Cover Image: The Golden Cage

The Golden Cage

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

It took me quite a bit of time to get into this book, which is strange because it had all the things I normally love in a story. The first part is mostly needed to set the stage and introduce characters, I just found it uninteresting. There are a few shocking moments throughout the book and the ending was quite good.

Was this review helpful?

I don't know what I did more of as I read this book: gasp, pant, or squeal with delight. I'd not read any of Camilla Läckberg's books before this one, but now that I've tasted her storytelling, I need to go grab her backlist.

Läckberg uses both first- and third-person narration through Faye, with one reflecting one part of her life and the other a different one. This choice intrigued me, particularly the point where first-person stops. It's a purposeful, interesting choice from Läckberg.

Faye both compels and repels. You will feel desperate to protect her at times and desperately afraid of her at others. When Läckberg reveals a dark moment in Faye's past, you sense immediately that this experience shaped her in ways she has yet to discover herself.

Läckberg takes a pro-women position, and she does so in a way that even the most reluctant reader becomes a convert. It isn't that women are all-good and men are awful so much as men have been allowed to mistreat, disrespect, and diminish women by women themselves. Läckberg further shows how acceptance of this causes some women to do the same to each other. From the moment we meet Faye, we know she's smarter than everyone around her. As Läckberg reveals her strength, only to have men try to shred it, you know that when Faye does regain her sense of self, she will be a formidable force, one who will bring her foes--particularly the men--to reckoning.

When you read this book, plan to set aside time. You won't want to stop once you start. Läckberg's twisting, turning, and heated story demands that you not look away. What will Faye do? How will her past inform her present?

Read this book. If you are in a book club, this is a fantastic choice because Läckberg gives you all kinds of things to unpack and discuss. And please let me know what you think of Faye.

Was this review helpful?

4.5/5!

Faye Adelheim has loved Jack since the moment she met him at business school. Jack is the quintessential golden boy who grew up wealthy, unlike Faye who has worked hard over the years to keep her past buried. Faye helped Jack become the man he is today. She came up with the concept and business plan for Jack’s now booming company. Faye never once put herself first when it came to helping Jack. Now that they are living the wealthy, high life with a huge home and a baby girl, Faye thinks she has everything she could ever want. Is she only blinded by her love? Jack is certainly not the man Faye thinks he is and her discovery of his affair will crack the perfect life she thought she was leading down the middle. Jack shouldn’t underestimate Faye. She’s a woman who will fight against those who have hurt her and Jack has now entered her crosshairs.

This is my first book from Läckberg despite owning some of her earlier books and all I can say is I’m a fool for not having read those books already! THE GOLDEN CAGE is a thriller that stands apart from the crowd with it’s sexy, revenge-fueled plot. This is the thriller that stands for women and getting what we are owed! Camilla Läckberg just found a massive fan in me!

THE GOLDEN CAGE centers around our main character of Faye Adelheim who we meet in her present, swanky life with Jack. I immediately was annoyed that Faye didn’t see what was happening with Jack and his constant verbal abuse. Läckberg smartly weaves in glimpses from Faye’s past to help soothe these issues by showing the reader where Faye came from and how she met Jack. This inclusion of the past truly set the stage for how Faye was able to be so easily manipulated by Jack’s cunning ways. If you’re worried this is the only Faye we will see, then don’t be! Faye is about to feel the same way you do about Jack and you only have to wait until part two for the real fun to begin!

Läckberg wisely uses short chapters to drive her story forward and build an air of tension and suspense around not only Faye’s current life, but her past as well. What we see from Faye’s past in the first part of the book is not the only thing we will learn. It seems there are a lot of secrets to discover in this book! There are secrets about Faye, Jack, and those closest to them that all come unraveled as the book builds to a fantastic ending.

One of the things I wasn’t expecting from THE GOLDEN CAGE was that the story would be so steamy! I’m not a romance reader and I generally shy away from any inclusion or hit of that in my crime fiction reads, but Läckberg proved to me that it can truly work!

I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more from Läckberg soon!

A huge thank you to Knopf for my gifted copy!

Was this review helpful?

I was super excited to read this thriller - one of my reading weak spots is books in translation and I've loved a couple of recent Swedish mysteries. I'd seen this book hyped for months and thus dug right in. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get into this one. I found the pacing really off and struggled to engage with the extensive details of Faye's life with Jack. Those sections felt rather plodding and had me putting down the book. Eventually things picked up as Faye's plans started to come to fruition, but it was left too late for me. I did adore Chris and her relationship with Faye - the connections between various women were the shining spot of the book for me. While not bad, this book was just way overhyped and couldn't deliver what I'd expected.

Was this review helpful?

A Swedish feminist revenge noir, you say? SIGN ME UP! In fact, after reading this I’d like to double down and say, sign me up for all of Camilla Lackberg’s other books! Even if I have to learn Swedish to read them.

This book is a straight up, boobs-to-the wall revenge fantasy of the highest order. (I had to say “boobs to the wall” because the women are the ones who go buckwild and hold the evil men’s feet to the fire in this book so “balls to the wall” isn’t really appropriate.) Ladies (and some gentlemen, too), if you’ve ever been screwed over by a horrible guy and had fantasies of revenge, this is your book. If you’ve ever loved a woman who has been similarly screwed over you may also enjoy this book. I’ve read so many thrillers that are trying to be what this book is.

I’m not going to give any plot explanation, as it is pretty bonkers. In a great way. But it’s better not to know the plot ahead of time, I think. Thematically it has elements of romance and sex and women’s fiction, but is primarily a thrilling novel dedicated to revenge, and a woman’s rediscovery of herself (and how!) after being subjugated and objectified by a rich husband.

This author has some literary chops and I really liked the setting in Sweden, the different use of language sometimes found in Swedish noir, and all the straight up unrepentant feminism. It’s been described as a beach read but don’t let that fool you — while it’s being totally thrilling to read, it’s also very smart and has a little something important to say about gender roles and marriage.

Five very juicy evil revenge stars ... and now I’m off to find translations of all Camilla Lackberg’s other books.

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday, NetGalley and Camilla Lackberg for this totally unique thrill ride. Great Swedish domestic thriller! I’ll be back fr more from Lackberg!

Was this review helpful?

4.5 Nothing As It Seems Stars
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free-A Quick Review
Oh, this was extremely good. As an ole time mystery/thriller reader, this was right up my alley. The set-up was perfect. The way the woman was led down the lane of supporting her man, advising him, and making sure he was successful rang so true.

And then he did what we knew was coming...cheated, not just with women but also with the way he did the divorce. Left her high and dry.

So what's our gal going to do...Why let the pain and suffering mix into a delicious cocktail of revenge. Because this idiot ex-husband had no idea who he had married...none at all, and she was patient, smart and more than capable to plot, scheme and wait...

Wait for all the pieces to fall into place.

Yup, this was delicious.

A gifted copy was provided by author/publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Special thanks to Knopf for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

I LOVE a revenge themed story so much! This one is slick, sharp & so smart & the tension & suspense will keep you turning the pages late into the night! I also love the short chapters - you sit to read for a minute &then you get sucked in!

Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader.

Was this review helpful?

A Doll’s House meets Gone Girl in this enthralling, chilling psychological crime thriller by Swedish author Camilla Lackberg. And what a thriller it is! From the very beginning, you know a hideous crime has been committed and a woman’s daughter is dead. Before you can even start to get your head around that you are in a luxurious study watching porn on a desktop computer. Then you’re in a small fishing village where something bad has happened. And this mystery has only begun!

There are two narrators, Faye and Matilda. Faye is middle-aged, thirty pounds overweight, mother to a young daughter and hopelessly in love with her husband Jack. Matilda is young, ambitious and has learned to use sex to her advantage. As devious Matilda moves up in the world, Faye is moving down. Once one of the best students at the School of Economics, she’s worn down by Jack’s emotional abuse and demands and has turned into a housewife who must keep her home obsessively clean. She has no outside interests and spends her free time having lunch with the wives of Jack’s business associates. Her best friend Chris, although frustrated with Faye’s descent into drudgery, has stayed loyal. After a devastating betrayal, that loyalty will help Faye succeed with a well organized plan of revenge. Meanwhile, Matilda has only hinted at the violence in her past but it is the cause of her disturbing and ruthless behavior.

This is a novel of love, hurt, secrets, betrayal and vengeance! Incredibly fast-paced, it ricochets back and forth between time, characters and locations leading to a disturbing conclusion that you won’t figure out until the last page. Wow! 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday and Camilla Lackberg for this ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Many thanks to NetGalley, Knopf Publishing and Camilla Lackberg for the opportunity to read and review this fabulous read - 5 stars for the perfect escape novel!

Faye and Jack have been sweethearts since they met in business college. They married, Faye dropped out of school to support Jack as he started his business - one that she was a major player in beginning. Now Faye is just where Jack wants her - in her golden cage at their beautiful home, mother of Julienne, spending her days with the other rich women in their circle. When Jack begins to be cold and uncaring towards Faye and she discovers he is having an affair, watch out! Faye's dark past collides with her future to enact the perfect revenge scheme.

Told in alternating time periods of Faye's past and present, this is a wild ride of sex, money, revenge. It's the story of how women change to be what their men want and when they change, their men no longer want them. But it's also the story of loyalty, love, friendship. This is a great novel to just get lost in a totally different world!

Was this review helpful?

I'm going to be one of the few people who don't fall all over themselves about this book. It was "okay" not good, not bad, not great. Easily readable, shocking (I guess), but just....ugh.

Faye has been in love with Jack since their college days. Now, years and millions of dollars later, Faye catches Jack in an affair and her entire life changes.

Faye has a singular vision, to have her revenge. She creates a 'instagram' popular lifestyle brand and ....pfffftttttt. This part was just so stupid to me. Really? REALLY??????? Like, I can handle revenge. I can handle a woman with secrets. I can handle a lot of things. I can NOT handle the idea that some woman with zero experience in cosmetics or health would create a skincare and a 'diet tea' brand. WTF.

I just think that there's so much that could have happened before it delved into sex and dumb shit. The idea of living in a 'Golden Cage' has so much potential - Trophy wives and such. I just wanted this book to be over.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Was this review helpful?

Vengence is key in this book. Faye is married to Jack and has always loved him to the point of obsession. They have built a life together and have together built a company that has been an overwhelming success. Instead of using her business knowledge, she is the kept woman and has a life of overall ennui and boredom. She raises their daughter, but realizes it is just not enough for her. When she discovers Jack with another woman, her past comes rushing back and her life falls apart. I like that the book is told between the line between the past and present. Faye is a completely novel character and I love the inventiveness of this book and the overall tone of the book. Thanks for the ARC, Net Galley. This was a great read.

Was this review helpful?

This book opens with a scene that has the reader questioning if a woman’s ex-husband has murdered their daughter. The story then backtracks and we get to know Faye, her husband Jack, and their daughter Julienne then goes further back to when Faye was in business college and first meets her future husband. The story hints at Faye’s dark childhood and flashbacks to her early life disclose more about this as the book goes on.

Camilla Lackberg is one of my favorite authors, and I buy her Patrik Hedström and Erica Falck books as soon as they are available in English. This book has Lackberg’s wonderful descriptions of the Swedish setting. I’m okay with the book taking a different approach than the other books, but “The Golden Cage” was a disappointment. Unfortunately, there is too much darkness and the main characters are not at all likable. Jack is vile, but Faye is no angel either. Faye reacts to difficult situations violently. Although her quest for revenge against Jack is understandable and interesting, I just couldn’t root for Faye. I liked the side of her that is shown when she is helping her friend Chris but most of the time she is self-centered and hard to feel sorry for even though she had a hard childhood and was definitely mistreated by Jack. The ending is clever, but without a connection to Faye, it was hard to get behind the events that occur.

I received this book from NetGalley through the courtesy of Knopf. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

The Golden Cage is a psychological, revenge thriller. The main character, Faye, has a husband, who is abusive and awful, and she seeks revenge.

The opening of the book really drew me in. In just the first few pages we find out that Faye’s daughter has died and it looks as though foul play was involved. This really sucked me in a drew me into the story. I just needed to know what happened to her daughter.

I enjoyed the writing of this book, my main criticism, however, was the pacing. It felt like not a lot happened for the first three quarters of the book and then right at the end everything happened. I will say, though, that most of the story was focused on character development, which is sometimes lacking in thrillers. So the pacing may have been intentional and I think the character development helped the reader to understand why the characters did what they did.

Was this review helpful?

Whoa....Put a Lifetime movie and a Gillian Flynn novel in a blender hit pulse and what you'll end with is this book. The Golden Cage follows Faye a wealthy housewife who when wronged by her husband seeks revenge . The first quarter of this book flashes between college age Faye and married Faye. college Faye seemed to be preoccupied with landing her man and married Faye seemed be worried about cooking, dieting and acting out her husband's porn fantasies so he continues to love her. It almost lost me at this but then ..it hits the fan Faye's dark side comes out and it gets good. Overall it's a dark and satisfying revenge novel.

Was this review helpful?

I was blown away by this book!! I have never read anything by the author before so I wasn’t sure how I would like this. The ending definitely had a couple of twists. It was also very steamy so beware of that as you go in!
The book had flashback moments to help add to the storyline, which I enjoyed how she did that too.
The only thing I didn’t enjoy was it seemed to drag out leading up to the main character’s final plan.
I highly recommend you all go out and buy this or pre-order it. I can’t wait to read more by this author!!

Thank you so much Abby and Knopf for sending me an early review copy!

Was this review helpful?

Layers of secrets upon secrets make this a must read domestic thriller. Strong female characters fight against the old boys network in business and find a way to fight back and have it all.

Was this review helpful?

Beautiful, painful, inspiring, and kind of liberating!

This book brought more to the table than just a little mystery and suspense. It is definitely one that, I think, most women (and men I'm sure!) will be able to relate to at some point or another, and find utterly satisfying in the end.
Even though the situations and events are vastly different than anything we may ever experience, what she goes through is very real, and her emotions are so well written, it's like we're feeling them too as we read along.

In The Golden Cage, we follow Faye, the protagonist, learning about her past as she allows herself to remember, walking along side her in the 'present,' and dreaming of her future right along with her.
The story starts with Faye being interviewed by police because her daughter is missing, suspected to have been murdered. We then start jumping around the timeline from there, sometimes to events of her childhood where we learn about who she was, and then we come to the more recent past - that which is directly building to her present. Through this book we get to watch Faye as she turns a blind eye to every red flag imaginable and falls to rock bottom, but is regenerated and rises to the very top, and it is beautiful and fabulous to watch.
This story contains love, betrayal, murder, forgiveness, friendship and revenge - and THAT is the juicy and liberating aspect.
In regards to the mystery of this book, the clues are there for you to pick up and piece together, so you may conclude the overall ending accurately, but, the devil's in the details - and they contain so much more than just 'the end.'

Except for when traveling to her childhood, it does get a little confusing trying to follow where we are at in her story, but it easily becomes clear within the first few sentences, just something to note, if you have a hard time following stories with this structure.

This book can be extremely triggering and intense - so here's a warning: it contains sexual, psychological, physical and child abuse. It's also very sexually graphic...so if that isn't your cup of tea, you may not like this book.

Overall, I loved it and will be continuing to read this author! Her writing style is different and refreshing and I truly enjoyed how she was able to write and breath such life into each character.
Thank you so, so much for the DRC!

Was this review helpful?

Faye has loved Jack since they were students at business school. Jack, the perpetual golden boy, grew up wealthy, unlike Faye, who has worked hard to bury a dark past. When Jack needs help launching a new company, Faye leaves school to support him, waitressing by day and working as his strategist by night. With the business soaring, Faye and Jack have a baby, and Faye finds herself at home, caring for their daughter, wealthier than she ever imagined, but more and more removed from the excitement of the business world. And none of the perks of wealth make up for the fact that Jack has begun to treat her coldly, undermining her intelligence and forgetting all she sacrificed for his success. When Faye discovers that he's having an affair, the polished façade of their life cracks wide open. Faye is alone, emotionally shattered, and financially devastated---but hell hath no fury like a woman with a violent past bent on vengeance. Jack is about to get exactly what he deserves---and so much more. In this splashy, electrifying story of sex, betrayal, and secrets, a woman's revenge is a brutal but beautiful thing.

My Thoughts: There is something cold and calculating about Faye, in The Golden Cage. Yes, her husband Jack, is a monster. And so was her father all those years ago. But has she taken her need for revenge to a whole new level?

Watching the drama of Faye picking up the pieces after her mother’s presumed death; then following the way she dealt with inconvenient people along the way; and then how she almost immediately knew how to plan what to do about Jack felt like a bridge too far. But it was also delicious!

Who doesn’t want to root for a woman like Faye, especially after the betrayals she has suffered?

Even though I had guessed how some of the revenge would play out, I couldn’t wait to watch it all unfold. Definitely an intriguing tale that kept me glued to the pages. 4.5 stars.

***My e-ARC came from the publisher via NetGalley.

Was this review helpful?

I think I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into with this book. While the writing style was great and I could figure out the transitions from Then and Now, the overall story line just wasn't for me. I've not read a Nordic thriller before and thought the story line was going to go a different direction, but this one was not for me. The characters are unappealing, and the sex is graphic and violent. I don't enjoy dark and gritty and the topics of porn and violence was just too much. I wish I had known this was how it would be before requesting this title.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopff for giving me an ARC to review for free.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday and netgalley for the free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

The Golden Cage was my first time reading a book by Camilla Läckberg. It definitely won’t be my last either. It was a captivating psychological thriller in which Faye discovers her husband Jack is having an affair. Devastated, she comes up with a plan to exact her revenge.

The author did a great job of alternating chapters between Faye’s present life and her past life. I love the timely way the author dropped past secrets, nothing was revealed too early. We see how her past life and secrets shape her into the woman she becomes. A woman who will stop at nothing to protect her secrets, herself and her daughter ...and get her revenge along the way. One thing I loved was the female relationships in the book. They were honest, uplifting and loyal to each other.

I give this one four stars. It kept me captivated through out and felt like a fresh story. So many times I’ve read thrillers that feel so similar to the one I read before it. This felt new and exciting. And the ending packed a surprising unpredictable punch (at least for me)! Also it had that great satisfying moment where the title is mentioned in the pages. I can’t wait to read some of Camila Läckberg’s backlist.

Was this review helpful?