This book was hanging on by a thread, and that thread was the folklore.

I don’t think it really has much more than that going for it, the characters are all pretty boring and every time I thought “oh this part is interesting” we quickly moved on to a plot point that didn’t hold my interest.

I’m sure some people could like this, but if you’ve read a lot of folklore retellings/dark magical realism, this simply won’t stack up.

This didn’t really live up to the hype, it seems as though the cover only represents a fraction of the book, this didn’t keep up that same spooky forest vibe as it promises which was a real let down

I think this one just wasn't for me because it wasn't quite what I expected based on the summary. I appreciated the Jewish folklore. That was the standout part of this world for me and gave the story a unique angle.
However, the enemies-to-lovers romance didn't quite hit the mark for me. I was also expecting the story to be focused on the forest and monsters, but the story went in a completely different direction when the characters left the forest for the city. I grabbed this hoping for a magical forest story, so the shift to the city didn't interest me as much. It also felt like the story was pulling Malka along rather than her driving it, and because of that her character never quite gripped me.

Thank you to Tor Books and Netgalley for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

I absolutely devoured this book, and I have zero regrets! This was such a powerful book in so many ways, and I just know it is going to resonate with so many people.

From the strength of our MC to her love for her family and her people, Martinez paints such a poignant picture of oppression and the affects it has on the individual in addition to the group as a whole. This is a story of grief, but it is also a story of strength and hope. It is a story of resilience and the battles that the oppressed face just to make it to the next day. The depth of this book will resonate for so many, and I can't wait to watch as it does!

I loved the folklore and the way that stories are told within this story. There is so much depth to the religion and culture, and it makes everything so much more real. You can truly put yourself into their shoes, see them on the outside of the pages, and feel their grief and heartache with them. It's hard not to.

This was a truly beautiful book, and you are not going to want to miss out on any part of it.

I loved reading this book. Maddie's worldbuilding and prose is dark and lyrical, giving a fresh twist on the mythology of the Golem.

4.5 ⭐️
Just want to start off by thanking Tor for the eARC and also thank you to the Macmillan Audio Influencer Program for the ALC. I really enjoyed doing an immersive read of this book. Jewish folklore and culture is very interesting to me and I tend to gravitate towards books about it. While it had a slower beginning, the story really picked up for me around the halfway point. The slow story-telling didn’t bother me though because there was background information needed for context being presented to the reader. I found the characters in the story to be full of life despite the bleak conditions of their world. The magic system was so wonderful! I think that was one of my favorite parts of the book. I would love to read more fantasy books by Maddie Martinez. The author does an excellent job exploring queerness and religious persecution in a sapphic fantasy with a touch of horror. The forest is alive and she’s waiting for you. As a big fan of Ava Reid, this book gave me the same kind of butterflies and longing that her books leave me with.

I wanted to like this book so badly! It was one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year. But while I was immediately drawn in and engaged for the first few chapters, I ended up getting bored. I liked the characters, so I wanted to keep reading because at that point I was attached to Malka and Nimrah. However, I think the writing style may just not be for me.

The atmosphere and Jewish folklore are definitely the standout parts of this book! Any kind of folklore, moody, “forresty” type books are usually a guaranteed hit for me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really get into this one.

The pacing was something I struggled with in this book. It is only around 350 pages but it felt like 500 pages of dragging on to me. If I didn’t have the audiobook available (Nikki Massoud did a great job) I would’ve really struggled to finish this. There was no chemistry between the love interests and I did not understand why they were very quickly so into each other. I could not get myself to be invested in the story or the characters. 5 stars to the beautiful cover though hehe.

Oh I'm so disappointed to not have loved this one.

Malka, our main character, suffers a little from being the most tragic character to have ever existed, but sadly her circumstances don't lead her to being any kinder to the love interest, who she repeatedly refers to as a monster. She is deeply unlikable, which really affected my appreciation of this book.

I found the writing a little disjointed with how frequently the author inserts, not only words in Hebrew or Czech, but also her own made up names and languages into the writing. While I appreciate that there was a glossary, there would be 3 words, at times, in a sentence, which really broke up the reading experience for me, and gave me little chance to remember what these words meant.

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.