A bitter, mysterious author. A young and naive journalist. A tragic past, a dark secret, and an unforgettable tale of passion and love.WARNING: The Silver Cage is intended for mature readers; it contains graphic sensuality and strong themes including suicide, sexual identity, and self-harm.—Anonymous is a pseudonymous international bestseller. The Silver Cord, a companion novel to The Silver … novel to The Silver Cage, will be released in the first half of 2018.
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This booked totally crushed me. I knew what was coming, and it still crushed me. First, the writing was wonderful, I could not put this book down. It was completely depressing and I felt so much for both Michael and Caleb. I wanted to be in Caleb’s head. I just could not get enough of him. I wanted to understand on a deep level how he was feeling and try to figure out if there was anything I could do for him, much I am sure Michael wanted to do. Michael reacted to his revelation about Caleb I believe how a lot of people would react and I felt that so much. At the end of the book the author says they felt like they should apologize, but then talked of this very real story that came to them and they had to tell it. Well, I do not want an apology, and it felt real. I felt so much reading this book that I cannot be sorry for doing such, but I will also not be able to revisit these characters without feeling the crushing feeling of helplessness. When I read books I want to feel, but I also want to escape from reality, and I believe this depicted realness that happens still to this day. Proceed with caution on this book, but I definitely believe it is worth your tears and heartache. Caleb and Michael were the real deal.
A beautiful, heart-wrenching story with wholesome, pure writing.
Brutally honest
It’s hard to put beauty into words. This book was so brutally honest. So honestly beautiful. Raw. Uncensored. The love between Caleb and Michael shattered me.
As a Christian I understand Caleb’s love for God as he understood Him to be. The God he read about in the Bible. The God he prayed to and worshipped. When Caleb expressed his spiritual beliefs to Michael I understood. Unfortunately he also expressed a warped fear that God’s love for him was conditional. God didn’t put that fear in him. His family and church did. It’s how we reconcile our spiritual beliefs with the secular world we live in that determines how we treat others. We can live in our Silver Cage pointing fingers at those who don’t think like us, whichever side we are on, or we can respectfully accept our diversities.
This book is as good a book as I’ve ever read or probably will ever read on this subject. It’s brilliant and intelligent. It comes at you from all sides in all life’s complexities. It filled my mind and left me asking why can’t we just all get along?
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 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. *skeptical*
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.
“Love is a cage two people build around themselves.”
I am so, so GUTTED. Couldn’t stop reading this. Finished it in one day. I typically draft my reviews, but my emotions are so raw right now, I have to write this immediately because I can’t come back to this book for awhile.
I love both characters, Cal and Michael are flawed in their own ways, especially Cal, and I love every flaw. He’s so broken and just copes, until he meets Michael.
Some beliefs change you, others eat at your soul. Unfortunately, the injustice of it all resonate too close, even in reality. Both characters pleaded their beliefs, and sadly, I do understand both sides. This book will stay with me for a long time.
Thought provoking read, passionate, very well done.