Caged Warrior by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

“The first thing I think about when the cage closes is, I hope God forgives me for what I’m about to do.” --Anonymous

And so begins Sitomer’s latest YA novel aimed at the same readers who ate up Homeboyz.  Fortunately, Homeboyz has a great many fans hankering for more.  Unfortunately, readers are in for a bashing read which leaves nothing to the reader’s imagination.  McCutcheon Daniels, the novel’s protagonist, is a brutal underground MMA fighter and an excellent student when he shows up to his sophomore classes.  Functioning as a single parent to his five year old sister, Gemma, and enabler to his abusive father, MD realizes within the first 100 pages that his father is exploiting him.  Readers who don’t shrink from gory descriptions may enjoy the fight scenes and some will undoubtedly appreciate MD’s role as family provider and surrogate parent to his sister.  This reader wishes the book had the editing it deserves; the last few chapters are the tightest and the strongest. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Sitomer, Alan Lawrence.  Caged Warrior.  New York: Hyperion, 2014.