Thank you TOR and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

My actual rating is 3.5 stars --I'd normally rate down in this case where I can't do half-reviews rather than up to 4, but I think I want to give this one another shot on audiobook once it's released. I'm convinced I'll like this more on re-read where my momentum is set by a narrator and the call of other things to occupy my time won't outshone this book, given I can keep reading while I go. When I get the chance to do that, I'll update my review. In the meantime:

This is one I really wanted to like, but I felt it was rather slow for me. All of the pieces are there: a sapphic story, a forest that kills people, a retelling. I even really like Malka, the main character. I also really like the way Martinez sets the atmosphere, and I could really feel the dread, especially in the beginning of the book. In fact, I think that even if I am wrong about my liking of the book once I get the opportunity to listen to it, I'm pretty sure Martinez is going to be one of those authors I'm excited to come back to.

Despite all of that... I can't say I have much to add about it. The romance was alright on my spotty read-through, but given my overall enjoyment of Martinez's writing I just don't know if that was an issue of putting down and picking up the book too often or an actual issue with the writing. Hoping to like it more on the second pass.

Design wise, one of the most beautiful covers I've seen, a great match to the pretty prose.

I am actually so sad. I wanted to love this. I thought the plot was great. The book is so atmospheric, so many times in the 30% I made it through, my mouth was agape because of the details... I'm just not vibing with it. It feels like the pacing is very slow. I'm listening at 2.5x speed and still feel like it's taking forever to get to something.

I DNF'd at 26%.

I really appreciate Net Galley giving me an early release of this book. I dived right in with high hopes of it being just the kind of book I like! Monsters, Maidens, Magic, folklore are all topics that appeal to me! But, about 50% in I just couldn’t read anymore. Too many unfamiliar names and sub plots to keep track of in my head. So, unfortunately I just couldn’t finish it . I hope others will give it a try and enjoy it, it just wasn’t for me.

I wanted to love this book, however it fell flat in a few areas for me.

The language while I love diversity in the books I could not translate some of the words. I want more, and I wanted to be fully involved maybe a list of words, quotes in Czech to language in the beginning to go back and forth too would of been great. Another I felt the plot a little dry, and took forever to built up to the story and it was a beautiful story once you were able to go deeper into. I think its a beautiful base line, story, the environment and tale but execution fell short.

Reading some other comments because I usually read the books write everything down in a notebook and then after I have 3-4 arcs read and reviewed I come and write them out. I am glad others agree on a few of my concerns on this book. I think this book has loads of potential, and the author can absolutely do it..

In The Maiden and the Monster, the author reimagines the Jewish myth of The Golem of Prague. This story explores folklore and storytelling, sapphic yearning, a sentient forest, and identity. Martinez explores how generations of storytelling can be weaved to connect a community, while also oppressing others and justifying hate. The atmospheric writing had me fully immersed in this story, and the depth each character had really brought them to life for me. This is not an “easy” story and I truly believe you should take your time with this read, but it is well worth the time and effort.
Also, can we talk about the beautiful cover??? Absolutely stunning.
Thank you TOR and the author for an eARC for my honest review. I look forward to more from this author in the future!

I had such high hopes for this. The eerie and atmospheric prose lured me in quickly and I easily became entranced by the writing and the world. However, as the story progressed, I began to feel not only less connected to the story but also hatred towards the characters. The layered complexities that I valued at the beginning became one dimensional and the conflict was rudimentary. By the 50% point, I had begun to lose all interest and just wanted the this book to be over. The slow burn romance was magical until it wasn't. The world building and political intrigue became choppy and difficult to follow. There is a lot of potential here, but I think it would benefit from more revisions before being published.

(These are my thoughts upon immediately finishing the book! I will update with a longer review when I've had time to sort my thoughts better!)


The Maiden and Her Monster is gorgeously written: between Martinez’s evocative prose and portrait of a haunting atmosphere. She captures the machinations of political corruption and calculated oppression with elegance. I found the ending wrapped up everything satisfactorily. It's my favourite sort of ending: it's not a perfect “happily ever after” that ignores the ugly or complicated parts, but a place where the characters are healing and having steady footing to move forward. I liked Malka and Nimrah as characters, but wished there were more soft scenes between them or that their first romantic interaction was more charged.

My biggest issues:
- The first half is a slog. It's slow, the goal is narrow and singular, and there aren't any real subplots to switch to to alleviate the monotony of the mood.
- In the first half at least, there's too much pretty prose and not enough story
- There's a LOT of Czech words without enough context. I usually don't mind words in other languages, but Czech isn't one of the languages available to translate from on Kindle

Unfortunately, I've noticed a few errors:
Continuity errors:
1. The map falls to the floor and is never mentioned again. Do they pick it up? The way attention is drawn to it being dropped I thought it would cover found and cause problems. (Chapter 23)
2. The Maharal has HANDS in his final scene???? (Chapter 37)

Punctuation:
1. Missing comma: [The archbishop spoke tenderly. “I remember that day you know.] (Chapter 22)
2. Missing quotation mark: [You wanted them to see it was Nimrah who killed him. She stared at Sévren’s stained sleeve.] (Chapter 35)
3. Missing quotation mark: [“Nimrah, there is something I must tell you. “The Maharal drew closer to his golem. “Something that] (Chapter 37)

“How do you change a person's belief? You take what they worship and make it a lie."
"Belief is not meant to be wielded as a
political weapon."
"Then why is it the most powerful sword,
and the sharpest knife?"

My actual rating: 3 1/2 stars

The Maiden and her Monster is a
fascinating and rich reimagining of Jewish myths and history. The young protagonist, Malka Lives in a harsh world where she faces oppression from the the church, her abusive father, and the deadly forest that eats young women.
Hollowed by grief for the loss of one of her friends in the maw of the forest, she is faced with another looming pain; her mother being accused of killing one of the church's guards with forbidden magic.
To save her mother and prove to the church that there is a monster stalking the forest, Malka sets out with another childhood friend and the remaining guard into the eldritch forest, where her life will irrevocably change after meeting the fabled Golem, Nimrah, who is supposed to be dead.

From the visceral and bloody horror of the forest to the opulence of the Ozmini city, Maddie Martinez weaves a story steeped in the history and mythology of Jewish people living in Prague. Maddie does an amazing job of writing allegory in lush, poetic language that provokes contemplation and a reflection on morals, worldviews, the smothering oppression of religious corruption, and being turned against your own heritage by a colonizing force.

This is very a much a VERY slow burn story; both for the romance and the overall plot; the Forest, Maveteh serves as both a literary and actual portal between the worlds of oppression by the Forest and by the church, with most of the action, continuing plot development, and romance happening in the later 3/4ths of the book, after Malka and her small company leave the forest.
The last half of this book redeems the first half for me. I struggled though the first 20 chapters, but once they reach the city, things pick up and become more clear, after the forest Maveteh distorts even the story, making the book feel twice as long as it actually is. I can appreciate for some readers, this may make the story seem to go too slowly to keep their attention. In retrospect, this actually added to the surrealism and horror of the forest, and I actually found myself appreciating this.

It feels to me that the political intrigue walks a fine line between confusing because it is unfamiliar, and vague because it is not completely developed. This opinion may be entirely based on my perception, because I struggled very much with the many terms and names, but the author generously supplies us with a glossary on her website, but it would be nice to have a glossary bound into the final copy. Despite my personal struggle with the terms, I do deeply appreciate Maddie's refusal to make culturally significant language palatable for those outside the culture.

Sapphic romances suffer in the literary world; from outright dismissal of the premise of women loving women relationships being valid and viable to a lack of marketing and exposure. This one only suffers in that we are not given any idea whether or not a queer relationship is accepted in the Yahadi or Ozimi societies. This may be intentional; however that leaves me without a clear direction on how the characters should respond to queer relationships. Heteronormativity is prevalent, but is that only because it is common or because it is enforced? This ambiguity could mean that it is so obviously accepted, that it isn’t a point of contention or even a consideration worth addressing in either culture. Or it could mean that it is so forbidden that none one speaks of it, and they actively repress it. This point is not a big enough issue for me to reduce my enjoyment of the representation; I see a certain charm in leaving this up for reader interpretation.
This is a romance that unfurls and blossoms slowly but beautifully, and offers an extremely satisfying payoff.
This book was deeply moving, beautifully told, and has a satisfying conclusion, and I highly recommend this for readers who are interested in mythological retellings and slow, sweet happily ever afters.

Faith is not an excuse for violence or a shield to justify yourself.

The Maiden and Her Monster is a captivating tale that includes rich elements inspired by Jewish folklore in a Prauge-like setting. This is going to be the perfect cozy winter read. While it's dark and gruesome at times, so is the truth, and that's a big theme in this story. The truth of ourselves, our faith, and our perceptions of those around us.
The Maiden deeply explores religious and cultural oppression/antisemitism as well as the ways that can be used politically against those parties. Political corruption within the church itself and its figureheads, but overall, how faith and community can hold onto to hope and create change.
The message was powerful and potent especially during this time in America and the wider world like Palestine. I'm not as eloquent as I wish I could be on this but books are political and give us both hope and an escape. Maddie wrapped all of it up so smoothly between the pages of this book.

Thank you Tor and NetGalley for the arc of The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez.

I was wholly engrossed for the first 30% of this book. I loved the premise of a forest that eats girls alive and was interested in uncovering why it happens, how it happens, what is taking the girls, etc. However, after the 30% mark the book takes a turn and is almost like an entirely new story. And to my dismay, my questions going in weren't left open, but rather were skirted around with seemingly unimportant details.

For the majority of the book I did not know the love interest was the person it was. I do like to be surprised by romance and maybe it was my fault as the reader for not picking up clues, but I cannot recall any build up. There was zero romance and then bam romance out of nowhere? There was more romantic tension between the MC and her missing best friend than the actual romance.

The one holy grail of this book is the author's writing. The descriptions, prose, and details were all written so captivatingly beautiful I didn't want to put the book down. I was so hooked from page one by the author's way with words. This makes up a lot of the plot problems I had with the story.

I'm really excited to read any new books this author would put out because she has gained an auto-buy fan with that strength in writing she has.

Though this may not have been my cup of tea, I had a lot of moments of enjoyment and I'm elated for that.

I was super excited for this book and jumped at the opportunity to read it, but unfortunately I believe I am going to have to DNF this at the 40% mark. I was invested in both the plot and worldbuilding, but I felt many of the characters and their actions fell flat. I didn't have much difficulty with the inclusion of unknown words - both real and fake - but I do think some kind of glossary would not be amiss to help readers through the story.

I also found the writing to be unclear in regards to who was doing what, as during the first chapter the POV seemingly switches repeatedly between Maika and Imma (her mother), giving me constant confusion about who this story was about. Just when I thought I'd understood whose thoughts I was privy to, the next paragraph would switch it up again. There are other parts throughout the novel that also do this, but it was the most jarring on the first chapter and made getting into the story and understanding what was going on to be more difficult.

Finally, I eventually decided to stop reading when I realized that so much of the plot and characterization isn't present, and instead every narrative beat is interrupted to tell a folktale. Normally, I love the inclusion of folktales within stories - books like The Bear and the Nightingale are among my favorites - but here it would often halt the plot in an awkward way just to tell the story. Maika would often refuse to reply to a question and instead tell a barely related folktale and both we, and the characters, were supposed to then use that to determine her feelings on a certain matter.

The most jarring was one instance before I decided it was too much for me, when Maika was talking to Nimrah and then mid-conversation gets lost in her thoughts.
<i>"Your thoughts are very loud," Nimrah said, lips curling in the shadow light.
"I was thinking of the Feast of Lots story. Do you know it?"
"It is told every year at the festival."
A yes would've sufficed.</i>
And then the next paragraph is Maika, without introduction or ceremony, immediately jumping into the story. No fanfare, no warning. The other character didn't even ask for the story - in my reading, the answer felt like "yes, I know the story so we don't need to rehash it," but the book goes the opposite direction in a way I felt was jarring.

A similar thing happens immediately in the next chapter. Her friend Amnon asks her a question, and rather than answering she responds with a folktale that he's familiar with, completely pausing the story and making both us - and the other characters - infer her feelings from this story.

It was at this point that I realized this novel wasn't for me and I decided to DNF.

I also never connected with any of the characters in this novel. I never felt like Maika was entirely justified in her refusal to use kefesh, but in the same way felt Nimrah was almost too lackadaisical with her insistence on it being used. This magic is apparently highly religious and important, but then other characters are able and willing to use it at a moment's notice without the same religious impact.

Overall, I really wish I connected with this book more as I found the initial plot intriguing and normally love stories focused on folklore, especially when they include cursed forests and the characters fighting religious discrimination.

The Maiden and Her Monster revolves around the story of Malka, a devoted daughter who ventures into dangerous territory in order to save her mother from execution. Malka must make a deal with a golem named Nimrah and learn to use Kefresh, a forbidden magic that lies within her.

If you like The Village (film) by M. Night Shyamalan and Rachel Gillig’s One Dark Window, you will love this novel! It is full of mystery, intrigue, and sapphic temptation.

Topics covered: government revolution, crisis in faith, forbidden magic, forbidden romance, and more.

Thank you Maddie Martinez, Tor Publishing, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I was interested in The Maiden and Her Monster being a retelling of Golem of Prague. Unfortunately, the book felt more frustrating than anything. First and foremost, I love dark fairytales. When you add the important element of horror, Im all yours.

For someone who loves taking notes when reading, this wasnt the experience here. Foreign words kept popping up, I had to either concentrate on remembering what the word meant or putting the book down and searching on my notebook. This completely threw me off. Adding to the notes, there are so many roads and places named, you desperately need a map. If you had point A, B and C, I would have been fine. But there are countless terms and place, a map and a glossary would have been appreciated.

Second, the writing wasnt that phenomenal. The style felt more juvenile and much less polished for Tor book. It was also all over the place with info dumping. Basically the entire execution was a flop and The Maiden and Her Monster felt like a YA story. Shallow. Simplistic. Empty. (I felt there was no chemistry between those two characters).

Third, magic system sounded interesting but underdeveloped and nonsensical in certain moments. And no explanation on why.

Lastly, I believe there was a lack of accountability and therefore, growth. After everything that happened. Malka doesnt acknowledge anything and prefers to stay as she is. Reflection? Out the window. Also, why did she just chose to run after a monster in a forest at night? To just jump start the plot? I... no.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for providing me with an advanced copy.

The Maiden and Her Monster weaves Jewish history and folklore into its fantasy in an engaging way. However, the atmosphere I was hoping for—and that the premise seemed to promise—never quite came through. The biggest surprise here is that, as usual, the humans prove far more dangerous than the monsters lurking in the woods. While the story follows a fairly stereotypical fantasy arc, I found myself wishing for stronger gothic and horror elements to match the title’s dark allure.

Let’s see… imagine the Middle Ages, Eastern Europe and Jews being persecuted by the church. That’s basically the story.

I had very high hopes for this story, hoping for a fantastical story that incorporated Jewish culture and mythology. The whole gollum aspect had me sold!

However, the “big bad” in the story sort of became a backstory and the magic was lost pretty early on. The enemies to lovers story wasn’t convincing to me and the characters fell (literally) into “insta-love”.

I’m a fantasy lover and maybe expected more to happen with the forest and the girls… this one was sadly not for me, but I am certain that many will still find enjoyment in the story, the setting and the characters love story.

I appreciate to have been given the opportunity to explore this tale! Thank you to the author, Tor Books and NetGalley for making it possible

“The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark…”
Well guess what? Malka walks in anyway. And what she finds will ruin you beautifully.
In this gothic, sapphic, Jewish-inspired romantasy, Maddie Martinez spins a lush and harrowing tale that feels like a fable passed down through generations—if your grandmother was into curses, golems, angry priests, and monster girls with aching souls.

🖤 The Premise:
Malka, the daughter of the village healer (read: branded heretic), is thrust into a nightmare when a clergy girl vanishes and the blame lands squarely on her mother. To save her from execution, Malka strikes a desperate deal with a terrifying Ozmini priest: bring them the forest monster.

But the “monster” Malka finds isn’t the nightmare she’s been told about. She’s Sorele—a disgraced, imprisoned golem with a quiet rage and a singular goal: free the rabbi who made her. If Malka helps, Sorele will take the fall. But their bargain is stitched with secrets, and nothing—nothing—stays simple in cursed woods.

🌙 What to Expect:

A dark fairy tale atmosphere that reads like Gideon the Ninth meets Uprooted
A slow-burn sapphic romance that is as tender as it is agonizing
Jewish folklore and mysticism woven into every page, every shadow, every choice
A morally complex heroine torn between justice, survival, and desire
Monsters that aren’t really monsters—and people who absolutely are
💔 The Vibe:
Imagine staring into the eyes of the creature you were raised to hate—and feeling your heart skip. Imagine watching your village burn while holding hands with someone who shouldn’t exist. Imagine a love that defies dogma, war, death.
Yeah. It’s that kind of book.

🔮 Final Thoughts:
The Maiden and Her Monster is aching, brutal, and breathtaking. It’s about faith—how it can heal or destroy. It’s about what we owe to the people who made us. And most of all, it’s about what happens when the girl and the monster stop running from each other and start asking: What if we could be more?

The Maiden and Her Monster based on Jewish folklore and the story of The Golem of Prague. It follows Malka, a young woman who offers to venture into the murderous woods in a desperate attempt to free her mother from the Church’s evil clutches. In the woods she meets Nimrah, the golem.

Overall this book kept me engaged. However I think I was expecting something different. Maybe more so of chapters in the woods whereas the book switches into the city. I also found things came too easily to the main character and worked out, even when there was some tension. I was a little lost with the politics and the different kingdoms but could just be me not grasping it.
The romance went from nothing (they were hating each one moment) to all of a sudden there.

Still I found this book engaging and look forward to more by this author. Thank you again for the e-arc! Review will be up momentarily on my Instagram @hijabi.booknook and my goodreads violets_booknook

Representation: sapphic main relationship

Summary: Malka is a Yahad girl who lives in a small village surrounded by a forest - a forest which has become decided haunted over the past five years, to the point where any girl or woman who wanders in after dark will not be seen alive again. When an Ozmini woman - a member of the church and empire who rule the empire the Yahad live in - is killed and Malka's mother is blamed, it's up to Malka to prove to them that the cursed forest is what killed the woman. To do so, she and her friend, Amnon, must go into the forest and find the creature which killing women. Once in the forest, Malka and Amnon are rescued by Nimrah, a golem created by a mystic member of the Yahad faith who has been banished to the woods. Together, Malka and Nimrah strike a deal - Malka will help Nimrah free her creator from prosecution, and Nimrah will give herself up to save Malka's mother. However, there is much more going on in the empire than Malka is aware of, and once she leaves the forest, there is no going back. Her plans may spiral out of control as she fights not only for her mother but for her people.

Review:
Wow the prose in this book was amazing. Martinez really has a gift for metaphors and imagery and I loved how she put it to use in her world building. I also really loved Nimrah - the golem struck exactly the right note for me with how *practical* she is. At one point, Malka is panicking about how she doesn't want to make a choice, and Nimrah tells her that she doesn't live in a world right now where she has the option to make a different choice, which is something I ALWAYS want to say to characters myself. Nimrah was a fantastic character with her sense of duty and love and shame, and how action meant more to her than words.
There were a couple of things that fell short for me with this book. For starters, I agree with other reviewers who said the description promises a forest book - it is not a magical forest book, at it's heart. It is a book about politics. The magical forest was actually not really a part of the plot. In fact, once they got into the forest, they basically immediately left, and then the forest was explained as an unintended side effect, rather than the main issue as the description would have you believe. Second, I found Malka to be unbearably self-righteous. Throughout the majority of the book, Malka would think/behave/act as if she alone knew what was right and what was wrong, and that she knew everything and everyone else must be wrong if they disagreed. Even as she was shown proof that she wasn't operating with all the facts, bam, next page, Malka is right again and everyone else is wrong. This led her to treat Nimrah in particular, really badly and unfairly, which then in turn made the romance fall much short for me. Last but not least, the description also hides how religious this book is. While the main plot was about religious persecution, which I can get behind, I found a LOT of the book to be really theological, specifically pro-religion theology. As a queer woman who is atheist partially due to my queerness but also b/c I don't agree with a lot of religious doctrine, the "religion gives me purpose and meaning" messaging was not to my liking. While this is necessarily a bad thing in a book, the descriptions I've seen of the book didn't include this at all, and I felt like the book as a whole was false advertising between what I thought it was and what it really was.

2.5

The first third of this book genuinely was so hard to get through. The reason why is because it feel so packed with information but not necessarily rich with information. It's like so much is happening, but we're really not getting much at all. It's a lot of stories within stories and a lot of different people, but it didn't often feel clear or pertinent. Trying to figure out who people are was kind of hard because they would be mentioned off-handedly, with roles that we just had to assume? There are also a lot of terms that are not explained because they're Hebrew, which I don't mind looking up, but some of them (as I understood) were invented for the book.

The dialogue felt a bit Disney style at times; very cliché. I think they tackle the struggle of antisemitism in their world is. The sapphic love story was not for me. It felt very unnatural. I think Malka was not a likeable character. Even though she experiences the prejudice by being Jewish, she gives so much hatred back to Nimrah based on assumtpions as well. It doesn't even dwindle down. Far into the book, after acknowledging the attraction, Malka still finds a way to insult Nimrah on her values/intentions. It just felt so hateful and there was no build-up to their connection. I understand this sort of enemies to lovers trope that was meant to be done, but it didn't work for me in this context.

Anyway, the plot does end up picking up and becoming good. It doesn't follow exactly the synopsis Iread. It does stray away from the goal of saving Imma very quickly because the "unknown" of the monster is kind of solved and discovered quickly. I thought it would be really about finding the monster and that sort of adventure. I don't dislike the way it turned out, going into a political lens, but it was unexpected. Once they got to this part around 45% of the book, the rhythm was finally going well. I enjoyed the Jewish folklore aspect of it.

2.5 rounded up.

This book had a fantastic premise and a decent execution, but it quickly became bogged down. The scenes became repetitive and the multiple extended folklore retellings heavily distracted from the main point of the novel. While I have an appreciation for incorporating early, traditional storytelling/folklore into modern stories, this felt far too dense and discombobulated to be enjoyable. This was a bummer for me, I had such high hopes and was really enjoying it until repetition and quasi-irrelevant additions distracted me from the premise. I will recommend this book to people who enjoy fantasy world-building and the intersection of religion and literature, but it was not for me.