I had a hard time believing that a suspense story set in the Victorian era would get such consistently bad reviews, even from my friends who adore historical fic… but now I understand. The Gilded Cage was dull. That’s about it. This whole book can be summed up in that short sentence. Everything from the writing to the characters to the plot was dull, dull, dull. Gray had a wonderful premise, an idea that I have seen well executed - with obvious divergence - multiple times. However, she breathed no new life into the tropes. It is hard enough being engaged by a dull narrator doing dull things but it is made so much worse when it is also relayed to us in a dull manner.

Not a single character in this book had a personality. The whole cast was flat. Katherine, our protagonist, was just... forgettable. She had nothing unique about her. She was meant to be intelligent but made dumb decisions. The was also a love triangle. Kind of. I don’t quite know what was meant to be happening with these characters. Katherine was said to have fallen in love not once but twice; both with underdeveloped minor characters that we barely got to know. I felt nothing towards any of the characters.

The plot was a bit of mess. I am not even going to talk about it because of spoilers but let's just say that there was a whole subplot with an asylum and it was horrendous.

Overall? This book’s ultimate fault was that it was duller than dishwater. It had promise but the characters had no personality and the plot was tired. If you are looking for a good historical fiction set in the era - especially something with a suspenseful twist - I’d recommend [b:The Dark Unwinding|11733187|The Dark Unwinding (The Dark Unwinding, #1)|Sharon Cameron|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1340389392s/11733187.jpg|16682039] or [b:These Shallow Graves|24187925|These Shallow Graves|Jennifer Donnelly|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430165052s/24187925.jpg|43775750] in a heartbeat.