The Sapling Cage
Feb. 15th, 2025 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraThe Sapling Cage, Margaret Killjoy, 2024 novel. Fantasy, apparently first of a trilogy but I thought it stood alone very nicely. 16-year-old trans girl takes her friend's place as an apprentice witch so that she can live as a girl and become a witch. Not particularly being marketed as YA afaik but it totally deals with coming-of-age themes and I might nominate it for the Lodestar, although nobody else on the spreadsheet has (but nor does it appear on the novels tab so maybe it's just obscure or unpopular?). I really liked it; I like Killjoy's writing (she's apparently kickstartering the next one of those Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion novellas soon) and I thought the fantasy world had some nice touches. Also the cover is great.
Killjoy thanked Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments and I was struck by (spoilers) the ways this book feels like a loving inversion of Alanna, starting with the girl friend in the swap, who wants to go be a knight rather than a witch, being named Lane. The way the gender situation is transition rather than gender adventure (or whatever you call those situational-gender-disguise plots, I know I've heard a good term for them and it might have been that). The way Alanna's bully is just an asshole who ends up joining Team Bad Guys but Lorel's bully feels trapped and frustrated and is able to be an ally once she's able to escape her situation. The way Alanna is a school story but actually training the apprentice witches seems to be pretty haphazard and somewhat of an afterthought for the grownups, order vs chaos. I just feel this "I want to tell a story like that with the same feel but a different personal worldview" energy between them, I don't know.
Killjoy thanked Tamora Pierce in her acknowledgments and I was struck by (spoilers) the ways this book feels like a loving inversion of Alanna, starting with the girl friend in the swap, who wants to go be a knight rather than a witch, being named Lane. The way the gender situation is transition rather than gender adventure (or whatever you call those situational-gender-disguise plots, I know I've heard a good term for them and it might have been that). The way Alanna's bully is just an asshole who ends up joining Team Bad Guys but Lorel's bully feels trapped and frustrated and is able to be an ally once she's able to escape her situation. The way Alanna is a school story but actually training the apprentice witches seems to be pretty haphazard and somewhat of an afterthought for the grownups, order vs chaos. I just feel this "I want to tell a story like that with the same feel but a different personal worldview" energy between them, I don't know.
