''Cage of Stars'' () is a 2006 best-selling novel by

Jacquelyn Mitchard Jacquelyn Mitchard is an American journalist and author. She is the author of the best-selling novel ''The Deep End of the Ocean'', which was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club, on September 17, 1996.Kirkpatrick, David D. - "Oprah Will Cur ...

. The story follows a Mormon girl whose sisters are murdered, and her struggling to reconcile her faith and her family's forgiveness of the murderer with her grief, anger, and desire for revenge. Mitchard was inspired by a newspaper article about a similar murder in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Summary

Young Veronica (“Ronnie”) Swan's idyllic life in her

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

community of

Cedar City, Utah Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. It is located south of Salt Lake City, and north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Gam ...

is shattered when her two younger sisters, Becky and Ruthie, are brutally murdered by a man named Scott Early while Ronnie is babysitting for them. Amid mass media attention, a remorseful Early is diagnosed with

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

and sent to a state mental hospital, where his condition is increasingly tempered by medication and therapy. Ronnie's parents, guided by their faith, decide they must forgive Early to find closure, and visit him in the hospital. Ronnie, however, refuses to join them. She moves to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

to become an EMT, adopts a new identity, and manages to become the nanny to Early's infant daughter Juliet, considering but ultimately abandoning the idea of revenge.

Critical reception

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' called ''Cage of Stars'' "sweet and solid," noting the "considerable emotional depth" Ronnie develops throughout the story. ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' panned the book as "thinly conceived and timidly executed," criticizing the book's pacing and the development of the Mormon characters.

References

Novels by Jacquelyn Mitchard 2006 American novels {{US-novel-stub