The Verdant Cage by. Jess Lourey | ARC Review – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Spice Rating:

Title: The Verdant Cage

Author: Jess Lourey

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 416

Publication Date: 4/7/26

Publisher: Entangled: Mayhem Books

Categories: Young Adult Dystopian, Romance, Thriller, Mystery, Series

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Entangled: Mayhem Books for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Wall was built to keep them safe. Or so they thought.

For as long as seventeen-year-old apothecary Rose Allgood can remember, the towering stone Wall surrounding Noah’s Valley has protected her people. No one leaves. No one fights. And no one questions why.

But their paradise has been hiding its thorns. When Rose’s mother becomes the Valley’s first murder victim and her twin brother is swiftly condemned, she alone is searching for the real killer. Determined to find the truth, she follows a trail of hidden messages, forbidden knowledge, and whispers of a past no one dares to remember.

The deeper she digs, the more certain Rose becomes that her mother’s death was no accident. That the Wall isn’t just keeping something out.

It’s keeping something in.

Fans of The Hunger Games, The Grace Year, and The Maze Runner will devour The Verdant Cage―a chilling dystopian thriller about what it takes to rebel when you discover your entire world is a lie.

Content Warning: violence, death, physical abuse

World Building: In this story there is a placed called Noah’s Valley surrounded by a wall – there are lots of rules, people have their duties, marriages are arranged, once a month – someone is harvested. The Guardian is their leader and he is not a good person and has some ulterior motive that is a mystery throughout the book until the end which is a very big plot twist.

Characters: Rose is our FMC – she’s about to marry the guardian’s son, Gryphon, who she was in love when she was younger but now they are not friends. Rose is a do-gooder, goody-two shoes, someone who abides by the rules because she was conditioned to by her family – to keep themselves safe. She’s a healer. But when she loses her family one by one she knows she has to start breaking rules to make a difference. I did like her growth because at first she is very naive. She becomes brave and fights for the people of their town. Gryphon had lots of animosity towards Rose, but he’s also being abused by his father. He’s also part of a small rebellion group and he does train Rose but I also didn’t trust him until the very end. There are other characters, new friendships for Rose, and some villainous characters in town that made things interesting.

Romance: Rose is arranged to marry Gryphon and they have a past, but are not friends at all in the present. Though I like an ex-friends to lovers romance, the romance in this story kind of came abruptly and felt kind of forced at times, because of the way Gryphon acts towards Rose. Would have loved for them to communicate a bit more. It wasn’t my favorite part of the story.

Story: There is a lot of mystery in this story – what happens to the people who get harvested? Where do they go beyond the wall? And why are people getting sick and dying from an unknown virus? A lot of things are revealed in the end with a very big plot twist that I didn’t see coming.

Vibes: while reading it – it gave me M. Night Shyamalan vibes – The Village! If you know, you know. It’s sort of creepy because you don’t know what’s behind the wall, and the town is strict.

Final Thoughts:

I thought this was a pretty good dystopian thriller especially with the ending! It was really interesting to see Rose and her friends live in this walled town, filled with mysterious illnesses and rumors of animals out there killing people when maybe the real killers are in the town with them. I feel like the ending sets up for a book two so if there is one, I’ll definitely be reading it.

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