The Maiden and Her Monsters is an atmospheric debut steeped in Jewish folklore, centering on a girl who strikes a dangerous bargain to save her mother, only to uncover secrets that challenge everything she thought she knew. It promises haunting forests, golem myths, and a sapphic romance but unfortunately, the execution didn’t live up to the richness of its premise.

Let’s start with the positives: the concept is incredibly compelling. The dark fairytale tone and the Jewish myth reimagining were what initially drew me in, and when the author leaned into the horror and gore, the writing shone. Those were the moments the book finally felt dark, suffocating, and frightening as it was clearly meant to be. Unfortunately, those moments were few and far between. For a story about monsters, moral ambiguity, and survival, the rest of the prose often read too much like YA: simplified and emotionally shallow, which weakened the impact of the darker themes.

The main character, Malka, is… a hard sell. I don’t need my heroines to be likable, but I do need to understand them. Malka is selfish, angry, and cruel, not only to strangers, but to Nimrah, the supposed love interest throughout the entire book. She calls her "monster" and refuses to use her chosen name. The relationship between them felt forced, and honestly? Emotionally manipulative. I didn’t believe for a second that what they had was love, it read more like Stockholm syndrome. Then, right at the end, they start throwing poetic declarations at each other and I was left wondering, when did this happen?

The transition to Malka’s decision to go into the forest and save her mother, arguably one of the most pivotal moments in the story, was rushed. One paragraph she’s in shock, and the next she’s sacrificing her life. We never get the internal monologue that justifies such a huge and dangerous choice. It made the whole setup feel unearned.

A major structural issue is how many themes this book tries to juggle: antisemitism, generational trauma, religious persecution, violence in the home, poverty, queerness, sexism, grief. These are massive topics, and none of them are explored in depth. They’re mentioned, briefly touched, then pushed aside for plot convenience. For example, violence in the household is brought up and resolved with a neat little bow at the end that felt dismissive and emotionally hollow. Same goes for queer identity, the book doesn’t explore it at all. For the majority of the story, I wasn’t even sure if being gay was “allowed” in this world. The sapphic romance felt more like a straight dynamic with the genders swapped, there was no real reflection on queer identity or experience.

Then come the plot conveniences. There are a lot of them. Secret map when you need one? Of course. A hidden tunnel? Naturally. Every time things get hard, the solution shows up just in time. It pulled me out of the story more than once.

On a more practical note: this book desperately needs a glossary and a map. There are so many invented terms and unfamiliar references that even as an experienced fantasy reader, I found myself flipping back or just skimming through confusion. I imagine many English-speaking readers will struggle, especially without context.

Finally, the ending. Without spoiling anything: it felt like emotional manipulation for the sake of it, with a character's suffering used as a cheap way to create a sense of tragedy. And worst still, later in the ending, something else happens that completely undermines the message of accountability, offering a hollow redemption arc to a character who could have prevented so much pain, but didn’t. It reinforces a troubling double standard: when a man commits a horrific act and lets peoples die, he gets turned into a legend of hope. But when a woman is in the same situation, she’s remembered only as a monster. It left a bitter, deeply unsatisfying taste that soured the entire reading experience, which was not so great to begin with.

This book wanted to be powerful and queer and dark. But queerness here felt more like a checkbox than a lived experience. I genuinely wanted to love this book, it has the bones of something special, but in trying to be about everything, it ends up saying very little.

(1.5 stars rounded down)

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I think I would rate this a 3.25 star as I found the writing to be enveloping with lots of mythology based on Jewish folklore and history. That being said this book desperately needs a glossary as I kept getting lost and found parts to be a bit info dumpy.

Set in a Hebrew and Czech fantasy world and reminiscent of The Golem of Prague, this is the story of our MC Malka and her love-hate interest Nimrah as they find love and overcome obstacles.
I found the world excellent. Curious, creative, fresh.
The pacing, the writing and the romance subplot were all 3 solid stars.
I would read more by Martinez and certainly in the same story worlds she has created as this one, Some more editing and different pacing, structure would have engaged me differently.

4⭐

Thank you Pan Macmillan and Maddie Martinez for the ARC!

The Maiden and Her Monster is 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 magic system- which is rooted in faith and mysticism takes center stage and is really well thought out and gorgeously described

The Maiden and the Monster has a beautifully fleshed out world – which is both reminiscent of the 16th century Czech lands and made even richer with Maddie’s magic system, language system and social system.

The pacing threw me off a bit because of its uneven movement. Some parts and descriptions were overly ornate, which made it difficult to continue reading.

Overall, if you loved Ava Reid's The Wolf and the Woodsman and Fable for the End of the World, you would enjoy this!

The maiden and her monster is a dark, atmospheric, sapphic fantasy inspired by Jewish mythology.
The two MFCs are both strong women who are willing to do whatever it takes to protect and save those they care about.
We follow our main characters as they face constant dangers all while trying to fight their growing attraction for each other.
It is a beautifully written story of centring love, hope and faith.
I enjoyed the character growth throughout the book especially Malka’s as she came to better understand the world around her.
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this Arc.
3.5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and author, I was lucky enough to read an ARC of The Maiden and the Monster via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion -- this novel only being my most anticipated debut novel of the year, no big deal - except it IS.

As a huge fan of dark fantasy and someone who has a deep rooted interest in religion, mythology and mysticism, the concept of Maddie Martinez retelling the myth of the Golem of Prague and turning it into a dark sapphic fantasy tale appealed to me so much. I’m happy to say I was not disappointed! The Maiden and her Monster is an excellent debut novel with gorgeous lyrical writing. Honestly, just start reading – the opening line will tell you enough: <i>The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.</i> I was immediately HOOKED: the scene is set, the cards are laid out; after I read this very first line I knew exactly what kind of story I was getting myself into.

The Maiden and the Monster has a beautifully fleshed out world – which is both reminiscent of the 16th century Czech lands and made even richer with Maddie’s magic system, language system and social system.

The magic system- which is rooted in faith and mysticism takes center stage and is really well thought out and gorgeously described. I love how magic becomes stronger with faith and intent – and how it is not a matter of skill or study. The passages where magic was being used or discussed were among my favorites in the novel.

Make no mistake with this novel, though. While it is marketed as sapphic and there is a romantic subplot, this is by no means a romantic fantasy novel or a romantasy. This is a dark fantasy novel about a devout Yahad girl set in a deeply, violently bigoted and antisemitic world. The way Maddie handles these themes is, in contrast with her beautiful descriptions of the world and the magic, unflinching and gritty. Oftentimes I set aside the novel to reminisce on the many parallels with our own world – both historic and present. A small example of this is how the Yahad people (the Jewish folk) are forced to wear badges in the capital city so that others can identify them and keep themselves safe. This was a common practice in historical Europe – many people mistakenly believe that the nazis invented this practice, but it is far, far older and more widespread than that.

The Maiden and her Monster is not an easy novel to get into. As mentioned: Maddie has fleshed out the world of The Maiden and the Monster extensively, and that means that she uses a combination of Czech, Hebrew and made-up words specific to this world, which means that as a reader you’ll have to invest in getting to know the world’s language. Maddie doesn’t take your hand in the text (though there is a glossary which you can find via her goodreads review and on her website) and while I’ve seen people complain about this, I personally appreciated that the author trusted that I do the work in order to understand what’s being talked about.

All in all The Maiden and the Monster is a beautiful, ferocious, high-stakes debut novel and I can’t wait until the novel is out so I can add a physical copy of it to my collection and read it again. Highly recommended!

I enjoyed the elements of Jewish mythology and history that inspired this story. It has quite a formal style to the writing though, which, combined with the frequent use of Hebrew words that I didn't understand made it harder for me to get into. The romance between Malka and Nimrah turned from hate to lust without much of a transition and I would have liked to see more of a gradual change in their feelings, or to see examples of them liking each other as people rather than just seeing their lust.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley, but this is my voluntary and honest review.

An impactful sapphic romance stewed in jewish folklore.
a stunning and gripping debut.
Maddie did everything right in this book.
a beautiful prose and rich storytelling, well fleshed out characters, a book you will read twice and find new things everytime.

2.75 bumped up to 3 ⭐️ I very much struggled to rate this one and have settled on a didn’t love it, didn’t hate it perspective.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance copy. This book absolutely needs a glossary (I’m aware that I’m not reading the final version) so I would like to hope that this will be added before the book publishes.

The Maiden and Her Monster is a sapphic retelling of the Golem of Prague legend — and with a cultural retelling I will always expect words and phrases I don’t understand, which is fine because that’s what research is for, but there are also lots of words in this book that are just made-up, and with no glossary….how am I supposed to understand what is going on? That being said, this WAS actually beautifully written.

The other element of this book that impacted my rating was the romance between the two main characters/love interests. Their relationship was so disjointed, I can’t fathom where these two have built a connection because they were so back and forth. Do they like each other? Do they trust each other? Do they want to spill each other’s guts? WHO KNOWS!

Overall this was a compelling read with lots of political intrigue and some dark themes of bigotry, antisemitism and racism. With the addition of a glossary, I would try this again.