I Am the Cage

• Author: Allison Sweet Grant
• Genre: YA Contemporary
• Publication Date: February 18, 2025
• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“A beautiful and poetic book about the many ways pain, and love in all its forms, leaves a lasting stain. Elisabeth’s story of childhood trauma, both physical and emotional, is brutal, heartfelt, and a testament to finally breaking free and moving forward on your own terms.” –Kathleen Glasgow, #1 bestselling author of Girl in Pieces 

“A brilliant book about what we survive—and how. Visceral, wrenching, and beautiful.” –John Green, #1 bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars

“A tender, heartfelt story about the wounds childhood trauma can leave on its survivors. The sense of powerlessness—and redemption—will stay with you.” –Jojo Moyes, #1 bestselling author of Me Before You

“Heartfelt, human and true—a novel that feels real from the first word to the last. I loved it.” –Markus Zusak, #1 bestselling author of The Book Thief

“Allison Sweet Grant is a natural storyteller with the keen eye and ear of a poet. Deftly toggling between past and present, childhood trauma and its painful aftershocks, I Am the Cage is a story of love, resilience, and healing. What a beautiful, moving, and insightful debut.” –Maggie Smith, bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

“Grant’s YA debut emerges with a captivating sparkle… introspective and rhythmic prose…. outstanding character study…. powerful.”

–Booklist starred review

“Artfully showcases the complicated back-and-forth between keeping oneself safe and staunching one’s own growth…. Crackles with tension and sincerity… cathartic.” –Publishers Weekly

Fish Creek, Wisconsin—Beautiful. Quiet. Isolated. Anonymous. It’s all that nineteen-year-old Elisabeth needs, and everything she wants. Cloistered in her tiny cabin, Elisabeth is determined to be alone, hiding from her memories and making sure that no one can ever hurt her again.

But when a massive snowstorm strikes, plunging the town into darkness, Elisabeth finally allows herself to accept help from her neighbor, Noah, the town’s young sheriff. Forced to show him more vulnerability than she ever intended, Elisabeth realizes she can no longer outrun the scars of her childhood, and facing the darkness might be exactly what she needs to let the light in.

In a searing own-voices story accented by poignant childhood flashbacks and stunning poetry, Allison Sweet Grant’s young adult debut is a quietly powerful portrait of a young woman’s journey to confront the medical trauma inflicted to “fix” her—and heal her heart in the process. An emotional coming-of-age story about a young woman running away from herself, yet grasping to find a way back. Deeply moving, authentically raw, and humming with the possibility of a new love.

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.

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