The Cage

The Cage comes guaranteed to chill or your money back, and you may want the refund if you can't get past Audrey Schulman's opening meditations about bodies and strength. But once she gets Beryl to use her body, as well as think about it, the novel is indeed spooky. Beryl is hired for an Arctic expedition because she's small enough to huddle in a protective cage and photograph polar bears up close. Before Beryl's trek, she is merely fascinated by their flat black eyes and alien intelligence, but in the Arctic she finds herself having dreams about polar bears, even walking like them. When bears finally reach into the cage for her, she licks their paws. It's unsettling that Beryl finds the bears seductive. It's even more unsettling when you begin to agree with her. A-