Echoes from the Cage
I’m currently on a mission to figure out who suggested this book to me so I can thank them properly. This was thought-provoking, haunting, and deeply sad, but absolutely worth every second of my time.
4.5 Stars. This tiny, disquieting book carries a weight of sadness that the most popular tearjerkers could never hope to capture. It sits outside of genre, outside of time, and outside of the reality we know—introducing the reader to a world unfamiliar to both them and the unnamed protagonist. The result is a palpable feeling of wonder and loneliness.
I have decided to round up because this story made me feel so deeply. While there were things I was hoping for that I didn’t get, I’ve realized those frustrations were perhaps misguided; I was never promised those answers, and the past-tense narration forewarned me not to expect them.
The story begins in an underground bunker where thirty-nine women and one young girl—our narrator—are imprisoned in a cage. They have no memory of how they arrived and no idea why they are there. While the women remember a life “before,” the child knows only this existence, watched over by silent guards. When a combination of chance and ingenuity finally provides an opportunity for freedom, the book becomes an eerie, pastoral dystopia.
It is a deeply introspective novel that swings between the invigorating feeling of hope and the numbing despair of hopelessness. I found myself wondering if it was a metaphor for the relentless pursuit of meaning in a world that ultimately makes no sense—but perhaps I’m overthinking. Either way, this short novel sat like a ball of anxiety in my throat from beginning to end.
What a sad, evocative little story. This was a great borrow from Libby that I think most people should go into blind and explore alone.
