I had high hopes for this book, as it was described as a sapphic Jewish folklore fantasy, and I am a huge fan of all of those elements. Unfortunately, the story fell flat for me, and I ultimately decided to DNF.

DNF. I don’t hate this, and I’m not willing to call it a bad book. But the prose started bothering me almost immediately, and I was already wary after a Goodreads friend reviewed it thusly (if you don’t want to go read their review: only the first third of the book is about the forest and the romance appears very jarringly towards the last third or so).

The writing…it’s like someone is working very hard to make their prose ‘pretty’, but the phrasing is always just a little odd, a little off. (The telling-not-showing is pretty heavy-handed, too.)

>She did not cry even when the rope split her skin and her dress spoiled deep red.<

‘spoiled deep red’? You know exactly what the author means here, but the wording makes me twitch.

>the cleaver cut through Minton’s hand with a pop.<

A *pop?*

>Faces of sorrow had overtaken the villagers<

Again, I understand what you mean, but why would you put it that way?

>untamable as a bleating sheep adrift from its shepherd.<

Ma’am. Ma’am sheep *are* tame though???

>brazen and ready to make wine from water; to conjure up a connection when there was none.<

See, I think this is a brilliant image, but it’s very jarring when that is so well-known as one of Jesus’ miracles and the characters are Jewish.

>Malka couldn’t look away from the bruises flowering on them, similar to the marks banding her own wrists<

Why would you say ‘similar to’? Why not ‘just like’, or ‘so like’? Or break it into two sentences: ‘flowering on them. They looked very nearly the same as the ones on her own wrists’. Etc.

>muddling thyme into paste with a stone<

‘muddling’?

And so on.

If these quotes don’t bother you – and you know going in that the marketing for this one is kind of misleading – then you’re good! But I’m tapping out.

Thank you to NetGalley, Maddie Martinez, and Tor Publishing Group for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

I adored this book. The Maiden and Her Monster has a gothic and gruesome atmosphere, perfect for this fall season. It's a reimagining of the golem in Jewish myth with a sapphic subplot. We are being fed this year with these incredible sapphic gothic and fantasy romances. We follow Malka, who goes on a journey to save her mother but learns she has more to lose. She finds herself in company with the monster she hates. Slowly, her hate for the monster turns into something more. The writing is beautifully crafted with visceral imagery. If you are a fan of Ava Reid's works, then I implore you to pick up this book. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to Tor Books for the advanced copy of this book!

This was such a unique new fantasy read, with a heavy focus on Jewish faith and folklore that was really beautifully written! I definitely would have loved a glossary with this one, as I really struggled with some of the terminology and knowing whether it was unique to the book and fantasy world, or something specific to Judaism. Once I was midway into the book it got easier, but I definitely struggled through that first bit!

Malka’s story is filled with so much pain and love for her people and her family, and she is a great example of someone who is a bit stubborn when it comes to her faith and receiving new information. I loved watching her growth throughout the book, as she opened herself to new experiences and a new understanding of her faith. There was a strong focus on faith and religious persecution that parallels the struggles Jewish people have suffered through in our world, and I felt this was very powerfully written and impactful. Maddie didn’t shy away from writing some of the horrific things that are done in the name of religion,

Malka and Nimrah’s relationship is such a great slow burn, enemies to lovers vibe. You can feel them both fighting their attraction through the entire book, but slowly wearing down their resolve bit by bit. I do wish we have more tender moments between them, as I was getting frustrated with their resistance to it (and how mean Malka was to Nimrah throughout a lot of it).

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! There were definitely pieces I struggled with in the beginning, and it was a bit slow to start, but once I really got into it I enjoyed it a lot and didn’t want to put it down!

3.5 stars

Thank you Tor Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start off by saying this was a solid debut novel! The world building was awesome and easy to follow, and I loved the Kefesh magic system. I loved each location in the book, and I felt like they were described really well. I think my favorite parts were when they were in the forest with Nimrah—Malka and Amnon learn a lot of information they were not privy to before entering the forest and being saved by the golem. The Jewish folklore/mythology was super cool and detailed, and I feel like it was woven in really well. The writing was beautiful which made it super easy to read the story beginning to end. I loved when the entered the city of Valon how integral the Yahadi community was to each other—everyone is helping each other and welcoming.

There are just some critiques I have from reading it. There were a few shirts that felt jagged within the story and didn’t flow well. The developing relationship between Malka and Nimrah needed something. I think there just needed to be one or two more scenes in the forest of them connecting for their relationship to truly bloom into what it did within Valon. Once they were in Valon, I believe it began to progress well, and it started to flow more easily. I do believe a few of the characters, like Imma, needed to be fleshed out more for me to be invested in their safety and potential rescue.

Overall, I’m looking forward to more books by Martinez in the future!

CW: murder, child death, death, injury/injury detail, antisemitism, religious bigotry, violence

This was such an atmospheric, original, rich and well-developed debut fantasy. Martinez's take on Jewish mythology with her spin on the golem story was fresh and nuanced, and I loved the characterization and worldbuilding. Can't wait for what she does next!

I was so excited to get an A.R.C. of this book!
I have a new favourite book girlfriend in Nimrah, she can do no wrong in my eyes 😍
A lot of the words were in Hebrew (I believe?) I had to look up words like "rukávce" and how to pronounce it, which is fine, but took me out of the story a few times.
I got a little annoyed by Malka throughout the book, but she was a wonderful person.


But Nimrah🥵🤤🥰

You know those stories that feel like they were just made for you? This is one for me! What an absolute triumph. The world-building, the characters, the writing! I am a sucker for a story that weaves together folklore and history, and Martinez does this with an expert hand. I was amazed!

this was a very immersive story and i loved all the ties with folklore, that was what really drew me in. the concept was very memorable, i think the only part that lost me was that the characters weren’t.

3.5⭐️


El bosque se come a las chicas que deambulan después del anochecer.

Como hija del curandero, Malka ha visto cómo la maldición del bosque ha plagado su pueblo, pero la Iglesia Ozmini solo viene a cobrar su diezmo, no a proteger a los herejes con historias falsas de monstruos en los árboles. Así que cuando una niña del clero deambula demasiado cerca del bosque y la madre de Malka es acusada de su asesinato, Malka hace un trato imposible con un sacerdote incierto Ozmini. Si ella saca al monstruo, él evitará la ejecución de su madre.

Cuando se aventura en el bosque sombreado, Malka encuentra un monstruo, aunque no el que espera: un golem inescrutable y deshonrado que acepta involucrarse a sí misma, pero solo si Malka la ayuda a cumplir una promesa primero y libera al rabino encarcelado que la creó.

Pero un trato fácil de hacer no se mantiene fácilmente. Y a medida que su ganga comienza a desentrañar una amenaza mucho más siniestra, proteger a su pueblo puede obligar a Malka a poner en peligro a la única persona que dejó en casa para salvar, y enfrentar sus crecientes sentimientos por la misma criatura que le enseñaron a temer.



Gracias NetGalley por el ARC.

I was a little stop and start on this book, but I settled into it. There’s a hefty amount of world-building and politics, but I found the main character to be initially a bit frustrating. She definitely has some character development through the novel, which I appreciated! Overall, this was an interesting and slow-burny fantasy debut! I would recommend checking the trigger warnings!

I loved the atmosphere and vibe of this book- two of my favorite elements in a fantasy book. The world felt immersive and mysterious, filled with rich history, ancient magic, and haunting settings.

I did struggle a bit with the pacing. It felt slow at times and I struggled to stay engaged.

I also think a glossary of terms may be helpful.

DNF'd @ 30%.

I need to stop being such a sucker for good marketing, but also people need to stop comparing books to Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden unless they really mean it. This book is neither "gorgeous" or "atmospheric," and I'm feeling a bit duped.

"The Maiden and Her Monster" is a retelling of the legend of the Golem of Prague, and it had potential. I sincerely think that this would be a good book if it was the author's fifth, not her first. But right now the storytelling was deployed as a blunt force instrument. The bad guys were cartoonishly, mustache-twirlingly bad. They were approached without a discernible iota of nuance. And unfortunately the main character lacked the critical thinking skills necessary to make up for this. The decision that jumpstarted the plot, of her going into the forest to go after a monster, seemed to come out of nowhere. If she had sat and thought about it with the capacity of more than three brain cells, it wouldn't have happened. By 10% I was actively cranky about picking up this book. By 30% I gave up, and I don't regret it in the slightest.

The description and the first line, which is chilling, really drew me to this book-“The forest ate the girls who wandered out after dark”. I liked the dark and atmospheric vibes. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel connected to the MC at all, and the pacing was a bit off for me. It felt somewhat dense, and there were a lot of terms both real and made up and I couldn’t keep track, which kept taking me out of the story.

The Maiden and Her Monster is an exceptional debut. I enjoyed learning more about Jewish mysticism in such a well-developed fantastical setting. I was a little surprised that the forest did not play a larger role in the story, given that its in the premise so heavily, but I do like how the mystery and problem of the forest was resolved. In regard to the multiple languages presented, I did not struggle to understand anything. Some readers have suggested providing an index, but I don't quite feel that's necessary. The use of multiple languages didn't retract from the immersion or the plot, and I thought it felt authentic to the message Martinez was trying to craft within this novel. In addition, I very much enjoyed the slow burn romance between Malka and Nimrah. I felt like each woman mirrored the other well, and Nimrah emphasized Malka's own character development. The way they slowly began to trust and love each other was very subtle and cleverly crafted.

Perhaps the only drawback was the pacing and the dialogue. At times, I struggled to get into the novel because it was advancing so slowly without reason. The long stories told between characters detracted focus from the plot, and didn't contribute much. At 1/3rd of the way through, I had to make myself read. This improved about 2/3rd's of the way through when the story picked up again, and climax had my attention entirely. The dialogue, early on, felt heavy handed and inauthentic; like the author wanted us to get the point of the novel and did so through the characters' conversations. This improved as the novel went on, too. Though it's listed as adult fantasy, it very much had a YA feel to it, and it's apparent it's a debut novel of an author still developing their writing style. That is to say, however, that overall despite its structural flaws, it is an excellent debut and I look forward to reading Martinez's future works.

I really wanted to love this book. It has all the elements I enjoy: folklore, a creepy forest filled with monsters, sapphic romance, slow burn enemies-to-lovers vibes. I enjoyed the first few chapters, and I thought the premise was great. However, I found it hard to feel invested in Malka’s and Nimrah’s romance. Malka’s consistent distrust of Nimrah was especially frustrating and made it difficult for me to enjoy their relationship when it began to change. Overall, I enjoyed parts of this book, but I did have to push through quite a bit of it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the ARC.

The Maiden and Her Monster by @maddiesmartinez comes out in three months (September 9) and I was lucky enough to receive an eARC from @torbooks so that I could read early. This was a much more moody read and extremely atmospheric. Much of the story is based on Jewish folklore and part of its charm is incorporating myths into the story. It is fantasy with a sapphic romance subplot and the sapphic yearning does not disappoint. So much of this book’s core can be described as a conflict between who we are and what is our purpose.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for the ARC.

"’What are humans without stories, Malka? Do you think it won't take stories to shift the tide of war, to build nations up from the ground? Behind every tyrant is a story that justifies their means; behind every brutalized culture are stories that string generations together like emerald beads. Their stories will have meanings, and we will not forget them.’”

A naive village woman has to venture into a deadly forest that kills women to prove her mother’s innocence. Along the way, she has her beliefs and stories that shaped her world view challenged. Nimrah is the golem featured in nightmares children have been told about, but are those stories true? As they come together, there is pushback and conflict while understanding the role religion and politics play in the stories told throughout the kingdoms.

Malka was annoying, but in a way that I can give slight grace for. She was naive to basically anything outside of her bubble. It was a combination of small town/village thinking and having blind faith in her elders and religion. She fell prey to the stories she so cherished and she didn’t realize that stories can be altered by the whims of other people, religion, or governments. The stories she heard and held true came from her beloved Baba before he passed; however, he was a man who feared the unknown of the magic her people could wield and the religious implications. Malka found herself at times judging the way others chose to follow their faith simply because she was taught differently. She took any opportunity to figuratively spit on Nimrah and question the Maharal simply because she feared the negatives of their holy magic. She literally put all Kefesh into the negative category based off a couple of stories that she was told and treated them as law, even when she saw the good side of it.

As the story went on, Malka had her beliefs challenged daily and she fought against it hard. She wanted to stay in her comfort bubble and return home as soon as she could, everyone else be damned. How will her family survive if she doesn’t go back and continue to live for them? Malka rarely thought about her own wants and needs, she puts everyone before herself and thinks that’s the way it should be. Even when it came to her friend Amnon, she was willing to marry him after they save her mom, even though she never loved him in that way. It was just the way things were supposed to be. That poor man was desperate lol. The way he wasn’t giving up and playing protector (poorly) was extremely annoying.

The romance in this story didn’t really do anything for me in regard to the plot, so it was just something to sprinkle in the story.

I enjoyed this book with the rich and lush culture throughout the pages. I’ve never read a Jewish fantasy before or any works with golems so this was definitely a new experience.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I was very confused at the beginning. This is a reimagined version of a Jewish myth, so I was expecting there to be terms I wasn’t familiar with, but there are fictional terms that aren’t explained well. I think this book would be easier to read if it had a glossary for referencing. That would have been helpful, especially in the first few chapters. There is a sapphic romance element between reluctant allies; it is a slow-burn, but it is kinda an abrupt shift into lovers, there could have been a more organic transition. This book has all the dark and eerie vibes, monsters, and magic. It does get political and addresses antisemitism, which was well written. Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and the characters. The lack of a glossary and the romance element led to my rating on this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

I greatly enjoyed this book, and what a fantastic debut! It was a little hard to follow at the start. I wish that there had been a glossary of terms, as there was a lot to work through and it would have helped my understanding of the story, as it was a lot to read through, before any context was given. The atmosphere that Maddie created was by far my favorite part of the story, the sentient forest became a character itself, not just a backdrop. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to others.