This reads like historical fantasy in the time of the Spanish Inquisition. It had gorgeous world building, a pretty cool magic system, and Jewish folklore. All the ingredients for an amazing story!

However this fell completely flat for me. As hard as I tried to connect to the characters I couldn't. The storyline meandered, and it felt a lot like a beautiful drudgery. I'm super sad I didn't love it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book!

This is quite a lengthy book where its prose takes its time in setting up the novel. The pacing is a bit too slow for me personally so I found it quite difficult to power through especially considering the length of the book. I also found it hard to stay engaged particularly because I felt that the writing style wasn’t completely for me.

I found the characters the redeeming aspect of this book and thoroughly enjoyed the multi-POVs. There are also a lot of heavy themes sandwiched in between these POVs which can be overwhelming for the reader as well. I really appreciated how the author took fantasy-based elements, Jewish folklore, and historical events of the Spanish Inquisition to write this story — this was really interesting to read about and the author excels at drawing upon this intersection to weave her tale.

“The Pomegranate Gate” by Ariel Kaplan is a high fantasy first book in a trilogy that blends a Spanish Inquisition setting on the Iberian Peninsula and Jewish myths / folklore.

This is a long book. I read the first 20-25% and then put it down for nearly a month before I went back to finish the story. The pacing is slow and perhaps uneven; yet, even when I set the matter aside, I would still think about the characters and magical elements, which were compelling. I did try to put it down a few times even when nearing 70% completion, but I could not stop thinking about the story. It ends in a cliffhanger, or rather the entire series will likely span three books and so this is an incomplete end to the tale.

I am not well-versed in high fantasy (nor is it a favourite genre of mine) nor am I familiar with Jewish myths. I did find characters and places sometimes hard to recall even towards the end of the book, but I always struggle with this in fantasy.

The story moves between the human realm, where Jews are being expelled from their homes, and the Mazik world, where a usurper king and La Cacería repress anyone who support the reign of lost city of Luz.
The story focusses on four people: Toba Peres and Naftaly Cresques (who each have strange abilities) and Asmel b’Asmoda and his nephew, Barsilay b’Droer (who reside in the mirror realm of the Mazik).

Toba enters the Mazik world and her story develops slowly. Naftaly suffers bad luck after drama after setback – it’s almost comical how every plan made falls apart for everyone.

In fact, this is my critique of the 600-page book. I appreciate there is too much story here for one novel, but I thought many of the difficulties faced by Naftaly (and some of the other characters) are unnecessarily drawn out and serve no real purpose but to create more trials before the overall plot moves forward.

Nevertheless, this was a captivating novel. I want to finish the story and see where Ariel Kaplan takes the series.

I received an ARC of this from NetGalley, but the review is my own.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc (always spoiling me)

**content warning: antisemitism, death, suicidal thoughts, child abuse, kidnapping, drugging, fire, torture, blood and gore, decapitation (if i remember more i will add them) **

this book was,, a lot. not in a bad way, i thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, but the premise did cover a lot. it did have multi-pov, which did cause some confusion on my end (not because of the way it was done, I am just stupid and sometimes struggle to navigate through the different perspectives), but it did provide a lot of insight to the characters themselves. I mention the book was a lot due to the themes all throughout it. From trauma of religious persecution to themes of power and oppression and of course, found family, it felt as if i was reading three different books at once.

anyone who has ever read my reviews knows just how i feel about pacing. it is just never right, and as someone who cannot visualize when they read, slow pacing really just takes me out of the book. for many though, this slow pacing will be something to enjoy, as it allows for a more Indepth world building and explanation of all the magic in said world.

some little side notes:
-the characters were all fantastic. they were enjoyable, no matter if they were side characters or main ones. they each had their own personality and were complex, and not your typical "woe is me" characters.
-the romance was really such a subplot. it only started appearing a little more towards the middle of the book but honestly, it is some of the best I've ever read. i feel like it progressed really nicely.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books, Erewhon Books for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.*

This was a really long book. I mean it was like 600 pages? Give or take? Well let me tell you I read it like it was 100 and I wanted to last like a 1000. It was AMAZING. I really loved it. The whimsical lyrical state of writing was IDEAL for a book like this. I only wish I had never read it, just to read it again for the first time. I highly recommend you to read it.

HIGHLIGHTS
~a surprising number of lentils
~respect ruthless grandmothers
~girls made of magic
~fish made of magic
~defenestrate your expectations, nothing will conform to them here

This book was exactly 600 pages long on my ereader, and that was not long enough.

I wanted The Pomegranate Gate to go on forever.

Usually when you see a book getting comped to writers like Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, and Tasha Suri, that book fails to live up to the comparisons. It’s not even the book’s fault, because that’s just too much for anyone to live up to (publishers, seriously, you’re setting up so many of your books to fail when you market them like this). The Pomegranate Gate, though, more than justifies those comparisons: it bursts out of the gate incandescent, gorgeous and strange as a dream caught in a jewelry box.

Instant new favourite – and instant new auto-buy author. I’m saying it now: I will henceforth read anything and everything Kaplan writes. May her works be many!

The Pomegranate Gate sets out to confound and delight, and does both superbly. Kaplan’s prose feels warm and familiar, but everything about this story is deliciously different, imbued with a lush, unique fantasticality that makes it stand out from the very first page. You could argue that it’s partly because Kaplan draws inspiration from a part of Jewish folklore with which I’m not familiar (and I doubt many other gentiles are either), but that’s really not it: firstly, because she really only took a tiny piece of the folklore, and what she spun out of it is immense and intricate and wholly her own; and secondly, what really makes The Pomegranate Gate a constant surprise to the reader is the plot, which not once – not ONCE! – goes the way you think it will.

Not even ONE TIME!

I really, REALLY want to emphasise that, because – look, I read a lot, okay? A lot. 200+ books a year a lot. And anyone who reads a lot eventually notices that stories have patterns. Templates. Whatever you want to call them. (These templates vary across genres, languages and cultures, which is SUPER COOL AND INTERESTING, but just take it as read that in this case I’m talking specifically about the predominantly-white Western English-language fantasy stuff, okay?) It gets so that you can often guess where a story’s going, what a character’s arc is going to be within it. Thing A is going to happen, because it always happens. There’s no way Thing B is actually going to go down, because it never does. And so on.

Now, sometimes your guess is wrong! Sometimes an author sets you up to expect What Always Happens…but surprise! This time it doesn’t! This is always (at least to me) Very Exciting. It’s one of the things that will make me fall hard for a story, almost without fail.

But when this does occur, it’s generally only one or two deviations from The Pattern. There might be a handful of surprises, but the story still, overall, goes where you knew it must be going.

The Pomegranate Gate does not.

Not even a little.

Not even once.

Kaplan strips your heart of its calluses with all these impossible twists and turns, leaving it raw and vulnerable to the lightest brush of story. Every page is a surprise; a delight, a gut-punch, a shock, a wonder, a devastation, a revelation. And all of it builds upon the rest, entwines with every other gasp-worthy moment, so that every curve and curlicue of the plot forms the most breathtaking filigree.

<“I don’t suppose you’d be decent enough not to bleed on me if I cut off your head?”

“No,” she said quickly. “I’ll make a point to bleed out all over your lovely boots. It will be horrible. Gore, everywhere.”>

And within the plot? The magical elements, what the book’s actually about, everything that Kaplan created for the story she’s telling? Wow. I don’t know how she dreamed all of this up, but I take my hat off to her, because all of it feels new and fresh but also ancient and intricate, rich and bewitchingly unfamiliar. There are so many odd, gleeful little details that give The Pomegranate Gate a sense of magical otherness that can’t be compared to any other book I’ve ever read: the square pupils of the Maziks, the dried lentils, a girl who can’t run. From the very first page, it’s clear that this book is, in ways both subtle and outstandingly overt, something very special.

<Naftaly was dreaming again, in that strange dream-landscape where the stars whirled over head like snow on the wind and the people he met all had square-pupiled eyes.>

This does, however, make it very difficult to talk about while also avoiding spoilers. The Pomegranate Gate is like a dream; beautiful, breathtaking, but impossible to put into words. Something you have to experience for yourself. I can tell you that there is magic, and political intrigue of many kinds, portals and dreams and assassins and semi-sentient shadows…but I can’t tell you more than that. I don’t want to ruin the surprises for you, because the sheer joy of encountering each one unprepared is just…intoxicating, astonishing, wonder-striking.

Especially if you feel as though you’ve seen all there is to see of this genre; if you, gods forbid, feel jaded. If that’s where you’re at…then, my friends, I promise you: this is the book you need to make you fall in love with magic again.

<muttering a series of numbers best known only to some creatures that live in the deep sea>

The Pomegranate Gate is jewel-toned, rich, decadent in its beautiful strangeness. It dances, impossible to predict; and like the best kind of dance, it sweeps you up into it, with it, whirling you through the air and the story. I cannot love it more; honestly, I feel like I can’t love it enough. It is heart-breakingly perfect, and I implore you – no, I need you to read it. I need everyone to read it.

And then come sit with me and tell me how it brought wonder back into your heart again.

Ariel Kaplan uses elements of the fall of the Islamic states on the Iberian peninsula and Jewish myth to create a stunning world—and a stunning series opener—in The Pomegranate Gate. Our protagonists are forced to flee their homes when word comes that the Inquisition is coming to either force the Jewish people to convert or leave with only the clothes on their backs. Toba and Naftaly have barely been on the road a day when very strange things start to happen that change everything they thought they knew about the world. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series because this book ended with a hell of a cliffhanger. (Readers who dislike cliffhanger conclusions should wait until the whole series has been published.)

Toba and Naftaly trade duties narrating the events of The Pomegranate Gate. Toba, who grew up scholarly due to her inability to run or shout, falls through a magical gate on the first day of her family’s expulsion. She is rescued by a friendly, magical man who, for lack of anything better, takes her to his uncle’s castle. Barsilay is Toba’s guide to the world on the other side of the gates, although neither he nor his uncle Asmel are very generous with details. You’d think the pair of them would learn to better educate their unlikely house guest after witnessing her complete inability to stay quiet and out of the way. Toba unintentionally causes trouble wherever she goes. It would be more fun to watch if the folks on the other side of the gate weren’t so free to dole out death threats or make one-sided bargains with her. (It’s still pretty fun, though, with Barsilay’s snarky comments and Toba’s gift for exasperating Asmel.)

Our other narrator, Naftaly, is even more hapless than Toba. Where Toba is hampered by her curse (the reason why she can’t shout or run or work magic), Naftaly was clearly somewhere else when they were handing out street smarts. Luckily for him, Naftaly is taken under the wing of a homeless woman who knows her way around living on the road. Less luckily, his mentor can’t help him with his ability to walk around in people’s dreams. When Toba’s mother finds him after Toba goes missing, he is whisked into a series of schemes to try and get the young woman back from wherever she’s gone.

The Pomegranate Gate is brisk with plot and packed with fascinating characters. I would have enjoyed this book even without its rich world-building. The setting—which includes a dense history of political betrayals, original magic going awry more often than not, hints of fantastical creatures like the ziz, a small apocalypse, and much more—makes this book utterly outstanding. Fans of adventurous fantasy that defies all the usual tropes will be enraptured by The Pomegranate Gate. Here’s hoping book two arrives quickly and lives up to the promise of the first book.

When I was reading other reviews for this book, someone mentioned it had a Studio Ghibli feel and it absolutely does! If you enjoyed reading or watching Howl's Moving Castle, The Pomegranate Gate might just be your next favorite book.

What I loved most was the characters. Our main characters are Toba and Naftaly. Each thinks they are so worthless and problematic. Throughout the book you get to know each of them as they slowly begin to realize who they are, and how much they are really worth. The character love doesn't stop with them, though. We have two characters who are Maziks (magicians?) who help Toba figure out a new life for herself when she accidentally gets transported through the Pomegranate Gate. Another favorite character is "the old woman" who partners up with Naftaly and helps him cope with his strange new life, as well.

I don't want to say too much because the book has so many surprises and magical moments. If you are like me, you might find some of the politics in the book a little slow or confusing, but hang on because the magic comes right back!

It's been a couple of weeks now since I finished and I cannot stop thinking about and missing these characters. I hope I don't have to wait too long for the sequel.

If you like dream-like fantasy with lovable characters who will steal your heart, this is the book for you. Get ready to be transported to another world where everyone isn't quite what they seem.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Books, and Erewhon Books for a digital copy in return for my honest opinion.

DNF at 10% - look I tried to get into this but found the premise to be extremely confusing and I’ve read hundreds if not thousands of fantasy books at this point - I just had no idea where the author was going with the story and wasn’t intrigued enough to carry on

The blurb for this one sounded really cool and the cover is gorgeous, so it seems like a book I would love. Unfortunately, I have tried to get into this one multiple times and just can't make it stick, so I have to conclude that this particular book is just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Books and Ariel Kaplan for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I gave this book 4.5 stars out of 5. I loved this book! Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. This is the first book in the Mirror Realm Cycle and I am so excited to know that there is more to come. This first book is a Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy inspired by Jewish folklore. I really love reading fantasy based on folklore but have never read anything based on Jewish folklore and it was so magical!

We have two POV’s in the book. One is Toba. She can speak but not shout, sleep but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparent’s behest. Then there is Naftaly. He sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. Always the family disappointment, Naftaly would still risk his life to honor his father’s last wishes to protect a family heirloom book which he is told to never read. When Toba and Naftaly’s stories collide amid the chaos of the Jewish exodus amid the Inquisition, there is adventure in store in their realm and another! I fell in love with both of our MCs! I also adored the old woman who ended up traveling with Naftaly who I found to be hilarious in a dry dark humor way which is my favorite kind of humor.

Toba stumbles into the mirror realm of the Maziks, mythical immortals who have an inquisition of their own going on in their realm. I loved the Mazik characters Toba encountered and I was so drawn into their realm and wanted to know everything about it. The magic was enchanting! Naftaly ventures with Toba’s grandmother to find her and on the way they discover the secrets of the heritage of both families!

The end of the book absolutely gutted me in the best possible way. It was so poignant and somewhat sad yet hopeful. I need the next book ASAP! My only small complaint with this book was that there were so many characters in play by the end of the book that it was easy to get confused about what was going on. I had to reread several pages at a time to refresh who everyone was in my mind, mostly the numerous Mazik characters. However, it’s a wonderful book and I will be reading the next installment as soon as I can get my hands on it!

The Pomegranate Gate will be released on 9/26/23.

This book has a great story, and a lot of interesting characters.

Unfortunately, this book has really bad pacing, characters stuck in an area where they feel inconsequential for too long, and by fifty percent, I didn't care anymore. I was reading, but whatever was happening, went into the brain, and out immediately. The fact was, I was invested in a lot of things that kept happening, and then there would be too long of characters faffing around, and I'd stop caring, and be tempted to DNF, because this book dragged it's feet so badly.

So, yeah, interesting ideas, pacing completely destroyed it for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Erewhon for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Pomegranate Gate is a historical fantasy taking place in Spanish Inquisition-era Spain that blends Jewish folklore and history with portal fantasy. Though it got off to a slower start, and it took me a minute to find my groove, I really enjoyed this and thought that Kaplan’s storytelling was extremely well done and beautifully woven together.

Toba is hidden away by her grandparents and though she struggles to run or scream and cannot dream, she is immensely talented with languages and can write with both hands, meanwhile Naftaly dreams of strange people his father forbids him from talking about. The two of them are keepers of mysterious objects; Toba has a special amulet she must not take off and Naftaly protects a special book he is neither allowed to read nor open. When the Queen demands conversion, both Toba and Naftaly are forced to flee, but Toba accidentally crosses through a gate into a realm that is like hers and also is deeply different while Naftaly begins traveling with Toba’s grandmother and a nameless old woman in an attempt to return her to their world (and, also, leave the country to avoid persecution).

I really liked Kaplan’s prose and I thought the world building was very interesting—I loved the way that the Mazik realm was built and the politics of it were compelling. I thought both Toba’s and Naftaly’s stories were interesting and held my attention, and there are a couple of other POVs sprinkled throughout that were neat peeks into the world. I don’t know if I always loved the points where the POV changed, but I do think they made narrative sense. I found all of the main characters and major supporting characters to be fully realized. There are a couple of side/supporting characters that felt a little one-dimensional in comparison, but I think this is more because this is the start of a series and they have time to grow. (In particular I loved the old woman and Barsilay and I hope you do, too!!!)

I’m very interested in seeing where the rest of this series goes, and I’m impressed at the scope Kaplan has achieved. I really enjoyed the way she wrapped up some of these storylines while leaving off in a place that leaves you curious as to what happens next but satisfied that that’s the way the volume ends. I’m not a plot driven reader nor am I very good at theorizing while reading, but this book took me by surprise at so many points and it was delightful.

Kaplan tells a tale of diaspora and refugees, of hate and fear and politics in multiple realms, of finding yourself even as you're forced to the margins, and some real interesting side characters who are lurking under the surface of the narrative and are clearly biding their time for a future installment. Kaplan does an amazing job with the setting and rules of the magic worlds just adjacent to ours. This is set to continue, and I'm incredibly interested to see where the next entry goes. Pick this up for a unique fairy tale and for young protagonists finding their own way in a world that hates them for who they are.

This book was an interesting mix of Jewish folklore and history of the Spanish Inquisition. There was magic, a parallel world, and a rather large cast of characters.

This one wasn't really for me. I found it confusing, which made it hard to stay engaged in the storyline. I found the juxtaposition of the non-Mazik world against the Mazik world was not well explained. I'd have needed to understand more about how these two worlds coexist in order to really understand the story.

This book was by and large clean, though there was some violence and language.

I recieved an ARC from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first in a new series that mixes historical influence and Jewish inspired folklore against the back drop of a Spanish inquisition-esque setting. This epic portal fantasy is full of ancient magic, political intrigue, enjoyable characters, and a yearning romantic subplot. This book features a very atmospheric and lyrical style of writing that feels like you've stepped into the pages of one of Grimms original tales. It explores themes of power, oppression, and religious persecution. It will appeal to fans of the Daevabad trilogy, Ava Reid, and Studio Ghibli!

A captivating fantasy novel with enchanting world building, inspired by Jewish lore. Honestly, my only complaint is that I wish a map had been included-this was a very fun read and I can't wait to see Ariel Kaplan releases next.

A historical fantasy book, that draws on a rich tapestry of Inquisition era Jewish history.

The Queen has ordered that all Jews must convert or be exiled. Among those who must make the choice are Toba, a girl who has never been able to shout or run, and Naftaly, a boy with strange dreams and waking visions. While fleeing, Toba accidentally stumbles through a gate into the world of the Maziks, and right into the midst of a vicious battle for power. On the other side of the gate, Naftaly is determined to find her.

This book was breathtaking. Beautifully written, the world of the Maziks and the journey of Toba and Naftaly are both richly imagined and terrifying. The book draws on a rich cultural and historical tapestry, in a way that brings it to life.

The character development is also incredible. This is a book that thrives in the morally grey, at the edge of complex and difficult decisions. The relationships between the characters are also written beautifully.

Really looking forward to the next installment!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Pomegranate Gate is the first book in a Jewish fantasy series. This is a good start to the series and is filled with excellent characters and a stunning world. It is perfect for fans of The Winternight trilogy and The Daevabad trilogy, with court politics and rich folklore. There is a historical fantasy feel to the story that I think readers will love. While too much focus on history is not always my favorite, this book has enough whimsical world building to counteract that. I will say it definitely starts slow and can take a bit of time to fully get into, but by the end it is filled with action and moves along much faster.

I think my favorite thing about The Pomegranate Gate though were the characters though. Naftaly and Toba were such interesting characters to follow. The side characters are all incredibly unique as well, and I loved the found family aspect.

I will definitely be picking up the next book in the series once it comes out and I am very eager to continue the story and see what comes next!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an eARC of this book.

I was very interested when I read the blurb as I have not yet read anything about Jewish lore. But I think that added to my struggles with this book as most of the times I have no idea what a certain word meant. This book has put me in a slump and I have struggled to finish this for months.

The world is beautiful, and the plot has so much depth I’m sure other readers would find enjoyable. Some characters are also enjoyable, and I guessed who that prisoner was early on. But the pacing was so slow for my taste. The story picks up in the last few chapters but by then I was already struggling just to finish.

3.5/5