Reviews - The Sapling Cage

773 reviews for:

The Sapling Cage

Margaret Killjoy

4.02 AVERAGE

mathenam's review against another edition

The characters were 16 but they acted and sounded like middle schoolers and that is not my vibe

glass_carousel's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

pipsqueaky's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

ed_w's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

patrick_habecker's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

e1ektra's review against another edition

3.0

There is lots to like about this book, but I think I am entering my crone era and just don’t enjoy reading Young Adult fiction that much anymore. So if Young Adult is your genre then I would really recommend this book as it ticks a lot of boxes.

The writing is good, the characters are decent, the plot is really well thought out and the magic system and world building is great, for the size of the book. It is short for a fantasy book. It was so nice to read a book from a perspective where gender mattered but not necessarily in the ways that you might think.

There is zero ‘breasting boobily’ nonsense, which is so refreshing and the trans angst is deftly handled. It’s part of the plot and the character development but it’s not the whole story. As a cis het woman I found it really interesting to have an insight into this wholly different experience. Obviously this is a fictional experience in a world very different to ours, so I won’t be extrapolating from it. But, it was welcome respite from more normative narratives.

I also really liked how slow the education was for the magic system. This is not a book whereby the lead character is suddenly better than their teachers by chapter 7.

I think the book length may have quite a lot to do with the middling score, coupled with the YA aspect. It was just not quite deep enough. All very functionary. Yes we got through the story fine, certainly no meandering, every stop along the way had a functioning plot point. But that left little room to get to know the characters better or explore more of the world and its culture. A couple of characters got more type time than others, but there were others that I would have been way more interesting hearing about.

All in all, a good read.