The Hadley’s decide to do this because of Abigail’s ingenuity as she has found them a placement at the stately home of Kyneston where they will be slaves of the Jardines who are the most powerful Skilled family in the UK. The Hadley’s are the parents, who are never really given individual personalities, their oldest Abigail who is described as very smart and has the opportunity to go to medical school to become a doctor, Luke who is just about to turn 16 and their youngest child Daisy who has just celebrated her tenth birthday. Those without Skill do not know much about the powers Equals possess, as it is rare to see public demonstrations.Ĭentred around the Hadley family’s decision to enter their Slavedays as a family. Those that are Skilled are treated as untouchable, seen as celebrities or the one per cent. These Slavedays, whether you spend them in a slavetown as a manufacturer or in a call centre, or alternatively working on one of the Equals family estates. The rest of the population, those without Skill, live quite similarly to us, except that they are subjected to ten years of Slavedays which they have to do to give Equals the time to run the country. It has an intriguing premise, where the UK has been split into two, with a very rich and privileged minority ruling the country, this minority are quite archaic in nature and are known as Equals (or those with Skill).

And the consequences of their choices will change everything, forever.Gilded Cage is the first book in The Dark Gifts Trilogy. As Britain moves from anger to defiance, all three must take sides.

Then while the elite vie for power, a young aristocrat plots to remake the world with his dark gifts. Her brother Luke is enslaved in a brutal factory town, where new friends' ideals might cost him everything.

The secrets she uncovers could win her freedom - or break her heart. Abi Hadley is assigned to England's most ruthless noble family. Listen to an extract from Gilded Cage by Vic James, read by Avita Jay.Ī thrilling Orwellian vision of Britain, with a rebellious Hunger Games heart, Gilded Cage is the astonishing debut novel from Vic James, and the first title in her electrifying The Dark Gifts Trilogy.īritain's magically skilled aristocracy compels all commoners to serve them for ten years - and now it's the Hadleys' turn.