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goosowen 's review for:
The Sapling Cage
by Margaret Killjoy
I love this book. It does not exceed my favorite book from Margaret Killjoy (A Country of Ghosts - one of my favorite books ever) but I bet the series will once its finished. The style and substance she imbues into all her work feels so dang refreshing, to the point I audibly hiss "yess" every chapter or two.
I'm completely engrossed in this world and can't wait for the sequels. The world is so interesting and surprisingly fleshed out with not a lot of pages, accompanying a breakneck-speed plot that I almost always enjoy. When the current plot isn't hitting, never fear - just flip the page and onto the next! To me this is not a dig at all, it's fun. I LOVE some of the characters, and am looking forward to getting to know others more in the sequels.
It feels like a bit of a genre-defying mix of YA and, dark fantasy maybe? There are tone shifts between Lorel's self-exploration/coming-of-age and the sometimes horrible events of the world, darker in tone than most other YA I'd reckon. But for me it absolutely works, and the shifts are not so big.
The politics of the world and how it intertwines with the intimate lives of the characters and their viewpoints is so interesting. Again, covering a lot of ground with a relatively short book. And the parallels with our world make for some fascinating stick-in-your-brain discussion points. It all feels fully in the lineage of the best radical sci-fi/fantasy writers e.g. Ursula Le Guin.
There are some plot moments that felt a little messy or out of step with character motivations/ability, but I never really minded, having bought into the YA aspect.
I would give it 4.5/5 but I'm rounding to 5 with the aim of pointing more people towards Margaret Killjoy's work.
I'm completely engrossed in this world and can't wait for the sequels. The world is so interesting and surprisingly fleshed out with not a lot of pages, accompanying a breakneck-speed plot that I almost always enjoy. When the current plot isn't hitting, never fear - just flip the page and onto the next! To me this is not a dig at all, it's fun. I LOVE some of the characters, and am looking forward to getting to know others more in the sequels.
It feels like a bit of a genre-defying mix of YA and, dark fantasy maybe? There are tone shifts between Lorel's self-exploration/coming-of-age and the sometimes horrible events of the world, darker in tone than most other YA I'd reckon. But for me it absolutely works, and the shifts are not so big.
The politics of the world and how it intertwines with the intimate lives of the characters and their viewpoints is so interesting. Again, covering a lot of ground with a relatively short book. And the parallels with our world make for some fascinating stick-in-your-brain discussion points. It all feels fully in the lineage of the best radical sci-fi/fantasy writers e.g. Ursula Le Guin.
There are some plot moments that felt a little messy or out of step with character motivations/ability, but I never really minded, having bought into the YA aspect.
I would give it 4.5/5 but I'm rounding to 5 with the aim of pointing more people towards Margaret Killjoy's work.