Caged

LoveReading4Kids Says

A powerful contemporary novel set in the shady world of underground cage fighting, from a Carnegie Medal-winning author.

After running away to London to escape his mum’s bullying boyfriend, Kai finds himself homeless. He’s on the verge of packing up and leaving the big city when Spartacus turns up scouting for teenagers to join his “Cage Fighters for Freedom” tournament. While their underground tunnel location and identities must remain secret, each fight is broadcast, with proceeds going to a homeless charity and the fighters being given a sum of money to help them get back on their feet once the last match has been fought. Most of the fighters “got along OK”, expect Kai and Leo, between whom there’s immediate friction, largely due to their rivalry over “beautiful, dark-eyed, mysterious Raven”. But this tension turns out to be the least of their problems.

When Kai and Raven leave the tunnels on a recce for Spartacus, they spot someone - Bird Girl - spying on the entrance to their secret subterranean world while searching for her missing sister. With an outsider in their midst and heightened risk of exposure to the authorities, tension mounts as the group gears up for the last stages of the tournament. While the teenagers’ cage fighting days are almost over, it looks like their world is about to cave in around them.

Gripping, nimbly written and packing a powerful emotional punch, readers’ hearts will surely pound through this novel’s explosive conclusion, and swell with compassion for the teenagers’ troubled backgrounds, and the resilience of their spirits.

Joanne Owen

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