Reminded me a lot of hush hush and that was something I enjoyed immensely about this book! I hope it could become a series or have more with the idea of them being clay golems and the council of witches we see

(2.75 stars)
I was interested in this book because I’m always interested in a new story revolving around golems. A golem is a mythical creature of Jewish folklore, made from clay, but in Woven From Clay, there was not even a single shred of Jewish content. Hence my big disappointment.

Aimed at teens/young adults, I’m not the intended audience for Woven From Clay, but I have enjoyed several YA books in the past. This one wasn’t one of them, unfortunately.

The world building was pretty good, but confusing. We have golems who don’t know they are golems, existing as if they are normal humans. I didn’t understand how that could be, and it was never explained why suddenly the main female golem, Terra, started exuding mud, as a senior in high school. Also, all the young golems had on-the-nose names: Terra, Brick, Clay, Maia, and so forth. Then there’s a coven of witches who want to kill a “rogue” warlock who created all these golems. They send a handsome young witch to the town, to pose as a new student at Terra’s high school. His appearance coincides with Terra exuding mud all of sudden, so I guess it had something to do with his arrival, but that was never made clear.

I bounced between the ebook and the audiobook. Yael Rizowy did an excellent job with the narration and all the different character voices.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book and to Macmillan Young Listeners and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book is really different from what I have read before. The mix of witches, warlocks, and golems within a coming of age fantasy story works well and has a unique magic system. I really appreciated how blurry the line is between good and evil within the story. I wish I had seen more of the side characters and the romance between the two main characters but the elements that were present were great! If you are a big fan of YA fantasy, this is definitely worth picking up!

Imagine this: you are a normal teenage, high-school aged girl, when you find out you aren’t actually human, but a golem made from mud and magic. That’s the premise of WOVEN FROM CLAY by Jenny Birch, a YA fantasy novel I greatly enjoyed! While technically this is YA I think adult readers could enjoy it also.
Our protagonist, Terra, realizes her life has not been what she thought it was when she finds out from a “new student”, Thorne, that she was actually created out of bone, mud, and magic by a suspected evil warlock who is now on the run and needs to be found.

This premise is so intriguing and I found the book to be very good! It is fast paced and has deep themes like found family and what it really means to be human. It isn’t over the top fantastical and reads almost like magical realism but does have a more defined magic system. I had never read a book that featured any type of golem but I found it to be fascinating. All in all I’d give it 4.5 stars! Thank you to Wednesday Books, Jenny Birch and NetGalley for providing this galley to review.

Let me start by saying that for some reason the idea of a Golem just fascinates me. So of course I was drawn to #WovenFromClay by #JennyBirch.


Meet Terra Slater who is an adopted child which in the town that she lives in is very normal. Mr. Quill worked hard to get all of the families in the town throughout the years a child. He always handled everything himself and because of him so many families are very happy and have come to love Mr. Quill with all of their hearts.
So none of them know what to think when he suddenly vanishes without a trace. Telling them he had some business to attend too and then would be back. Terra finds it even stranger when a handsome young man with a horrible disdain shows up demanding she tell him where Mr. Quill has gone too.

The presence of Thorne changes everything for her and completely unravels her life and without them knowing the lives of so many of her friends who were also adopted. Thorne opens up a world she didn't know that she and the others were even a part of. Now she has to find a way to save all of them including Mr. Quill who is not the person she first thought that he was. She is determined to show Thorne that people can change and just because you were formed differently or from something else doesn't make you any less human.

I want to thank #Netgalley and #WednesdayBooks for the chance to read #WovenFromClay by #JennyBirch in return for a fair and honest review.

When the story began, I was pretty consumed. I obviously had a theory into what the relationship with Thorn would be... but once we got into the magical aspect and the revelation of what Terra is... it lost me. I'm sorry but the mud thing was just not my vibe.

I agree with other reviews I saw that maybe this would have been better for me if I were a teen. So unfortunately for me, it's a no and I had to DNF. But I think there are people out there who will love this.

This was most definitely a very different kind of read for me. I can't say that I've ever read anything from the perspective of a human/golem. And while interesting and unique, I can't honestly say that I was totally bowled over by it. It had its moments, but I wasn't as invested as I would have liked to be.

I won't go into details but to say that our characters are contemporary teenagers with a supernatural/fantasy world on the flipside made up of witches and golems with talents ranging from teleportation, mind control, shapeshifting, etc. While I found the story well-written and for the most part engaging (other than a few over-the-top believable moments), I think it was the characters that didn't wow me. I liked them fine individually, but as a cohesive group and in their relationships with each other, I didn't feel the connections that would have made it more engrossing for me especially between the MMC and MFC. I actually enjoyed the interactions between the MFC and her friends...funny and even poignant at times. My other caveat was that I couldn't visualize the actual golem portions of the story. Somehow the author's language and/or descriptions did not leave me with a good picture of that part of the MFC...and obviously that's a big element of the story.

But I will give the book kudos for an original story and a MFC that I really liked and sympathized with as she grew into a new and unexpected role and found her place in a whole new world that she didn't know existed. She was brave, kind and overall, just a really likable character to cheer for.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for providing the free early arc of Woven From Clay for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

This book gave me insane flashbacks to the type of books I used to read when I was a teen - back before romantasy became the giant it is today, we had <i> so many </i> contemporary fantasy stories. It's what I cut my teeth on.

This book meets so many of the benchmarks of that type of story - set in a high school, lots of interpersonal drama, a mean girl who hates the FMC for absolutely no reason, and of course, a mysterious and weird hot new guy just moved to town.

The nostalga factor made this fun to read. Everything else was just fine.

The characters weren't particularly groundbreaking or interesting, but they fit the genre well so no complaints about that. THE NAMES THOUGH were so hard to get over. What do you mean their names are Terra, BRICK, Eartha and Clay, just to name a few? I could not get over them and they made me laugh every time I came across them.

As mythology, I really like golems, but a reworking of Jewish folklore would probably have more impact if the author was Jewish herself, or if the golem storyline had more to it than just... main girl is made of dirt. she proves she has humanity. the end.
(also the end feels like it's being set up for a sequel and I think this book works just great as a standalone)

This book would probably work well for the younger spetrum of YA (more preteen).

Rating 3.5/5 Stars

Woven From Clay is a difficult book for me to rate. On the one hand, the writing was beautiful and the world building was top tier. It was akin to something I so often look for in adult fantasy. It also was a unique to me plot, and it kept me engaged throughout. The part I struggled with the most was the main characters. I know this is YA, but they just felt so young and the miscommunication was frustrating. I think this book will do well with a younger audience, but it just didn't fully work for me.

Woven From Clay by Jenny Birch is a fascinating YA contemporary fantasy.
These characters have depth and a voice that makes them irresistible, the plot is clever and well crafted, the writing superb and the foundation of that wonderful, rich world makes it difficult to let go.
The vividness of the writing, so sharp and crisp and rich, conveys marvelous imagery with only a few words.

Thank You NetGalley and Wednesday Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7807951395

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/woven-from-clay-jenny-birch/1146167644

Terra is entering her senior year of high school when she's asked to escort Thorne, a new boy, around the school. It turns out Thorne is a witch sent to make Terra find her former neighbor, Mr. Quill, because he's been convicted of a crime by the witches and must be punished. But then Terra learns that she and many of her friends are actually golems, crafted from mud and a bone from Mr. Quill's ankle, and if he dies, so does she and all the golems.

This is a rather long YA novel told from Terra's POV. The world building aspect is well done, i.e., a twist on the usual golem story, but there are some reading lags in the middle. All in all, not a bad book.

I was provided an ARC by the publisher via NetGalley.

WOVEN FROM CLAY follows Terra as she navigates both her senior year of high school and an unfolding magical world. The pacing was fast, the magic system was interesting, and the plot hit the required beats for a paranormal romance. For a Young Adult novel, WOVEN FROM CLAY does read more on the younger side (13-15) compared to upper YA (15-19). However, the novel does capture the nostalgia feeling of the 2010s era of paranormal romance (Twilight, Vampire Diaries, etc.)

Thank you to NetGalley for a free eARC in return for an honest review.

Woven From Clay explores what it is to truly be human, no matter what you’re made of. Magical and nostalgic, this book feels like fall, and home.

It’s Terra Slater’s senior year, and she’s determined to make it her best one yet. She has her two best friends, a part in the play, a seat on student council, and the perfect senior project. But when a mysterious boy named Thorne blows in with the wind, everything changes.

Thorne tells Terra that she isn’t really human. Mr. Quill, the old farmer that her whole town loves, didn’t arrange for her to be adopted by her parents- Terra is a golem. Mr. Quill is a witch, just like Thorne, and he’s been assigned to hunt the old man down and bring him to justice. But if Mr. Quill is executed, Terra and the other golems will cease to exist. And Terra is determined to prevent that.

When Thorne’s coven gives her a deadline to prove she has magic and is worth saving, Terra must sacrifice everything to save the ones she loves.

Woven From Clay releases on August 12th! Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my review!

Review will be edited when up on socials!

A big thanks to YABC for providing a physical ARC and NetGalley and Wednesday books for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Going into this book, I thought it was going to be a lot like Megan Shepherd's Grimm Lovelies duology, but I was pleasantly wrong.

Woven From Clay by Jennifer Birch is a YA urban fantasy novel about a golem learning the true history behind her creation. Terra Slater might not know anything about her birth family or where she comes from, but that’s never stopped her, and she fully intends her senior year to be her best yet. Until the dark and mysterious Thorne Wilder―a magical bounty hunter―moves to town, bringing revelations that wreck all of her plans. When Terra learns she is a golem, not born but crafted from mud and magic by a warlock, her world is upended. Worse, Cyrus Quill, the warlock who made her, is a fugitive, on the run from the witches who want to hold him accountable for his past crimes. But Quill’s sentence is death, which would unravel the threads of magic that hold Terra―and all of the other golems that he crafted―together. Desperate to save herself and her friends, Terra strikes a deal with Thorne and his coven to preserve the warlock’s life and his magic. If she can prove her worth to the coven by mastering the magic within her, the golems will survive. If she can’t, they’ll perish along with Cyrus. As Thorne helps her to see and manipulate the tapestry of magic that surrounds them, their unexpected alliance evolves into something more and Terra comes to understand the depths of her magic, her humanity, and her love for the people most important to her.

What I liked most about this book is the genuine uniqueness it possessed with the simple fact that the main protagonist is a golem. Which isn't a detail seen often through both young adult literature and the general fantasy genre. I also really liked Birch's magic system and world building, as it's one so rarely used in fantasy fiction. And don't get me started on that slow burn romance.

The only flaw I found in this book, was the general vibes and pacing. I don't know why, but it made it feel like I was reading another paranormal romance book from the early 2000's, when Twilight was popular and everyone was raving about Hush Hush. I guess I wasn't expecting such a nostalgic callback from a 2025 fantasy novel?

Regardless, Birch's Woven from Clay is a solid read for anyone in need of a unique read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for this advanced copy. You can pick up Woven From Clay on August 12, 2025.

Jenny Birch created an interesting mix of early 2010s paranormal nostalgia and a unique magical premise with Woven From Clay. The concept of the golems was fascinating, though I fear the blueprint of this story was eerily familiar to others I read a decade ago. It could also be that this book is simply geared toward a younger audience, while I'm aging out of younger YA books.

It doesn't help that I was not sold on the romance. Perhaps the author was going for "morally grey MMC but teeanged," yet it just came across as asshole behavior. Also, miscommunication is one of my least favorite tropes, so the beginning was a STRUGGLE.

Overall, I could def see a middle or high schooler picking this up, but I fear it wasn't for me.

I really loved the idea of being made from clay as a golem and having to have your life tied to someone else's via magic. With Throne's help I really started to enjoy Terra's character growth and the way he was helping her figure out who she is and what she can do with her abilities.

This was an enjoyable read. Well paced. It wasn’t extremely climactic, but it had a moderate build. This story was more character based rather than plot based, in my opinion, which I enjoyed. I’ve never read a fantasy book about golems, so this was actually really cool and unique. I loved being along for the ride as the FMC learned how to use magic and learned about her connections in the world (literally). The plot and character development was intertwined really well. Great resolution as well. This book isn’t wowing to me, but it’s a solid good read.
3.75 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a copy of the eARC.

Jenny Birch's Woven from Clay is a captivating read that expertly weaves together intricate world-building and compelling character dynamics. One of the standout aspects of the novel is the dynamic between the main characters, whose relationships are layered and evolve naturally throughout the story. Their interactions add depth to the narrative and keep the reader emotionally invested.

Another highlight is the richly detailed world Birch has crafted. The setting feels both immersive and vivid, drawing readers into a universe that's both fantastical and grounded. The unique incorporation of golems adds a fascinating element, blending myth with originality in a way that feels fresh and engaging.

While the novel excels in many areas, [insert any criticisms here]. Despite this, Woven from Clay remains a noteworthy contribution to its genre.

I just found myself underwhelmed and disappointed by this book. Maybe it would have worked for me in the golden age of Twilight-esque books, but unfortunately it didn't work for me now.

None of the characters had any complexity-- they were all incredibly one-note (e.g. only good, secretly good all along, secretly evil all along).

Despite my issues with the book, I was still entertained enough to finish the book. It would work well for middle school/middle grade readers looking to take a step into the young adult genre.

I ate this book up, It was amazing. the cover draws you in on it's own but the descriptive and thoughtful writing is what makes you stay