Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The Pomegranate Gate had a really interesting and unique premise, but unfortunately suffered from having too many POVs. The novel could also have profited from being a tad shorter, as I found myself skimming the last twelve or so chapters.

I really loved the idea of reading a story based in Jewish folklore, but I found it hard to get into the story. I think the pacing and story structure made it hard to connect with the characters.

I think I might have liked this if I started it in a different reading mood. But it’s sat unread for a while now and I don’t feel compelled to go back. I do hope to come back to it at a later time as I did really like the historical setting and the Jewish perspective/characters of the story. The magic/fantasy aspect was intriguing and definitely made me curious as to why the main characters had the attributes that they did, as well as wanting to find out more about the villain.

I believe this would be a great read for someone looking for a fantasy book written from a voice and representation not commonly found in Young Adult Fiction.

Thank you NetGalley and Erewhon Books for an ARC

How is this book not popular?

The Pomegranate Gate is an exciting new series, first book of the Mirror Realm Cycle, set in 15th century Spain during the time of Inquisition and persecution of the Jews. Simultaneously, it also opens to the mirror-world bound by the gate, a magical world where Maziks and fantastical creatures live. I’m fairly new to the Jewish folklore and I enjoyed learning more about it.

I think the only drawback of this is the pacing, if one prefers more fast-paced. However, I appreciate that the author took time for world-building. The plot is full of depth and very intricate, but nonetheless comprehensible, making this book as a whole, a spell-binding experience.
Although, there were a handful of characters to keep track on, the character list at the beginning was a big plus. The story is still told based from two POVs and the main protagonists were still the main stars. Their side arcs were rather entertaining too.

There were plentiful of fantastical elements that were embedded and were used creatively and the prose was also pretty good too. This is an adult fantasy to certainly look out for as it simply offers more. Just look at the endpages and edges on this one and this is the normal edition folks!

Read this if you like:
-Interesting setting, historical setting
-Want to know more Jewish folklore?
-Portal fantasy
-Political discussions, power greed
-Satisfying character development
-Onion: peeling layers of plot

The Pomegranate Gate is a book I could hardly wait to get my hands on. I’d only read a few other fantasy books set in Spanish Inquisition inspired worlds (The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson; the Hollow Crown duology by Zoraida Córdova), and I’m always eager to read more. I had high expectations for this book, and I’m happy to report that it easily met and even exceeded them.

This is a fairly strange book, at least compared to what I normally read. Perhaps it draws on different folklore and mythology than I’m familiar with. Much as I know about Spain, I don’t know much about Jewish folklore. Sometimes the “too weird” in a book can take me out of it, but in The Pomegranate Gate, I actually loved every bit of it. Things only get weirder as it goes, but it always works.

There is a wide cast of characters, and it takes some time to get to know them all. Toba is strange in the unusual limitations she has: She can’t run or shout, but she can write with both hands in different languages simultaneously. Naftaly is odd, too: He sees square-pupiled people in his dreams, visions that seem increasingly real. The old woman; Elena; the two Mazik men, Asmel and Barsilay; the many side characters and villains along the way… there are a lot of characters to keep track of, not to mention the many unfamiliar cities in a fantasy Spain world, the magic system in the Mazik realm, and the rules around the different realms. At nearly 600 pages, The Pomegranate Gate has enough room for readers to get familiar with everything, so even if it feels overwhelming at first, the author leads us forward with care and a sense of fun. Perhaps the most fun is the old woman, with her constant complaining and snarky insults. She’s a riot!

Since Toba is separated from her mortal companions, the book mostly follows two different POVs, both in third person. In the Mazik realm we follow Toba, Asmel, and Barsilay and the increasingly dangerous circumstances surrounding them all. In the mortal realm, Naftaly, Elena, and the old woman have their own adventure as they track down Toba. I found both POV sections to be equally enjoyable and captivating. Both are high-action, but also leave room to breathe and let things unfold in their own time.

The Pomegranate Gate is a winding and imaginative journey filled with magic, action, politics, religion, and even some romance. But that cliffhanger! As much as the events of this particular book do wrap up… the way it ends leaves so many doors open. What will happen next with our characters? Now that they know so much more, and perhaps have more desire to change their circumstances, where will they go and how will they put things to right? This is a strong opener to the trilogy and will leave readers eager for the next chapter.

The Pomegranate Gate is unlike any other book I’ve read. It’s unusual but wholly engaging, and I loved every moment of reading it. I’m excited to continue the Mirror Realm Cycle series; hopefully the second book will be out within the next year or so!

There were parts of The Pomegranate Gate that I loved (namely the Sephardic Jewish influences on the plot). However, there were a lot of things that I personally look for in a fantasy that I thought were missing. I wouldn't say that's a criticism as much as a preference on my part though.

I was so excited to read this book because I love Jewish inspired fantasy. And all of the Jewish elements of The Pomegranate Gate were fantastic. I loved how the Jewishness was woven throughout the entire story, rather than just having a few Jewish elements or references.

For me, in order to become engaged in a fantasy series I either need to become invested in the characters or in the world. With The Pomegranate Gate, I wasn't really given enough information to do either. There are several major characters in the book whose backstories and motivations are not revealed until late in the story, by which point I already didn't really care about them. There was a similar issue with the world building - it was so slow to develop that for a good chunk of the book I just didn't care that much because I didn't know enough about it. While it's hinted that some more threads are going to be revealed in later books, the first book didn't totally motivate me to pick up the next ones.

Overall The Pomegranate Gate had a lot of really great parts to it, and I think a lot of people are going to really enjoy it. However, it was not personally my favorite in the genre.

3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The Pomegranate Gate is an intriguing Jewish fantasy story. The development of the world is detailed and gripping. However, the pacing and structure make the story difficult to get into to. Whilst, I loved Toba, Naftaly and even the Courser as characters, the development of the story makes their POV's slow to read. I didn't get into the story until 60% through which is a shame because the concept of the story is amazing, but the execution is hard to enjoy because of the dense nature of the writing.

Despite this, the story continues to intrigue and I enjoyed the direction the romances took in the second half. I was mostly invested in Toba's story for the first half as I enjoyed her journey of discovering her Mazik magic. Naftaly definitely shined more in the second half and I'm interested to see where this will go.

I want to read the sequel and see if the writing style changes and what happens next in he story.

What a stunning start to a new fantasy series set in a fantastical version of Medieval Spain!🏰

Before getting into late 19th century Anglo-Irish poetry, I was enamored (and still am really) with Medieval Spain and its mystical Jewish poetry. Not only did this take me back to that period of my life and research, but it also continued to build on my understanding of Jewish folklore. 🪬

Toba is one of multiple POVs in the book, and she was a fascinating character as she finds out the secrets of her past. I loved her quiet reservation and determination to know and get things done. Her relationship with Asmel was rather. . . Odd as it did give off a feeling of grooming, but I can see how Kaplan ensured that it wasn’t exactly that, just an ageless man falling for a young woman. . . But still rather strange. 😕

Naftaly was probably my favorite of the POVs as his budding relationship with a certain Mazik was just so endearing as you see the two different sides of that character. I hope to see more of them together in the next installment! ❤️

The world building, while not super over the top, still felt different and unique. I loved the idea that different dimensions of the same world exist and that the humans and Maziks are reflections of each other instead of solely demons as in folklore.🪞

All in all, I did love the characters, magic system and the world, but the age gap in Toba’s love interest was rather weird and the plot did at times feel like it stalled. But in the end, I still really enjoyed it and can’t wait to get back into world again! ✨

For those interested in learning more about this incredible period of Iberian history, I HIGHLY recommend reading María Rosa Menocal’s The Ornament of the World. It’s a gorgeous study on how Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived harmoniously and even influenced each other in Medieval Spain and how it bled into the Reconquista of Spain. ⚔️

Thank you again to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for gifting this eARC in exchange for an honest review! 💖

Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️

The Pomegranate Gate might be the most original fantasy I’ve read ever.
Steeped in lush Jewish mythology and symbolism and told from the perspectives of multiple, distinctive characters, the story unfolds with clever dialogue and an enchanting (if not entirely unusual) cast. I was genuinely spell-bound for the entirety of the story, and felt an immediate empathy and connectedness to the characters. Ariel Kaplan’s writing is the perfect blend of imaginative and straightforward, and I appreciated the foreshadowing woven throughout the story like a gold thread within a tapestry. I found the Tobats to be witty and oddly relatable, and I feel strongly that Naftaly and Barsilay should be protected AT ALL COSTS. And that ending?? A delightful cliff-hanger (and I never thought there could be such a thing before now). Well done, Miss Kaplan and I truly can’t wait for more from the world of The Mirror Realm.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an arc of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan!

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.