Caged Warrior by Alan Lawrence Sitomer (review)

McCutcheon Daniels has been trained from a tender age in mixed martial arts by his father, a womanizing, gambling, drug-dependent failed boxer who relies on his son’s talent to keep the dysfunctional family afloat, ever since Mom left and took their stable income with her. Known as Bam Bam in the Detroit underground cage fighting circuit, McCutcheon is proud of his abilities and shares his father’s plan for a professional career in sanctioned fighting. However, when a persistent high school teacher, Mr. Freedman, finagles him a berth at a high-performing charter school, McCutcheon slowly reaches for the bait. Dad, who’s indebted to local mobsters, can’t let that happen, and he kidnaps his own daughter, the beloved little sister McCutcheon is virtually raising on his own, with an implied threat to sell her into the sex trade if the son doesn’t fall in line. There’s lots of high-drama appeal here, certainly, and action fans will be drawn by the MMA component. Though the ramped-up violence is part and parcel of a story about unsanctioned cage fighting, other narrative elements seem overdrawn for dramatic effect. The elder McCutcheon is thoroughly vile, Mr. Freedman is endlessly patient, kinder-gartner Gemma is adorably innocent and precocious, and love interest Kaitlyn is predictably brilliant, tough, and understanding. Narrator McCutcheon takes the role of stoic warrior with a heart of gold, and although most readers will recognize his character for the stereotype it is, they’ll easily project themselves into it in their own testosterone-charged fantasies.