Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy!
Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Trans MC
Published on: 24th September 2024
Goodreads
In the gripping first novel in the Daughters of the Empty Throne trilogy, author Margaret Killjoy spins a tale of earth magic, power struggle, and self-invention in an own-voices story of trans witchcraft.
Lorel has always dreamed of becoming a witch: learning magic, fighting monsters, and exploring the world beyond the small town where she and her mother run the stables. Even though a strange plague is killing the trees in the Kingdom of Cekon and witches are being blamed for it, Lorel wants nothing more than to join them. There’s only one problem: all witches are women, and she was born a boy.
When the coven comes to claim her best friend, Lorel disguises herself in a dress and joins in her friend’s place, leaving home and her old self behind. She soon discovers the dark powers threatening the kingdom: a magical blight scars the land, and the power-mad Duchess Helte is crushing everything between her and the crown. In spite of these dangers, Lorel makes friends and begins learning magic from the powerful witches in her coven. However, she fears that her new friends and mentors will find out her secret and kick her out of the coven, or worse.
You might remember Killjoy as the author of the awesome Danielle Cain novella series, which, if you haven’t read them, you should. The first in that series, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, was the first thing I ever read by Killjoy, and made it VERY CLEAR that this was an author to keep an eye on.
SO YOU CAN IMAGINE MY FREAKING DELIGHT WHEN I HEARD SHE WAS WRITING A TRANS FANTASY TRILOGY.
Everything I’ve read of Killjoy’s fiction – which is not her entire bibliography, but is most of it – has featured socialist and/or anarchist themes, and queerness, and much critiquing of power structures, so I’m expecting all of that from Sapling Cage. And so I’m very interested in the title of the trilogy, Daughters of the Empty Throne – what is the empty throne??? Is it an anti-monarchist symbol, or is there an actual, literal throne involved somewhere? I would be very surprised if Killjoy wrote a ‘surprise, you’re a princess now!’ story, so I don’t think Lorel will end up in the throne – but maybe she’s a part of emptying it, or keeping it empty?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
It doesn’t really matter, I was always going to pounce on anything Killjoy wrote, whatever it was about. But it does make me FLAIL WITH EXCITEMENT that she’s described it as ‘the best thing I’ve ever written’, because – I mean, everything she’s written up till now has been AMAZING. So you’re telling me it’s EVEN BETTER THAN ALL THAT HAS COME BEFORE IT???
THAT IS A LOT OF BESTNESS. LIKE. A LOT.
I know Lorel is 16 when the book starts, and this is a coming of age story, but I’m not clear on whether this is YA or not – I’m leaning towards not, because, that cover??? And also Killjoy has never written YA before, as far as I know; this publisher, Feminist Press, has never published YA before that I can tell; and everywhere I can find a preorder listing for Sapling Cage, it’s listed under Fantasy, not YA Fantasy.
I could be wrong, but even if I am – BEST THING SHE’S EVER WRITTEN. I couldn’t care less if it’s YA or Adult or New Adult or some new thing I’ve never heard of, I’M READING IT AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME!
It looks like you can preorder it from most of the usual places already, but Feminist Press will also be doing preorders through a Kickstarter campaign – you can sign up here to be notified when the campaign goes live.
BEST
THING
SHE’S
EVER
WRITTEN!!!
Hell yeah, I loved the Danielle Cane novellas! Will add this to my wishlist.
Excellent!!!