Sapling Cage

A plague is killing the trees of Cekon. Blaming witches for the blight, a duchess moves her knights to take control of the kingdom and eradicate the last order of witches. So, bad time sign up to be a witch. But Lorel is a closeted trans girl who dreams not of joining one of the orders of knights but being a part of the sisterhood of witches. They gender segregated of course because cis people be weird about career paths. So when Lorel's friend wants to get out of her commitment to the witches and join the knights instead, Lorel switches places with her.

I enjoyed Lorel and her very emotional journey with members of her coven. It felt very YA vibes in some areas, almost scoobydoo in others, but not excessively so. It's an interesting foundation the book establishes for the world & magic, and Lorel's future. Though in that it is clear this is an intro for a book series and as such feels a little weak on its own. The pacing certainly feels rushed and could have benefited from slowing down and sitting with the characters and world a little longer. As it happens, we jump through locations and events at breakneck speed which I think does it a disservice but would likely aid binge reading it as part of a longer series.

What I did find to be a great strength is Lorel's own internal conflict over her identity and how others perceive her. Notably over whether her desire to change her body is for herself, or for the benefit of those around her. I can imagine a trans person, especially kid, who has just come out would find some of the exchanges in this book to be very comforting and prompt some valuable self reflection.

I love reading about witches and I love Margaret Killjoy's writing, so I was expecting this to be absolutely brilliant. The book didn't end up blowing me away, but I enjoyed every moment I've had with it. I'm glad this is the first of a series, because I'm eager to read more.

Killjoy is an outspoken anarchist and this always comes through in her writing. While talking about the book, she said it wasn't a "trans novel" but a novel with a trans main character. I feel like, similarly, it isn't an "anarchist book" but a book that happens to have anarchism in it.

Don't expect deep exploration on anarchist concepts or theory (they're present but aren't the focus). Instead, expect something sorta like the Discworld witches if they were more communal.

I read this book at a really fast pace compared to how fast I normally read, which is a good sign. I love the world that was built here. Although I must say, two thirds through the book I realized the pacing and plot points of the book feel incredibly similar to one of Killjoy's previous books, A Country Of Ghosts. Luckily. the world and details of the story are unique and refreshing enough to still make the reading a good experience, and I did not wan't to put the book down in the final chapters!

It's my first book on BookWyrm so I messed up the proper way to review it. My actual review is here:

bookwyrm.social/user/zvavybir/comment/7295724

This is a young, trans fantasy story that begins with teenager Lorel switching places with her friend Lane to go join a coven of witches, trying to keep them from discovering that she's not a girl. It's not billed as YA, but I would give it that label--although there's a good bit of physical violence on the page, this is a coming-of-age story with a large focus on peer relationships inside a larger adult structure.

Unsurprisingly for a Margaret Killjoy book, this is a very trans story. Lorel spends the majority of her mental energy worrying about being found out, and even after her secret is partially revealed, there's still terfy antagonism and fears of acceptance. In a world with magic, I also quite appreciated the trans nuance of "do I want to change my body because other people would accept me more or because I want to change it for myself (and maybe I don't)".

There's a lot of neat smaller worldbuilding details here that I really enjoyed. Magic in this world is grasped through metaphor, and depending on the metaphor used there are different perspectives and tradeoffs. I like that the fantasy political landscape is a bit of chaotic feudalism, full of different groups of knights with different loyalties and values, rather than clear cut countries with rulers.

My real disappointment with this book is that I wish the characters had more depth. The protagonist Lorel doesn't really get much time in her home town before joining the witches, and we only get scraps about who she is or where she came from. The reader hears more about Araneigh's family than they do about Lorel's. It's also hard to know much about Lorel's self that isn't explicitly a response to being trans; she doesn't talk about herself much (because she's hiding her past), she volunteers for cooking (so as not to reinforce gender roles), and she works incredibly hard (and so that people look kindly on her if her secret ever came out). The dynamics between Hex and Lorel are the most interesting character bits, and there's a moment of tension about Araneigh's feelings around Lorel's body, but on the whole most characters feel fairly one note.

This is book one of a trilogy, so there's certainly room for the future. It also didn't end with a lot of hooks for the sequel, so I'm quite curious where it will go.