not necessarily a romance" for lack of a better explanation. Because it is a romance. And now I'll add my spoiler tag Just one that ends differently than expected.

Even knowing how it ends, I read on. Even though I hoped what I read wouldn't end the way it did, I read on. Because I simply had to. And while usually I WANT the happy ending, the HEA, this story was too good to dismiss. It's a romance, just with an ending nobody wants to think about. We always hope that our guys can find the strength to go on. To find the light at the end that makes it all worthwhile. However, the reality is that this isn't the case. No matter what pairing, be it mm or mf, things can and do go wrong and sometimes the only way out seems to be to just end it all.

So, if you want to read a story that feels so real, knowing it will rip your heart to pieces, please read this! Just make sure you take heed of the warnings, because they aren't there just for show. show less

I could separate this book into two parts. The first part was okay, up until the point where Michael decided that he was gonna let a guy touch his dick, even though he never had any kind of relationship with men, not emotional, not physical, he didn't even think about kissing a guy. He decided he was gonna break up with his girlfriend, and move out (okay, that was a wise decision). So, all of this would have been fine, but there was no build-up, no secret glances, touches, nothing, nada. And show more I love slow-burn, and missed these things. It was a snap decision, in a "I just realized" way. And that was frustrating. And then I got to the author' note at the end. And he (I assume the author is a man) explained why he couldn't go into Michael's story, how he felt about his sexuality. This wasn't his story. This was mostly about Cal. His struggles, his demons So I get it, kind of. *sceptical*

The other half of the book was understandably more emotional... and I held out hope for Cal until the last minute.

The most interesting part for me was that, though I'm not a religious person, I understood Cal's beliefs. For every question Michael throw at him, he had a reasonable, well-thought-out answer. Well, all but one: "You think one faith is right and the others are all wrong? You've decided Christianity is the only real truth?"

I hope that this wasn't the last we saw Michael. I think he deserves a second chance. And I'm so curious what Cal wrote about him.

This book has an important message, so I have one to the author too: Keep being strong! show less

I'm going to do my best to make this as spoilerfree as I can. But it's still slightly spoilerish.

2.5/5 stars.



I have a hard time rating this book. I feel like everyone has joined the party and I'm sitting lonely on the couch watching everyone having a blast. I just don't get it. I don't think this book is very sad and I didn't find the ending as heartbreaking as everyone seems to.



Well, that's a bit harsh Eric. I'm not a cold hearted bitch... my problem was with the book and its depth. Or show more rather, lack thereof.

Why?
Because while the writing is actually quite good, the book never manages to go beneath the surface. I never felt their connection or their pain or their loss. It was as if it was all from far away and you're just looking in on their lives like a creeper with a telescope. You never really get 'there' in their heads and hearts.

Now bear with me... this is my very first MM read. I have absolutely nothing agains MM - wether in real life or fictional - but I just didn't find their 'amazing' connection in this book very believable. It missed depth, angst, conflict and passion. I read the note by the author at the end and I realise that it was a deliberate choice, but in my opinion it was the wrong choice.
Because of this, the story felt like it was all about their desire to have sex and nothing deeper. Telling us they love each other isn't enough. You need to show it and we need to feel it, to make it believable.

It's just absolutely not believable - to me anyway- that a heterosexual male all of a sudden develops (sexual) feelings for another man for the first time ever, while having absolutely zero inner debate about it and going along like it's just who he is now and it's never discussed again or thought of. I needed this inner debate to make the story realistic and come alive. Once the two of them got closer and together, things were superfucial, fast and skipped over. There were some steamy scenes and then they are in love in practically living together. I just missed the development. It felt so rushed and shallow.
As I said, this is my first MM book, therefore I have zero books to compare this one with and I'm not sure what the 'standard' is, in this genre.

I think the 'warning' is a bit much, this book is not that shocking. If you are extremely sensitive to the subjects mentioned in the warning, you should listen to it. But otherwise there is hardly anything in it that I find shocking. Most of this happens 'off-page'.

I have a lack of tolerance for religion. I don't want to start a whole debate. To each their own. I just don't like it and I don't want to have much to do with it. So the religious parts in this book were... tedious to read. But that's personal to me. If I had known that it would be so present in this book, I might have been inclined to skip this one.

The ending was not a suprise. I was expecting it from the beginning and it just felt extremely rushed.

The sad part is that - like I said before - the writing is really good and for the first half of this book I was very interested in it and I wanted to see where it went. Sadly the things I mentioned above just didn't make this a winner for me.



But I seem to be in the minority yet again, so be sure to give this one a go yourself and I'm curious to see what you thought show less

Most books I can review immediately with no problems. However, this is one that took me a while. I had to process what I felt about it. There is a lot that's going on in here in this book, and it's worth a good read.

It's hard to really talk about this book because there are a lot of things that I want to say about it but they would be spoilers. It's an intense book. It's incredibly sad in places, very happy in others. It's complex and has so many layers that you will have to unpack to show more figure out what's going on.

The Silver Cage filled my heart and my mind and made me feel all kinds of things. It's incredibly well-written and is haunting. I'm hoping that the next book will come out soon. show less