This book has everything! Jewish mythology, Jewish characters, religious queer characters, and family mystery.

The parts of this story that stick with me include: the close relationship the main character has with her brother, the family that welcomes Hannah and Gabe despite having never met them, as the family is actively grieving, and the lesson Hannah’s mom learns as a teenager that made me think of women in unsafe relationships everywhere: don’t promise yourself to someone for forever.

The things I considered bonuses in this story: I learned a lot about Jewish culture, I was treated to multiple queer storylines, the kids animate a golem, and magic exists.

The quick rundown is that Hannah’s body starts…shapeshifting…without her consent. Every day brings a new change. Her mom leaves to “deal with it”, but after she’s gone for what the kids deem to be too long, Hannah and Gabe try to do something about it on their own. They catch a lead that takes them to their mother’s family: people they’ve never met. The matriarch of the family has just died (a woman who fled Europe in World War II) and the family is sore that Hannah and Gabe’s mom is not there, but welcome them all the same. The siblings try to figure out why their mother never returned home (though it is clear she is missed), but to do that, they’ll have to uncover more of their family’s past.

It took me way too long to read this, despite my anticipation, but it ended up being so worth it! This is such a great story of family secrets and trauma, a weaving of folklore and fantasy with history. I had trouble putting this down as it built and more elements were revealed, but at the same time I didn’t want Hannah and Gabe and Ari’s story to end. I really especially loved the Jewish folklore and mysticism and the way ancient stories were present and important to the characters’ history. I also liked the complexity of Jewish identity and how it can be such a multi-layered identity, especially coming into it later in life. Just, all around this was a book that hit my soft spots and kept me fully engaged.

Thoughtfully written YA historical fantasy. Enjoyed the writing style and descriptive quality of the text.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

I wanted to love this book. Jewish themed fantasy is a favorite of mine and we need more of it. The sibling relationship was the most powerful emotional connection for me. After that the story fell short. I loved the surprise transformations that plagued Hannah. But once Gabe and Hannah went off to search for answers as to why, the characters were very one dimensional. As the story went on I stopped caring about Hannah. While the mythological aspects were interesting, the journey to solve mystery seemed to take too long. The book is imaginative and others, especially those that are not familiar with Jewish mythology might enjoy it more. All of the characters needed more depth to keep my interest.

***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.***

A YA novel that has Jewish main characters, fantasy elements based on Jewish mythology, queer characters, and a mystery to solve? Sign me up!

This was a good read. I loved the ideas listed above. The mystery of the main characters' mothers and families' past was super interesting. I loved how the author captured the feeling of being part of a large Jewish family that is both loving and smothering. This book also talks about mothers and daughters and repeating the same mistakes of the past. I did not expect to read about family forgiveness and see characters learn about how trauma shaped generations of families (though being about a Jewish family from Europe, I should have known). The romance felt cute and very sweet, just as the first crush on a girl would be. It didn't feel forced or too much, which I am grateful for.

Overall, I loved the representation, the 3 generation story, and how centered the Jewish characters, story and mythology were.

quick thoughts on this book;
- it ended up being significantly different from how I perceived the summary. I still enjoyed it but I thought it was going to be more of a realistic/contemporary read, not a straight fantasy
- the body horror is very minimal. I initially thought Hannah would be struggling with accepting her body and the strange new additions she kept waking up with but honestly, she usually just covered up whatever it was and lurked around her house. I was admittedly disappointed by this, but I suppose there are some people who would be frightened by coin gold cat eyes instead of delighted
- I thought this book was a lovely introduction to Jewish mythology. I'm fairly unfamiliar with it and the book did a fantastic job of weaving it into the narrative
- the romance was not super spectacular. the ending in particular was surprisingly weak; the protag and love interest's romance just felt very capped off and finished
- for how short this book was, it took me a long time to get through. I didn't find it boring per se but Hannah never grew on me like I hoped she would. I absolutely adored her brother and thought he might have made a more interesting protag


overall, it was more than okay but I am unlikely to recommend it without prompting, like people asking specifically for books with Jewish rep or about mythology or etc.

I so enjoyed this book! it is a YA fantasy about family and love. So refreshing in a genre that mainly focuses on romance. Also the cover is beautiful! I highly recommend this one for YA libraries!

Intergenerational trauma, lesbians, and the obligatory golem/Gollum joke are all present in this work. BUT, IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, WE ARE RIGHT NOW IN THE MIDDLE OF A GOLDEN AGE OF QUEER JEWISH YA FANTASY STORIES, AND I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT I AM HERE TO SEE

A Flame from Dust is one of those books that makes you feel better. It absolutely encapsulates so many aspects of moms and daughters, Jewishness, and magic, and I will be recommending it to everyone I meet over the next four to six weeks.

From Dust, A Flame follows Hannah who has spent her life, along with her mother and brother, on the road with little in the way of roots. But on her seventeenth birthday, Hannah wakes up with cat eyes staring back at her in the mirror and her mother leaves with the promise of finding help only to never return, everything changes. In pursuit of her mother and the truth, Hannah discovers a family and a secret that she'd never known.

Deeply rooted in Jewish folklore and history, this book was a wonderful read. I was in a slump so I don't think I liked this book as much as I could have were I not in a reading slump. After all, it ticks all the books. F/f romance, queer main characters, and Jewish characters. The representation was really great.

The beginning does take some time to get into, but improved in the second half for sure. I wish I had more to say about it but reading slump. It kind of dropped this book's rating for me.

Overall, 3.5 stars

Hannah’s entire life changes when she wakes up on her seventeenth birthday, literally transformed. A pair of golden eyes with knife-slit pupils is the first of many changes that occur each time she wakes up. No more running. No more hiding. Her mother vows to fix it, but when she disappears, Hannah and her brother Gabe travel to their mom’s hometown to sit Shiva for their grandmother, and learn about their Jewish roots, and the mystical elements their family had hid for generations.

Jewish folklore. Mysterious pasts. Fantastical creatures. I’m 100% here for it. I went back and forth between print and audio on this one, because my audiobook hold came up at the library just as I started it. Not only did it help me read it faster (a forever goal), but I really enjoyed the narration as well.

I loved the relationships between the characters, learning more about Jewish folklore and history, and of course, badass female characters outsmarting villains. Always a good time. This one is out wherever you procure your books now!

3.75 Stars. From Dust, a Flame is a tense, if slow moving urban fantasy with Jewish mythology in it. I had a fairly great time with the story, but I couldn't quite get into the b-plot that surrounded Hannah's mother and older family members. It made sense to include their stories, though, because the book's focus is on generational trauma and overcoming it through togetherness. I thought that much of Hannah's mother's story broke up the mystery and the tension of Hannah's story a little too much. However, I loved the story surrounding Hannah's grandparents a lot. Prague is a city that is steeped in history, and I could feel it, even as they had to go through a ton of harrowing stuff.

Hannah is basically cursed, and with her and her adoptive brother trying to figure out what that is without their mother, it's a huge stress on her. On top of that, she and her brother learn of their Jewish heritage when they meet their extended family for the first time. Through learning more of her family, she learns what her mother was like and what the curse is.

I loved that Hannah and her brother gets absorbed into her extended family and how they help her with her own trauma by exploring theirs. It is a lot, and using myths and legends to dive deeper into it was a great touch. For many families whose members go through what Hannah's had, the trauma doesn't stop once they got away from the monsters, the monsters just moved into the shadows.

First and for most, this is a mystery that mostly hits on its spookiness and uncertainty. But I think it really shines when it focuses on Hannah and her brother connecting with their heritage, including the need to encourage her brother that he is their's now, and that heritage is his too. He grapples with it, in a different way than Hannah, and I love that it is highlighted. And topping it off with the fantastical elements just tie everything together.

*I received this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The relationship between the siblings is perhaps the strongest point of the book, and it was truly one of my favorite aspects of the story. I feel like it is easy to write siblings who are bad at showing their love, or who allow their annoyances to be the marker of their relationship. This was not the case here. The love is seen through word and deed, big and small, and it was a really beautiful depiction. The aspect of a teenager finding out about her heritage and seeking out that culture, and diving so deeply into the complicated emotions of finding her Jewish culture was also beautifully done, I thought. My issues with the book come more from the transitions from mythology to fantasy. The shift from folktales holding significance to folktales coming to life was a little abrupt to me, even though strange things had been happening the whole time. I also felt that the other family members were a little flat, and I was looking for more resolution between Malka and Hannah. An enjoyable read that was good, but maybe wasn't great.

Thank you NetGalley and Balzer + Bray for an advanced copy of this book! This was a fantastic read. A mystery with a fantasy twist that I had a hard time putting down! I love it when a story unravels as you you discover what the characters are discovering along the way. I really enjoyed Hannah's and Gabe's sibling relationship and their dynamics. I thought the pacing might be weird because of the shift in time but it wasn't. Overall, highly recommend!

An AMAZING story! I enjoyed every moment of it. The mystery and the suspense were fantastic, and the characters pulled me in, as well! Highly recommend!

From Dust, a Flame is a magical YA tale full of family secrets that connect three generations of women. Full of heart and Jewish and LGBTQ+ representation, this book is not to be missed!

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, but anything I had expected, From Dust, a Flame completely surpassed it. Any other book I’ve read about Jewish history and/or culture has been mostly about World War II and the Holocaust. From Dust, a Flame opened up my eyes to the rich history of Jewish mysticism that I never knew existed. I adore folklore and the stories and superstitions passed down from generation to generation. This book not only provides Jewish representation but also an LGBTQ+ one as well.

The book opens with Hannah’s seventeenth birthday and the start of a series of truly strange and bewildering mutations. When their mom seemingly leaves them to their own devices in order to find someone who could, Hannah and her brother Gabe eventually strike out on their own to discover the family they didn’t know they had.

While there were some moments that felt too slow, by the end of the book I couldn’t put it down! Weaving between the past and the present and using Jewish mysticism as the catalyst between it all, the characters are well written and relatable and left me wanting more.

This novel had really good Jewish and LGBT representation. I was hooked in the beginning, but as the novel went on I felt less and less interested. I still really enjoyed it.

This novel was exhilarating from beginning to end! As someone unfamiliar with Jewish folklore, it felt like I was on a journey alongside the main character. One of the best parts of this book was the exploration of family dynamics and how we all make our own way in the world, and how to balance this with ties to those who raised you. I will be looking out for more works from Podos in the future!