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.