The Hunt (Cage, #2)

by Megan Shepherd

They’ve left the cage—but they’re not free yet.​

After their failed escape attempt, Cora, Lucky, and Mali have been demoted to the lowest level of human captives and placed in a safari-themed environment called the Hunt, along with wild animals and other human outcasts. They must serve new Kindred masters—Cora as a lounge singer, Lucky as an animal wrangler, and Mali as a safari guide—and follow new rules or face dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, Nok and Rolf have been moved into an enormous dollhouse, observed around the clock by Kindred scientists interested in Nok’s pregnancy. And Leon, the only one who successfully escaped, has teamed up with villainous Mosca black-market traders.

The former inhabitants of the Cage are threatened on all fronts—and maybe worst of all, one of the Hunt’s Kindred safari guests begins to play a twisted game of cat and mouse with Cora. Separated and constantly under watch, she and the others must struggle to stay alive, never mind find a way back to each other. When Cassian secretly offers to train Cora to develop her psychic abilities—to prove the worthiness of humanity in a series of tests called the Gauntlet—she’ll have to decide fast if she dares to trust the Kindred who betrayed her, or if she can forge her own way to freedom.

• ISBN10: 006224308X
• ISBN13: 9780062243089
• Publish Date: 24 May 2016 (first published 1 May 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Last year I listened to the audiobook of The Cage, the first book in this series, and was disappointed that it didn't live up to my high expectations. I didn't plan to continue this story, but when The Hunt was released, I was in the mood for some dystopian fiction and I went for it. I have come out on the other side believing that one of the reasons I didn't like The Cage was the audio. I think the voice actors irritated me to the point that the book was even less enjoyable than it might have been, which is unfortunate. I went into The Hunt with no expectations and decided to read a physical copy for comparison.

This book picks up immediately after the first left off, with Cora and company having been trapped by the Kindred after their (ridiculous) failed escape. Cora, Lucky, Nok, Rolf, Mali, and Leon have now failed out of their enclosure and are being placed in the menageries as a result. Obviously, none of them can abide their new settings and have to come up with a new plan to get away from the Kindred. I hoped that this time the plan would be a little less, well, stupid.

Thankfully, each of the characters were somewhat less irritating in book two of this series, which I am attributing to not listening to the same actors reading the parts this time. Still, I didn't find myself loving any of them... Leon wasn't such a jerk this time, so I really appreciated that. Mali was still weird and I never felt truly connected to her. Lucky was just kind of there and I didn't feel anything for him, really. I didn't hate Nok and Rolf and felt kind of sympathetic for them. Cassian wasn't terrible to read about and I did feel like I understood his motivations a bit more. Overall though, I just didn't care about any of them. Even when something terrible happened near the end, I just kind of said, "Oh, okay," and kept going.

And then there's Cora. Cora who sent me on a rant in my last review. Cora still made lots of decisions that made little sense and was still really wishy washy about which guy she was actually in love with. And then Cora made the most idiotic move ever in the history of idiotic moves, which is saying something considering her decision making skills in The Cage. Cora has no regard for other people and basically just does what she wants, consequences be damned.

Like in The Cage, the strong point of this book is its world. I loved the descriptions given for the different menageries and actually wish there had been more of them. The way Megan Shepherd has written this Kindred world is extremely unique and she has a way of making me feel like I could step into the book and see exactly what she was describing.

The plot itself, unfortunately, is almost as problematic as that of the first book. The Gauntlet was not explained very well, in my opinion, and Cora's "abilities" manifested way too sporadically and conveniently to be believable. She always managed to suddenly learn something new just in the nick of time in order to get herself out of a sticky situation. Once, maybe, but when it started happening repeatedly it just got ridiculous. In fact, almost everything in this book just kind of happened conveniently at precisely the right time. (Deus ex machina, anyone?)

Overall, I disliked The Hunt slightly less than the first book, but I still can't say I enjoyed it. The characters are severely lacking and most of the plot is just a little too convenient for me to get into. The world is really gorgeous and the ending did leave me wanting to know what happens next, so I'll probably read the next book just because I'm 2/3 of the way in at this point, but I'm really not sure I would recommend this series to anyone else.

Actual rating: 2.5 stars

[tweetybugshouse]

The Hunt is the sequel to The Cage which i read last year and I had the great honor of meeting the author when she did a signing at the tricities barnes and nobles here in Washington state. I really like The Cage it does a great job of drawing you into that sci fi world and not letting go. In this book Cora and her friends are no longer in the cage and now it on to the next step or phase or experiement that the Kindred masters have planned.

As Cora puts it when she talks to Cassian "Putting me in a menagerie is hardly a second chance. It's further punishment" Cassian really try to talk Cora out of her plan to beat the so called Gauntlet. "The definition of stubborn is to know what the right thing is to do, but not to do it anyway just to prove a point. and right now you should really just give up."

Our two love birds Nok and Rolf get trapped in some weird doll house with a Kindred who wants to be come the mommy to their baby. Of course Nok go off and tells her "And if she grows up on alien space station, eating replicated food that all tastes like chalk?" In response to a point where the Kindred are trying to test different raising theories on the fetus.

In the end just like The Cage, The Hunt has its own secrets and we find out each one as Cora and her friends try to escape and the author leaves us at the end of this adventure with a few more clues but no real answers i can not wait to find out what happens in the last and finally book of this epic sci fi story.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
Remember that time last year when I loved The Cage? Ah, me too. Good times, good times. Anyway, since I was such a fan, The Hunt went onto my Goodreads "Must-Have-Grabby-Hands" list before it even had a title. Needless to say, I was super excited about it. So did it live up to my exceedingly high expectations? (Well, of course, based on the title of this post, you know it did. But let's pretend you hadn't gathered that already, okay?) And I will try to keep this as spoiler-free for both books as possible, promise!

Is there any better feeling than a sequel that you've been dying for surpassing its predecessor in fabulousness? I think not. And that is the situation at hand, basically. How, you ask, did the author accomplish this feat? I shall tell you!

• The stakes were higher. So Cora and the gang really didn't know what they were dealing with, not completely, during much of The Cage. But in The Hunt, they're much more aware of the severity of their situation, and that brings both the action and their own personal turmoil to another level. Adding to this strife is the fact that they (and in turn, the reader) has basically no idea who the "good guys"- if they even exist- are. So not only is a lot of the world an unknown, the people (aliens may be a better term here?) and their motives are too.


• This book is nice and twisty! When things happened, I rarely saw them coming- at all. There were parts of the story where my jaw totally dropped, and I love that! And yes, this does end on a nice big old cliffhanger, so be prepared! But it also makes me want the third book so incredibly badly, so I suppose that's a job well done too! (Plus, I don't really mind a cliffhanger as long as I know another book will be coming someday!)


• The characters really grow, especially Cora. Cora, as the main character, was forced to make a lot of decisions that would impact herself and everyone else. It wasn't easy for her, nor should it have been, and I liked that it was realistically portrayed. The captives have definitely grown to care about each other, and I think they all have finally realized how dire their situation really is, which makes for a lot of character development all around.


• I still ship my ship, a lot. No spoilers, I promise, just... I ship certain people, and I am excited to see what happens next in terms of this romantic situation. And it's definitely a slow-moving kind of thing, which I think a lot of you enjoy ;)


• The world building becomes bigger and more vivid. Granted, in The Cage, there wasn't a ton of opportunity for world building because they were in, you know, a cage. So now, there is a lot more that we're shown in this world, and it definitely felt vividly painted. There are a few settings that I was horrified by, mostly because I felt like I could picture them so, so well.

Was there anything I didn't like? Hmm. No. Not really. It did take me a few chapters to get back into the world and characters, but really that is a super minor thing, and had I reread The Cage (like I hope to do when Book 3 comes out!) that would have been no issue at all.

Bottom Line: Seriously, one of the strongest second-in-series books I have ever read. And with such a unique world and diverse characters (in every sense of the word, really), this series is absolutely a win for me so far!