The Sapling Cage

Pros

• Killjoy repping that here was a major plus point for me
• I was also pleasantly surprised by the back half and definitely think I'll be continuing at some point.
• It is a refreshing take in these days where everyone has to secretly be a princess or somehow super special. It's nice to see normal ass people remain normal ass people and still save the day.
• I really enjoyed the explanations for how the witches use magic so far.
• Lorel's internal exploration of her identity was one of my favorite parts of this story. It wasn't quite like any other trans POV I've seen

Cons

• I warmed to it a bit by the end. Still too little book stretched over too many characters, but there was a tipping point not long after the midpoint where I was a lot more invested in what was happening.
• My favorite part was definitely that Killjoy allowed people to be people. We didn't see a *ton* of deep character work in this book, but I loved that the witches weren't a monoculture... My least favorite part was how symmetrical the bri...
• I'm now on Chapter 13 and am quite enjoying it. I especially like Lorel's struggles with morality in terms of not wanting to kill and how her words and actions affect others. I do think the pacing is a little bit off? In the last chapter...
• I thought it was pretty decent, but not really groundbreaking. I think it’s going for a more slice of life training with larger events cropping up now and again sort of approach (kind of like Tamora Pierce), and while I like that approac...