I Am The Cage by Allison Sweet Grant opens with nineteen year old Elisabeth working and living in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. It's quiet and isolated and a place she can be anonymous. However, when the town has a massive snowstorm that shuts the entire town down, Elisabeth allows herself to seek out and accept help from the sheriff named Noah. When she starts to open up to Noah, Elisabeth realizes that she can't hide from her childhood trauma.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of I Am The Cage by Allison Sweet Grant. The synopsis was intriguing, so I was thrilled to be approved to read an early copy of this young adult novel.

This story was told from the perspective of the main character of Elisabeth, and it was told from the present day and flashbacks to the characters childhood of the pain she endured from a medical treatment. The alternating storylines were done exceptionally well, and I felt so bad for the character's younger self. There were themes of family, friends, and romance included in the story. If you're not a fan of romance, you don't have to worry about that part being over the top as it was very subtle. I enjoyed the story quite a bit, I found that it was drawn out more than it needed to be. Additionally, I kept waiting for more of a twist than what we received, so that was a bit disappointing.

As far as characters go, there are a limited amount of them throughout the story so it's easy to keep them all straight. Even though we get to know Elisabeth quite well through her flashbacks, I feel like we don't know her all that well in the present timeline. It's as if the author is keeping her at an arms length from the reader. When it comes to the sheriff, the author does a great job of dropping tidbits of his past throughout the story, but he still feels a bit two dimensional as does his brother who doesn't have much character development if any.

Exceptionally well-written, I Am The Cage by Allison Sweet Grant was a intriguing read that gives readers an insight to a specific medical treatment that leaves the audience feeling empathetic and hopefully more compassionate. Four out of five stars is what I rated this young adult novel.

A very powerful character driven novel, I Am The Cage is a beautiful story of breaking free of pain and trauma. I thought the flashbacks of young Elisabeth were so heartbreaking, but oh my goodness, they really showed the need for bodily autonomy and having a voice in what happens to you. Elisabeth was such a well written character and I loved the journey she takes in learning to trust others. I liked the hint of romance, but I really liked that it didn’t overtake the story or Elisabeth’s growth. Like I said at the beginning, it’s a character driven novel so it’s much slower paced with not a lot of action, but the story itself was so well done that I didn’t mind. There is some descriptions of medical procedures and healing injuries and I didn’t think it was horribly graphic, but I do think it’s worth mentioning for anyone who is sensitive to that.
CW: medical trauma

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for Young Readers for the advanced readers copy!

While I personally didn’t love this story, I can see how some would. As a chronic pain sufferer, I went into it expecting one type of thing and it was very much not that. Not that that makes it bad, I just felt it wasn’t as described. There is a lot of pain and raw emotion, which is very relatable but it also had a lot of her feeling sorry for herself and it felt like she was punishing herself for what was happening to her, rather than figuring out how to help herself and let others help.
And the romance aspect just felt out of context with the rest of the story since the character is so insular. The writing as we,k felt quite amateurish. Not that i could better, but it didn’t lend to being able to connect to the story.
Thanks to Sutton Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

The body might heal, but the mind never forgets. I AM THE CAGE is in some ways a very brutal book. The agony Elisabeth experiences at the hands of the adults around her, the very ones she should have been able to trust and take that trust for granted, was unforgivable. I cringed every time I read a "then" chapter and had to read all about the excruciating pain Elisabeth endured in her leg and her soul. A particular scene close to the end almost made me gag because of how awful the medical treatment was. I'm shivering just thinking about it. In many ways I AM THE CAGE reads like an abuse survivor's account of the terrible things that happened to them, which I think is apt. This book will likely resonate with anyone who has had to receive any kind of involved medical treatment that lasted longer than one doctor's visit. I would never choose Wisconsin to vanish to, but I definitely understand Elisabeth's desire to escape and breathe without wanting to be a burden to those around her, even if she wasn't actually a burden. I really loved how Allison Sweet Grant structured this novel--the poetry peppered throughout is beyond gorgeous--and really loved Elisabeth's story. It impacted me a lot and I'm sure it will impact anyone who reads it, especially YA kiddos. Mild spoiler: it has a hopeful, happy-ish ending, in case you were wondering!

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Dutton Books for Young Readers for the ARC of this lovely novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Young Reads for the eARC.

My heart aches for Elisabeth. My goodness she deserved so much more as both a child and a young adult. Her mother sucked, plain and simple.

This book depicts some medical trauma. It was hard to get though at times but was well done. The poetry was beautiful, and we love Sheriff Noah!

I devoured this book, wanting to fully understand the emotional anguish the main character Elisabeth was striving to leave behind after a childhood medical trauma broke her. I loved the evolution of Elisabeth’s desire to be independent, ultimately her loner worldview, into acceptance that it is ok to rely on others at times, especially when snowed in without electricity. Beyond that, her realization that reliance on others can bring joy and other emotions that lead us into finding new strength and new directions was powerfully explored. I loved the minor characters and their backstories as much as I did Elisabeth’s, and how they each, in their own way, were juxtaposed to her own. The ending wasn’t what I was looking for, but after some thought, it made more sense the way Grant wrote it.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group, Dutton Books for Young Readers, Netgalley, and the author for early access to this novel.

I AM THE CAGE by Allison Sweet Grant is a rare story of grievous harm done to a child and their subsequent choices to be more, live more, and do more with their lives than remain trapped in a time of utter terror and helplessness. I loved the writing, did not always enjoy the scenes and flashbacks, but all felt entirely logical, authentic, and essential to hold this exceptional work. I'd recommend it to book clubs and adults rather than stick with its YA label. This character is every woman at different phases of life, age-independent. Ultimately, I think this is one of those stories that will resonate for me for years, not the least for its wonderful poetry and superb prose. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

“When we’re at our worst, when we’re hurting, it touches everything.”

What a beautifully written story of healing and acceptance of one’s self.

Elizabeth is running from her past and wants nothing more than to be alone. She craves the solitude and doesn’t trust anyone after having such a traumatic childhood.

Noah is a beautiful guiding light. He’s charming and fun and his patience, understanding, and guidance are beautiful. You could feel the hope igniting within Elizabeth.

“The hurt in my heart just feels too big.”
“Maybe it’s just making space for something better.”

The writing is phenomenal. As we navigate back and forth from the present to past, we experience everything Elizabeth went through and continues to struggle with. It’s very descriptive and it’s so very raw and you can feel everything. My stomach ached and my heart hurt for her. I felt as if I was there with her. I could feel her pain, her sorrow, her hope, it was palpable through every chapter.

This story is creatively written. I loved the poetry and I felt like a lot of the story also read very poetically.

This is an emotional story of how your pain and trauma can shape you and overcoming your fears. It’s hope, inspiration, courage, strength, and healing.

“Maybe it takes courage to stay and courage to go.”

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Dutton Books for Young Readers for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book and felt for Elisabeth and her story. I could relate to her in some aspects of her story. I would recommend this book.

'I Am The Cage' by Allison Sweet Grant was a five-star read for me. This is a YA read but definitely does not read on an immature level. This book handles sensitive themes and emotions brilliantly. The cast of characters were few and the chapters were short, both of which are assets in my opinion. As the plot progresses you begin to realize more and more that everything is not 'okay' for Elisabeth and hasn't been in a long time. The book did not have a happily ever after romantic ending but rather a couple of pieces of poetry tied up the story. I really loved both of the pieces as they were central to the theme of the book. I would definitely recommend this read for adults from the later years of secondary school and upward. I would like to thank (the now extinct) BookishFirst and also Penguin Random House for getting this ARC in my hands. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Enduring a barbaric childhood medical trauma, being betrayed by the people who were supposed to take care of you, and its aftermath, can live with you and wreak havoc in your life far into adulthood. Elizabeth’s story is just that. With a past full of horrors, a voice that had been bullied and silenced long ago, and a person she doesn’t want to be compete with the present, PTSD, and searching for the real ‘her’, who she wants to become again, Elizabeth struggles to let go of her past and live a life worth living.
While I wouldn’t say this was an uplifting book by any means, it is a hopeful one. The unthinkable things Elizabeth went through are detailed and tore at my heart. Possibly the most heinous sentence uttered , “Hmm. I guess that pin did have a bead on it, after all,” brought out a rage for this girl and her situation I hadn’t realized I was feeling. The strength and resilience it took to climb steadily out of that childhood betrayal and despair of self is commendable. This story is hard to read at times, but is worthy in giving voice to those who have been silenced for far too long.

This is a painful book. Elizabeth thinks she's hiding in her little cabin in the little town where she tries to know no one very well, but what she's really doing is slowly coming to terms with what happened to her as a child and rebuilding herself in a stronger, more solid person. The book alternates between barely-adult Elizabeth snowed in in her little cabin and her evolving relationship with the friendly next-door sheriff and her memories of eleven-year old Elizabeth and brutal leg-lengthening surgery and treatment, where no one listened to her or explained anything or really helped her deal with the pain. it's a very internal book, almost every statement beginning with "I"; it's a claustrophobic and sometimes heavy-handed read.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free earc in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and Dutton Books/Penguin Random House for ARC of "I Am the Cage" in exchange for an honest review.
Such an intimate powerful story of one terribly hurt young woman. I don't know how any readers could experience this book without becoming invested in and deeply moved by the gut wrenching isolation of 19 year old Elizabeth.
After finishing high school, she's dropped out of the world, living a solitary hermit's life in a remote Wisconsin cabin. Elizabeth's survived a childhood of almost indescribable medical torture. She suffered for years with a metal leg brace pinned to her bones in order to adjust their growth.
Through all the years of torment, her sense of self worth has been chipped away by excruciating agonies of the procedure along with the overall lack of empathy from her mother. Now healed only physically, she seeks total solitude as a way to protect herself from a world of hurt.
But then a winter blizzard leaves her stranded and forced to rely on the help of her nearest neighbor Noah, the small town's young Sheriff. In gradual increments, Noah's concern and genuine friendship, bring out glimmers of humanity and new perceptions in this bedeviled young soul. After years in the dark, sunlight's peeking through for her.
For a heart touching experience, I can't praise this book highly enough. There's a kind of ethereal, haunting poetry to it, as well as some actual, beautifully crafted poetry in Elizabeth's deepest thoughts.
For anyone who wants to experience the highs and lows of a character's life-affirming journey out of anguish, I'd say this book's as good as it gets.

This is a beautiful story about finding yourself after trauma. There is so much raw emotion that was hard to read at times. I especially found some of it hard to read because my daughter was born with an underdeveloped foot, the lower leg bones in that leg don't grow quite as quickly as the other leg and when she was a 2 or 3 years old her orthopedist promoted the same procedure. We heard the doctors out and agreed, it sounds like medieval torture and it wasn't medically necessary. Reading Elisabeth's story is every reason we said no. This is an extremely emotional story to read, and so hard to put down. I hope readers enjoy it as much as I did.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via Netgalley, Dutton Books for Young Readers, and Penguin Young Readers Group in exchange for an honest review.

"I Am the Cage" by Allison Sweet Grant is a young adult novel about Elisabeth's medical trauma and the move she makes to a small, snowy town to hide from her emotional and physical past. Usually when I think about a young adult novel, I expect to a read a book about characters currently in middle or high school, but Elisabeth is a high school grad who hasn't gone to college. The book switches between her time living in Fish Creek, mostly during a terrible snow storm, and her experience as a young person experienced deep medical trauma. I've read many young adult novels before that involve some kind of love story, but I've never read a book about a young person experiencing medical trauma. Grant really makes it feel like you are physically feeling the same physical pain as Elisabeth while she is in the hospital undergoing treatments and her emotional pain as her parents treat her like an outcast. Elisabeth tries to keep a hard facade during her time in Fish Creek, but she meets Noah, the town sheriff, and she begins to realize that there is more to life than her past. I really enjoyed this book!

As a pediatric nurse who has cared for children with Ilizarov fixators, I deeply appreciated how Elisabeth’s complex emotions about her life, health, and relationships were intricately woven into her experience with the fixator. The novel’s dual timeline—flipping between her childhood and adulthood—made her journey feel even more poignant. I completely related to her desire to escape from everyone and everything, seeking to understand herself outside the constraints of her overbearing mother, her health struggles, and the fixator itself.

The author’s choice to have Elisabeth retreat to a remote cabin in the Midwest, only to face a massive snowstorm, was especially powerful. This physical isolation mirrored her emotional journey, forcing her to confront her past and prove her independence during a literal and metaphorical dark time. Yet, even in her solitude, she found unexpected light in the people she encountered—Mr. Ito and Noah—who helped her rediscover herself. As a self-proclaimed introvert and loner, her gradual connection with others in the small town added a beautiful depth to her story.

One aspect I wish had been explored further was her relationship with Kacey, who is frequently referenced throughout the novel. A deeper look into their dynamic could have provided even more insight into Elisabeth’s emotional world.

I loved this book with the dual timeline and felt like I could really relate to the main character. Slow build romance is also nice, but predictable.

I read "I Am the Cage" by Allison Sweet Grant on NetGalley in 2 days! I could not put this book down. Elisabeth is a young woman who had much medical trauma in her life. So she decides to live a quiet life in solitude, not having anybody in her life. Until a snow storm hits the town she has moved to. Her neighbor, Noah, helps her out in the storm and they become friends, despite her trying to withhold herself. This book is heart-wrenchingly sad and hopefully healing.

I only discovered that this book was YA after reading it. But I’m always intrigued by a good blurb, and this one caught my attention. It sounded like an intense book, but as someone with a disability, I was curious about a story that involves medical trauma and the aftermath. It ended up being a good story that I could lose myself in.

Elisabeth is a fascinating character. She grew up with a congenital bone problem, and it required intense procedures over a long period of time, which became medical trauma. But even after the issue was corrected with an excruciating procedure, it becomes clear that she has more scars than the physical ones. She moved to a small town in Wisconsin and is living alone and working a dead-end job, and has intentionally limited her interactions with other people to protect herself.

Although my own experiences are totally different from the ones in the book, I can completely understand the beliefs that Elisabeth holds. Experiencing this at a young age would only make it more difficult to move past it, especially when all of the language to discuss it can be so harmful to hear casually. Even writing my review, I tried to avoid terms that reinforce ableism: defect, abnormality, broken, fixed, repaired. So it isn’t surprising that Elisabeth internalized ableism and began to view herself as broken, wrong, and in need of fixing. Even years after the medical trauma, she still deals with that internal conversation. It makes it difficult to connect with others, fearing that once they discover who she really is, they won’t really like her at all.

Elisabeth does a lot of stupid things and has such twisted up thinking, but she does grow over the course of the book. Over the course of a major blizzard, she comes to some big realizations about herself, her experiences, and the way she prevents others from getting too close, and the entire book felt like it was leading up to a giant realization, which it was.

While she does eventually reach her big realization, she’s pushed to it by the circumstances of the storm and needing someone’s help. She meets the attractive sheriff who lives across the street, and the two of them begin to form a bond during the worst of the blizzard. I liked seeing the connection between Elisabeth and Noah develop, and watch his strong understanding melt the walls around her.

Overall, this was a really intriguing read. It talks about the language we use for disabilities, and how casually hurtful it is, especially for young people. I found myself rooting for Elisabeth to come through this stronger, and wished that I could have hugged that little girl and tell her so many good things about herself. The story switches between the present timeline during the blizzard and to Elisabeth’s past, punctuated by medical and emotional trauma, and the short, fast-paced chapters made it a blatant lie when I told myself ‘one more chapter.’ Although there is a hint of romance, the story is so much more of a coming-of-age tale. Even when reading, it’s difficult to estimate Elisabeth’s age, and I just kind of guessed that she was an adult, since her age isn’t mentioned in the present timeline until close to the end. This would be a good read for you if: you are intrigued by how trauma echoes and continues to impact people for years to come, enjoy coming-of-age stories, and love reading books that make you feel the cold leaping off the pages.

Thank you to Dutton Books for Young Readers via NetGalley for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am torn with my opinion on this book.

It's clear not only from the author's note but by the visceral descriptions of the MC's medical trauma that this is a story that is personal to her. The powerlessness and isolation (even when surrounded by people) that Justine experienced was heartbreaking and all too believable for anyone who has experience with the healthcare system failing them. I am glad that this book exists for purpose of representation because I have not read anything like it.

The first 40% or so of the book was strong, in my opinion. I was drawn in quickly and appreciated the looming dread of Justine's past against the stark contrast of Elizabeth's minimalist presence. However, I felt that the book was almost set up as a thriller, by the tone and timing of the beginning of the book. I kept waiting to find out a climactic horror that never occurred in the finale. It's not that Justine NEEDED any more horror, her experience was certainly awful enough, the text was just pointing towards a climax that never occurred. I think that if the framing of the story were adjusted, the reader wouldn't be left feeling like they were led to nothing.

I also wish we had learned more about Kacey, who was clearly an important presence in Justine's life, but who we never really dug into as a person or even in her relationship with Justine. Justine's mother, too, reads as two-dimensional, which can certainly be partially attributed to the POVs being from an eleven and eighteen year old. Noah and their budding relationship fell flat for me as well. Was he a safe haven (while pushing her boundaries) or a risqué choice (while again nothing really happened)?

All in all I wish that this story were structured differently for Justine's story of horror to truly shine.