(2) YA Vera, the first-person narrator of this historical horror novel, awakens in 1943 Lithuania and understands that she is a golem. Her creator, Ezra, has made her from the body of his teenage daughter, Chaya (a partisan fighter who was shot and killed a few months earlier), for the purpose of avenging Chaya's death. Vera can access Chaya's memories and emotions, and she is bound to follow her creator's commands. As Vera meets Akiva, who loved Chaya, and as she completes her mission, she and others wrestle with thoughtfully presented questions about where Chaya ends and Vera begins, and about Vera's desire for more autonomy. This dark tale grows even darker by book's end, but with its portrayal of proactive Jewish characters during the Holocaust and its emphasis on vengeance -- and on emet, the Hebrew word meaning truth carved into a golem's forehead -- it acknowledges that anger can be valid, especially in extreme situations. A glossary defines relevant terms, including those from the Jewish folkloric concepts the novel incorporates.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024