Book Review: The Sapling Cage

The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy

Feminist Press | 2024 | Paperback, $17.95

5 stars

An exploration of kindness, honesty, acceptance, and trust. Killjoy provides a straightforward exploration of one young woman’s journey to accept and be herself.

In this novel, Lorel, the main character, longs to be a witch and her best friend Lane longs to be a knight. Knights can be any gender, but witches are only women. Lane’s mother promised her to the coven when she comes of age, and Lorel would give anything to go in her stead. The problem: she’s a girl, but society thinks she’s a boy. Lorel is trans. The friends switch places anyway, Lorel living in constant fear that she will be discovered along with living in fear for her life as the kingdom seems to turn against witches, blaming them for a blight that has come upon the land. As she learns magic and fights alongside new friends and figures out who can be trusted, Lorel must also learn to trust her own sense of self. 

Amidst Lorel’s personal identity journey, the book also explores climate catastrophe, as entire forests are dying for an unknown reason. We look at jealousy, greed, and see that some are willing to harm others as long as they get what they want. 

The book does feel a little bit young as we are in the mind of a rather sheltered seventeen year old. For readers of spicier books, the innocent handholding and kisses might feel a bit bland. If you aren’t looking for steamy romance, however, this is a great read and also an important one as it provides an in-depth exploration into the mind of a trans girl as she figures herself out. It is timely and important in a world that seeks to cultivate fear when there is nothing to fear, and to distract us from real dangers, such as impending climate shifts and mass extinctions. 

I truly enjoyed this novel, and look forward to the next two in the trilogy. Killjoy presents some clever twists on the idea of balance and consequences that come from tipping the scales when it comes to magic use. I found her worldbuilding and magical system fascinating, and I’m looking forward to talking about it at our book club meeting on July 2nd at 6pm!