3.75 stars! ⭐

this was a lush, immersive story inspired by jewish history and culture. i honestly can't believe that this is the author's debut novel, because the writing was absolutely fantastic. whilst reading, i was consistently blown away by maddie martinez's prose.

in the maiden and her monster, martinez explores themes such as religious oppression, the dangers of the 'us vs. them' mentality, and what it truly means to be a monster. the struggles of the yahad in this fictional world are a direct reflection of the difficulties faced by the jewish people in our world—right down to the mandate that requires them to wear a patch on their cloaks so that they are easier to single out. the comparison between the two was not subtle in the slightest, but that was the whole point.

the first half of the novel is quite slow—there's a healthy dose of worldbuilding thrown in there, so you really just need to hold on and let the author take you on a ride. there were also a lot of new terms for me, so i spent a good chunk of time sorting through all of the vocabulary. i imagine that jewish readers likely won't have this problem, since they'll already be familiar with many of the customs practiced by malka and her village.

the second half of the book is where things really start to ramp up. that's when i fully locked in and became invested in the characters and their fates. the last half is definitely far more propulsive than the first, so much so that it almost felt like i was reading two separate books. so if you find that you aren't vibing with the story at the beginning, give it time—you might change your mind!

be warned now: despite its gorgeous cover, this book does not shy away from both violence and gore. it contains depictions of things like decapitation, dismemberment, and a few other nasty bits. however, i think it was a solid story that worked very well as a fantasy standalone, and i'm looking forward to seeing what this author puts out next.

I wrote this book so I think it's pretty good! I wanted to share that content warnings for The Maiden and Her Monster are available on my website if you are in need of them. Please read with care and I hope you enjoy my debut!

Additionally, I have added a glossary page for those who might find it helpful: https://www.maddiemartinez.com/books/the-maiden-and-her-monster/glossary

The Maiden and her Monster is, at its core, a story of devotion - to family, to one’s people, and to one’s values.

The forest claims the women of the village for its own and the hunt for the monster that lurks within it consumes the minds of the men. It wasn’t always like this, and now the people live and die by the bell that marks curfew. When a visitor to the village is found mutilated in the early mourning, the village healer is blamed for her death. The healer’s daughter, Malka, offers herself as a sacrifice - if she goes into the woods, finds the monster, and brings it back, she can save her mother’s life. What, or rather who, she finds in the twisted woods will change her life forever.

While beautifully written and a creative blend of Jewish folklore and fantasy, The Maiden and her Monster also completely rewrites the scope of Jewish history for its own purposes. The anachronistic use of language and distortion of the Golem of Prague are enough to leave the reader’s head spinning. The narrative is bereft of any Yiddish dialect that one would expect for the region, instead replaced with a mixture of biblical and modern Hebrew, Czech, and what seems to be a language of the author's own invention. I wanted to love this novel - I was hooked the moment I saw it was a queer Jewish fantasy. There was so much that I enjoyed, but it left an overwhelmingly sour taste in my mouth. This could have benefited from a sensitivity reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Tor for this e-galley!

**4.5 stars on storygraph**
thank you to netgalley for the eARC.

although i was interested in the premise of this book, i was also hesitant to read it considering it’s religious ties as i try to steer clear of the topic, but i really adored the read. i’ve been looking forward to reading this and was excited to see i was approved for the ARC.

the main character got on my nerves in the way when you see yourself too much in someone you meet. i really appreciated her as a character who knew her place as the eldest was vital to her siblings’ lives and as someone who’s grown up being told warped stories that they don’t think to question.

the world building was phenomenal. i do plan to go back and listen to the audiobook when it’s out as there were a lot of words that i wasn’t sure how to pronounce. there were also a few different moments where i was like oh my god ???!

it did take me a few chapters to get into the story, but i was hooked after that.

First of all, I would like to thank Tor Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this book early!

The biggest thanks should go, though, to Maddie Martinez for the masterpiece she wrote. I find it hard to believe this is a debut book, it is so incredibly well written and beautifully executed that truly left me longing for more. I will eagerly be waiting for more books from her!

It was my first time coming into contact with Jewish Folklore and Mythology, I was positively impressed and will definitely educate myself more on the topic.

The world building was phenomenally written, left me overly impressed and I got attached to characters pretty quickly.

My biggest problem when starting a book
is the writing style. I am very picky and I am hardly satisfied by it. This book left me positively delighted, it had everything I look for in a good quality book.


Will definitely recommend this to everyone I know (especially my girlfriend).

The Maiden and Her Monster feels like the kind of story you grow up hearing in fragments—half fairytale, half warning, and entirely unforgettable. It’s steeped in folklore, faith, and longing, with writing that’s lush and lyrical in a way that makes you want to slow down and sit with every line.

Malka is stubborn, scared, and fiercely loyal, and I loved her instantly. Her relationship with the golem is tender and strange in all the best ways. It builds slowly, layered with mistrust, quiet yearning, and that aching sense of being seen for the first time. It’s not showy, but it’s deeply felt, and I was fully invested in every moment between them.

The world is vividly drawn, from the cursed forest to the weight of generational trauma and myth. I loved how the story tangled with questions of belief, survival, and who gets to be called monstrous. It’s sharp, aching, and full of hard-won hope. I closed the final page feeling both gutted and held.

I’ll be reading whatever Maddie Martinez writes next without hesitation.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF @ 53%

Thank you netgalley for this arc

I would like to say, the author’s prose was very lush and beautiful. However, this book struggled to hold my attention for every chapter I read, until I eventually gave up. I found the plot to lack the tension that I require to be engaged, and felt no interest in the happenings of any character. The plot twist I remained for was immensely predictable and the sapphic romance was feeling forced (mostly just physical attraction for no real reason). It felt like a journey meandering nowhere.

"What are humans without stories, Malka?"

4.5/5 stars!

I honestly don't know how to start this review except to say that if you, too, had this on your list of most anticipated reads of 2025, you are not going to be disappointed. This is an absolutely beautiful fever dream of a fairytale, rich with folklore, beautiful prose, and so many incredible female relationships. As a certified Naomi Novik fangirl, this felt like Uprooted's little sister -- and I mean that in the best conceivable way possible.

I'm going to be honest -- this book took me a bit of time to get into, and for a second there, I was worried. The pacing was just a little bit unexpected; I was captured by village life, but felt things slow down as we entered the forest (me?? A forest loving girly???). Something about the forest felt fuzzy to me, a little underexplored and difficult to follow. I wonder if this was intentional, trying to mimic the way the forest seems to steal time and sanity from its visitors -- but the plot explodes about a 1/3 of the way in, and I read the last 2/3s feverishly, finding it difficult to do anything else!

This book does so much in its tender exploration of grief and hope, in its excavation of oppression and resilience, but it never preaches. The characters feel incredibly real, and I was abolutely in love with all the ways female relationships were explored here. For me, the romance was not even secondary, but tertiary -- I was so taken by Malka's love for her mother, her sisters, her best friends. These were the beating hearts of the story, though the romance did hook me in the end. I also love a magic system rooted (!) in nature, always, and the simplicity and sacredness of this one was just perfect. And can I just say how wonderful it was that MOST of the key players fighting back were women? There were fantastic male support characters, but Martinez really let women shine here! So many shades of what it means to be a strong female character.

I did find a few little langauge things challenging -- I really respect code-switching and pushing back against English translation, especially in a novel that is so clearly holding sacred specific religious linguists. But the slipping from real Hebrew words to fantastical ones was a bit jarring, and early in the book I felt like a lot of the info-dumping didn't make sense and needed more context. I also found myself taken out of the work a few times, which was so beautifully crafted, with colloquialisms like "let's touch base" or someone saying "it's tough" which felt distinctly out of place in this incredibly imagined world that spent such time building and lingering on details around the setting.

This book will live on my shelf next to Naomi Novik, Katherine Arden, and Ava Reid. What a stunning debut!

This just didn't hit right got me. 20% in before we meet the 'monster' and ugh it's one of those enemies-to-lovers tropes that I just can't get into.

Thank you to NetGalley, Maddie Martinez, and Tor Books for allowing me to read this ARC.

I do truly love any book reminiscent of folklore or folklore adjacent. Maddie has done an excellent job turning a fascinating blurb into an even better story.

Malka, the oldest daughter and main character, lives in a village with a monster in the forest. After losing her best friend, her anger and frustration with this forest grows. When circumstances align, she and several other characters decide to venture into the dark wood to capture the monster— For good.

The sapphic twist on the age old monster vs human is fabulous, and I personally believe it is incredibly difficult to find a good sapphic read these days. Especially in the fantasy realm.

I gave this book a 4 star because at times, things move a little slowly. While I generally don’t mind slow burn, or overall slow pace, there were several points in the story (namely approx 40% through) that I very much wanted things to get moving.

I look forward to seeing what else Maddie will release.

Where to begin. I know Hebrew so understanding the text wasn't the issue, but a lot of the world building here reads really off. In places the Hebrew is incorrect ("simcha shachar" is not grammatically correct, "Baba" is not grandfather in Hebrew) and I cannot get over the fact that one of the "nicknames" for Malka is "Yedid Nefesh," it was distractingly silly. For context, "Yedid Nefesh" is not a pet name, it's a liturgical poem traditionally sung on Shabbat. It winds up reading like, "Hi, my name is Christina, but my sister calls me O Come All Ye Faithful," with zero irony. There were a bunch of things in this vein that I think most Jewish readers will clock as off, and I think if you're going to use a language people speak and a living culture as the basis for an SFF story, authenticity and accuracy should matter a bit more. The book would have benefitted from a sensitivity reader

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC! The Maiden and Her Monster is a dark and haunting retelling of the Golem of Prague. Make sure you read the content warning before starting! (I did not!) The world-building was dark and beautiful. I just had a disconnect with the characters. That has nothing to do with the story itself. I just had different expectations going into the novel. Overall, it was not for me. But it is a worthwhile read for those who like a darker fantasy!

An enchanting debut that is both lush and immersive. THE MAIDEN AND HER MONSTER weaves folklore, yearning, and dark atmosphere all into one lyrical Fantasy novel

A gorgeous, atmospheric debut fantasy that reimagines the Jewish myth of golem in a tale rooted in history, folklore, and sapphic romance—perfect for fans of Katherine Arden, Ava Reid, Hannah Whitten, and Naomi Novik.

THE MAIDEN AND HER MONSTER is a masterpiece of a debut. This is one of the most impactful and close-to-the-heart stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and it brought me to tears with its profundity.

This book features a glorious canopy of Jewish folklore, sapphic romance, and the enchanting allure of a sentient forest.

Overall, I truly enjoyed reading The Maiden and Her Monster. It reminded me very much of Ava Reid's The Wolf and the Woodsman.

I received a free copy from Tor Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Publish date September 9th, 2025.

I requested this book because I was intrigued by the concept of a sapphic retelling of the golem story. In The Maiden and Her Monster, fantasy Jewish Malka's village is beset by a monster that lives in the forest, preventing them from meeting the cruel tithes. When Malka's mother is accused of sacrificing a fantasy Christian girl, Malka makes a desperate deal to enter the forest and kill the monster in exchange for her mother's life.

The Maiden and Her Monster is a book that's very explicitly about faith, from Malka's ties to her culture to the faith-based magic system written in Hebrew. While Martinez might call them Ozmini and Yahadi, the world is clearly based on conflicts between Christians and Jewish people somewhere in late medieval eastern Europe. This conflict is depicted broadly and brutally, from the knights imposing an impossible tax, to the Yahadi people murdered, to the patches Malka and her friends are forced to wear in the city to identify that they are Yahadi. Like the conflict, characters are written as broad archetypes. The cruel knight who uses his strength to brutalize, the poisonous and sinister bishop, the wise and mystical Maharal, Malka's loyal and courageous friends.

Malka herself is notably young and inexperienced. Although she's 23, her unmarried status means she lives in her parent' household with her younger sisters. She has strong opinions about morality and faith, but her opinions are raw and untested, and it's clear that she pulls them directly from what she was told as a child rather than making her principles her own. While her romance with the golem Nimrah is interestingly complicated by the magic emotional bond they are forced to create, it is also defined by a petulant push-and-pull squabble that feels very young. Combined with the relatively straightforward plot progression, Malka's characterization made the novel slightly more YA flavored than I personally prefer.

The Jewish setting, fairy-tale plot, and combative sapphic romance makes this an excellent read for people who enjoyed A Dark and Drowning Tide by Alison Saft. While I was personally enchanted by the premise, I found the execution not to my taste, and I'm not sure I'm interested in reading other books by Martinez.

First and foremost, thank you to Tor Publishing for the e-ARC and the opportunity to review one of the most anticipated reads of 2025. I've been following Maddie on Twitter since the drafting stages of The Madien and Her Monster, to dive into this book in it's final form was such an honor.

For those who enjoy an immersive worldbuilding experience and characters who are willing to defend their livelihoods and loved ones, you will greatly enjoy following Malka on her journey of self-discovery while drawing closer to the culture she knows and loves. Based on the legend of the Golem of Prague, Martinez intricately weaves a new tale based on folktales from old. Nimrah contends with the sole purpose of protecting the Yahad people, regardless of what consequences are at play. There is reflection, anger, and desire.

Worldbuilding can personally be a hit or miss, but in this case, Martinez hit it right on the head. From introducing cultural elements to political conflict, I found myself immersed and wanting to dive deeper into the story as everything unfolded. There are aspects of violence, as political conflict never is without and it would be an injustice to shy away from that fact. Every element of this book is carefully woven together.

When it came to the pacing, I struggled just a bit. There would be moments where it would slow down a bit too far and I could feel myself pulling away from the tale more than I would personally enjoy. Repeated themes, especially with Malka and her turmoil regarding her relationship with using Kefsha, while vital to the tale, had moments of coming up too close back to back for my liking, especially when her standpoint had not changed. But once all the characters really started challenging their realities I was able to get back into it.

Overall, I think this book is a wonderful choice for anyone who wants a well-rounded book, immersed with dynamic characters, and intricate storytelling and YES we do have ROMANCE!!!! Trust me if you like pining and love interests who find each other insufferable at the start, you'll enjoy watching this romance unfold.

"Belief is not meant to be wielded as a political weapon."
"Then why is it the most powerful sword, and the sharpest knife?"
I am in debt to NetGalley for providing me with an opportunity to read this incredible debut novel. Realistically, it's more around a 4.25-4.3 star read for me, but it is so strong as a debut that I feel compelled to give Maddie Martinez her due. I don't think I've read a debut I liked so much since The Wolf and the Woodsman, and I am so excited to see what she does next.
This is a book with conflict that grows in scale and stakes in a very satisfying way, the romance subtly growing alongside it. It balances political and religious machinations with horror and emotional gut punches. My only complaint with the book is that you're truly only in the woods for about half of it, and I missed the lovely descriptions of eldritch creatures once we were in the city. I've seen a couple reviews saying that the words in different languages were hard to follow, but I had absolutely no problem with them, and the author has a helpful glossary here: https://www.maddiemartinez.com/books/the-maiden-and-her-monster/glossary.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book due to not being able to understand what was going on with the language and the characters from the very beginning of the book. It was very dry and not what I was anticipating at all, the cover of the book was very beautiful and drew me in but the content did not match.

Reminiscent of the Winternight Trilogy and Spinning Silver, The Maiden and her Monster weaves a rich folkloric fantasy steeped in Jewish tradition and mysticism. Malka lives in a village that borders a monstrous forest, a forest that swallows Yahidi women and spits out their mangled corpses. When her mother is accused of murdering an Ozmini woman Malka ventures into the forest to find the creature within and prove her mother's innocence. Malka's quest will take her into the heart of the forest and beyond, where she discovers schemes even crueler than the evil hiding amidst the trees.

My only real critique is the somewhat clumsily handled enemies-to-lovers romance between Malka and Nimrah. The enemies-to-lovers trope really has to toe the line when it comes to true hatred and disgust and that transition to attraction, and I wasn't entirely compelled by its deployment here. The early connection between Nimrah and Malka seems to rely purely on physical attraction - an "I hate you but my heart races when you touch me" sort of situation that I have a hard time buying into. Fortunately, that connection does change in meaningful ways and the back half of "The Maiden and Her Monster" finishes strong.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a physical copy in September!

This book is filled with grief and hope; Jewish folklore; sapphic romance, political intrigue; and some interesting magic. I very much enjoyed this read.


*Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the eARC.