The Maiden and Her Monster fulfills the “diaspora” square for CBR17 Bingo.
As soon as I learned of The Maiden and Her Monster, I knew I needed to read it. I love explorations of Jewish experiences and especially love different ways the golem story can be reimagined. Set in a Medieval Prague inspired setting, The Maiden and Her Monster follows Malka as she ventures into a cursed forest that has been killing the girls of her village so she can free her imma from the Church’s idea of “justice.” While in the forest, she meets Nimrah, who she believes to be the cause of all that is wrong with the forest and all the harm that has befallen her village, both because she is a golem known to have murdered a Yehadi boy and because all she’s learned from her Baba about kefesh is that it cannot be trusted.
I’m not a religious Jew, but I always love Jewish stories and sometimes they help me feel closer to my own identity. The Maiden and Her Monster fit that for me. Any Jewish experience is one of diaspora because of the ways Jews have been persecuted throughout history, so it’s always fun to see what elements are familiar to my own experiences and history, and which pieces are built off different experiences. I really loved the way Martinez executed the golem story with Nimrah and the ways it was both familiar and changed for the story.
One of the selling points for me was also that this is a sapphic fantasy. I wouldn’t classify it as a Romance, but the romantic plot is beautifully woven throughout. There’s elements of enemies to lovers because of the way Malka distrusts and even despises Nimrah, and also elements of forced proximity because of the way they use kefesh to bind Nimrah to Malka in order to leave the forest. The sweetest element, in my opinion, was how they used Yehadi stories as a way to express their story and even flirt by the end. It was such a beautiful element, and I loved being able to see the familiar stories from Torah and Jewish folklore reshaped for this book.
This definitely isn’t one of my most coherent reviews, but suffice to say I loved this book and it touched my soul in very particular ways, as a Jewish reader. I really hope we’ll get more stories from Maddie Martinez and I hope many more readers fall in love with Malka and Nimrah.