The Gilded Cage is an excellent, complex psychological thriller that will make any reader a fan of author Camilla Lackberg. It is a tale of lies, betrayal and ultimately revenge. Faye has the perfect life to anyone looking from the outside. She married Jack who she fell in love with when they were in business school. They had a baby girl. And Jack launched a successful company from the ground up while Faye held down the fort and waitressed her butt off until they could live off the wealth Jack made from the company. Jack begins treating Faye differently..somewhat coldly. Well, her life was perfect. How does Faye find herself in a police station now? This is one twisty novel! The characters are unlikable, while remaining intriguing. They're the type you love to hate. Highly recommended to readers who love an unpredictable psychological thriller. Be sure to check out The Gilded Cage today!

Jack is married to Faye but, despite appearances, this is a marriage full of jealousy, betrayal and revenge. It's a story told in 2 parts and it's well written.
Despite Faye being intelligent and articulate, she plays the role of a submissive, subservient wife, whom Jack belittles. And then....she plots her revenge.

It's at times cliched and predictable, so, overall I found it to be an OK read.

thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to preview.

The Gilded Cage by Camilla Lackberg 🖤
Thanks @netgalley @harpercollinsuk
Publication date 2nd April 2020
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
What an amazing book! Dark and disturbing domestic noir at its best. The story follows Faye and Jack and alternates past and present. We see the couple at the beginning of their relationship, so in love and ready for anything that life may throw at them. To the present, Faye is lonely. Although on the outside she has everything, she constantly craves love and attention from her increasingly distant husband. We know Faye is hiding a secret and has been all these years. What is this secret and will their marriage survive?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
An incredible book set in the beautiful city of Stockholm. This book is beautifully written and really ominous and dark at times. A little ‘fifty shades’ at times but it works well with the story. Absolutely devoured this. Highly recommended.

The Gilded Cage is a story about Faye who moves to Stockholm in an attempt to put her troubled childhood behind her. As a student at business school she meets and falls in love with Jack, and together they build up a very successful company. Jack decides to take the lead with the business, while Faye steps back from the limelight to focus on being a mother and housewife. After the years of psychological abuse and countless affairs which followed, Faye is left devastated and alone and finally decides that Jack needs to be destroyed - Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

This is a very different style to the other books I have read by Camilla Lackberg. A psychological thriller in the vein of Gone Girl rather than the more standard Scandi Crime / detective thrillers. It is a difficult one for me to review because on one hand I found it quite addictive and I wanted to keep reading and find out what happened. On the other hand, the subject matter and some of the topics dealt with in the novel made it hard for me to really enjoy the storyline. Several times I found myself hoping that the story wouldn’t go the way I thought it was going and the descriptions of both physical and psychological abuse were at times hard to read.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this story as much as the books I have read in the Fjällbacka series and I think other fans would agree. It was very well written, had a really contemporary feel and an interesting idea, but I think the target audience for this type of story is very different to fans of more classic crime and detective thrillers.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for the opportunity to read and review it.

Camilla Lackberg is one of the authors I always have on pre-order as I love her Patrik Hedstrom books. So when I first saw this book on @crimebythebook account I was super excited to get an advanced copy on @netgalley.
.
The story was complex, dark and twisted and oh boy this book is a hell of a sexy in parts! However, I hated the main character Faye. I know you are probably meant to but boy I was reading on and totally forgot she murdered her DJ boyfriend right at the start who was besotted with her! No more spoilers coming I promise!
.
It was the classic theme of men hurt women so we get revenge but in the era of #metoo it felt a bit dated. Just say your husband is a piece of shit and then move on! Obviously, that would mean there wouldn’t have been this narrative but it would have felt more powerful if it adopted a more up to date view of misogyny etc.
.
I loved the character of Charlie - now that’s a woman that impressed me and I’m afraid I was more interested in her storyline.
.
However, after all that I did enjoy this book. It’s narrative was chilling at times, the fact I hated Faye meant the writing was excellent as it provoked a response, and the plot was great at times. I read it in one day so it definitely keeps your attention! Camilla is a very talented author but I just didn’t completely gel with Faye as an anti-hero BUT that is just my preference, other readers will probably love her!

Thanks to HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Camilla Lackberg at her very best. This stylish novel is one of the most perceptively observed psychological thrillers I have read in a long while. Imagine 'The First Wives Club' meets 'Second Smile', with a sprinkling of psychopathy for good measure, and you get 'The Gilded Cage'. As I would expect from one of the most astute observers of the human condition in the literary field of today, Lackberg's portrait of a disintegrating marriage and the unique characterisation of its main protagonists is both pitch-perfect and infinitely compelling. This story is primarily about a woman, who, in theory, has it all. The eponymous Faye, of 'The Gilded Cage'. is a woman who has sacrificed her own ambitions in favour of her husband, Jack's. To cut a long story short, multi-millionaire Jack is not the idealised family man of Faye's dreams. The marriage breaks up. Faye is left with nothing.... apart from a strong desire for revenge. This is no straightforward revenge thriller, however. There are no hackneyed old tropes of the thriller genre here. Not from the creative imagination of Camilla Lackberg, and not for the multi-layered, complex characters of Faye and Jack. Jack maybe an incorrigible womaniser, with an outsized ego to match, but Faye is not a woman to be messed with, as her ex-husband learns to devastating effect. This is very much Faye's story. Yet, who is Faye? A woman with hidden depths, a tortured soul, or a out- and- out psychopath? Through glimpses of Faye's past and present we learn that there is far more to this scorned woman than the Stepford Wife persona implied in the opening passages of the novel. Far more indeed. But this is for me to know and you to find out. With drooping eyelids and bated breath I finished this novel in the early hours of this morning. It was worth it. You won't find a better exemplar of a psychological thriller anywhere. Kudos to this brilliant author.

Enjoyable but there’s too much going on.

I really liked The Gilded Cage but I also disliked it. Honestly the first 50% bored me. There was hints of mystery in Faye’s past but I couldn’t connect with the story. The writing style isn’t lacking but perhaps the storyline is? There’s just too much going on. Casual murder, affairs, dirty business, good friends, bad friends, good sex, bad sex, domestic violence, abuse, manipulation etc etc. That list is getting stopped there or I’ll be typing for hours. It’s just TOO much. Give less and pad out the story more. I wad left with more questions than answers.

Hell hath no fury.
Overall a good read despite the fact that I didn't like Faye or Jack. The first part was very slow going and then it gradually picked up.. Faye and Jack both played games so it wasn't a black and white picture
Overall I'd rate it a 3.5 stars.
I'm not overly convinced the ending would work; I can see flaws but it makes for a good story. I had guessed the final bit as I thought there might be a precedent
I first read this author when she wrote The Ice Princess with Detective Patrick Hedstrom.
This stand alone is a good read
I suggest that when this book is finally released that all the formatting issues are sorted out. It's pretty bad at the moment with lots of broken sentences, words all over the place, no chapter breaks and some spelling errors.
There are no page numbers at the bottom. It really does need a good sort before release but I am assuming the publisher's are aware

The Gilded Cage, the book title says it all really.

Faye who's seemingly living a perfect life, from an outside perspective, has it all.. but does she?... Who actually knows what goes on behind closed doors.

This book is about a scorned woman's fight for survival and justice for all those wronged women out there.

It is set over three parts, each changing between the now, Fayes childhood memories and early adult years. For me personally, it took a bit of getting used to, as it notes when you go back to the time/place she was brought up, but then other times it seemed to change 'time' with no warning. Having said that, the more I read of this book, the more addictive it got. Overall a great read.

I've left my review under a different titled book by same author and same plot.



** spoiler alert ** I was actually quite bored by Faye, something you don't say often about a character that casually murders her boyfriend.
Her obsession with Jack just made her stupid.
Then,her revenge became predictable.
Disappointed in this one.

If you're planning to read only one psychological thriller in 2020 then make it, The Gilded Cage. Highly recommended.
What do you call a book where the writing holds you prisoner? What do you call a book whose characters force you think about the reality of life? This book is a masterpiece written by Camilla Lackberg.
Every narration has some secrets. If not visible from the outside then they're present at the inside. No marriage is perfect.
Faye Adelheim, a woman lives in a extra stylish apartment in Stockholm with her daughter and her husband. Her family is her world. Her life seems so perfect from the outside that people would do anything to live her life. But is her life that perfect as it seems? Or the reality is different?
Her marriage was ordinary then she found herself at the police station being questioned. Something went terribly wrong.
But what? Who has to pay with their life?
Its a stunning psychological thriller and i must say it has a twist i wont see coming.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction for an advance digital proof.