Jay

First off, as a Jew, I will say it was really off-putting to have Ronit (as an offshoot of the author's own assumptions of all Jews I imagine) bring in the whole “only self-hating Jews aren't pro-Israel” bit. But I get it, this is a book for gentiles, so fine.

What really bothered me was that I came in expecting a forbidden childhood-to-lesbian lovers romance and did NOT get ANYTHING like that. There wasn't even an affair; beyond kissing some, Ronit and Esti immediately stopped trying and Esti snapped out of her lifelong love for Ronit after one rejection. It was very...shallow? Though none of the characters really had a strong enough voice for me to notice much depth to them beyond the narrative bashing me in the head with how aggressive Ronit was. The focus on Dovid was also odd in a story that wasn't supposed to be about him, and it took a lot away from the main characters, Esti especially, who already was as easy to miss in the book as she apparently was when she eavesdropped. It seemed like what the book really wanted to be about was Ronit's/Naomi's realization that she could be Jewish without being a practicing Orthodox Jew, and that her upbringing would always have an influence on her, and that's FINE and all, but it certainly doesn't come across as romantic lol. Especially when the most important relationship Ronit has in this novel is not to Esti at all, but to her deceased father; that is the man she's dreaming about, in the end.

It was also kind of a slog to get through; as much as I love reading Jewish lore and Torah stories, having two or more pages of exposition at the beginning of each chapter dragged the story down a lot, especially when you already had prayer quotes. These could have been integrated much better in the thoughts of the narrators during the story itself, I think.

Overall, I guess I enjoyed parts of it? The descriptions of Dovid's migraines were pretty interesting, and I enjoyed that Esti and Ronit clung to David and Johnathon's story in the Torah.

[EDIT: I've been reading other reviews as I was reminded of this book and I don't think I even got to the part where Rachel uses a joke about killing Palestinians as “flirtation”. That is absolutely fucking disgusting and genocide is not a joke. I had gathered the author was Zionist from some other throwaway lines in the beginning but this is beyond evil. I've changed my rating to reflect that.]

As starved as I am for Jewish novels, especially Jewish romances and Jewish holiday books, this was too much for me too finish. There were flaws I could look past - a LOT of telling and not showing - yet other things kept piling up until I simply couldn't go on.

I'll try not to spoil anything as I go, but:

- the sassy gay best friend & sassy Black best friend tropes rolled into Mickey. Not only was it cringey at best, the attempts at AAVE were BAD, and I'm not even Black.

- Rachel's chronic illness was a plus for me, but the treatment of Paul in-story, who has a visible disability, was really weird and infantilizing? It was jarring to read about a character promoting awareness for invisible disabilities while treating another disabled character like a baby.

- We're supposed to see Jacob as this wonderful, if broken and misguided, young man, but honestly he was oblivious and self centered to the point of evil. I got halfway through and the way he uses his money and power over Rachel to humiliate, control, and undermine her was at one point even triggering. She is incapable of escaping from him even in her own home because the narrative - and every character in it - are obsessed with forcing her into situations with him. It's not “romantic” when someone uses their influence to force their help on you no matter if you want it or not, and again, I find it really upsetting for a disability narrative to present that as sweet on Jacob's part. So many people with visible disabilities are touched without their permission by “well meaning” folks in public, and if they protest or refuse the “help”, they're often violently accosted or harassed for it. Presenting the idea that we should accept it as the intended gesture and any protestation is just being “fiery” is asinine.

- Continuing on this thread, the entire way Jacob approaches Rachel in the first place is awful. Without going in depth, basically he decides that because she doesn't spill her guts on their first meeting, she “deserves” what he does because she isn't “honest”. Nothing in the narrative ever makes him think he's not immediately owed her entire life story, including the chronic illness she's kept from her own workplace for over a decade. This idea that a romantic interest is automatically owed your darkest secrets is poisonous, and the way Jacob abuses Rachel and then barely apologizes for it just highlights how. Jacob is so oblivious to Rachel's feelings, so focused on himself that he can only view her and her life through himself and his own experiences, that he can't even admit to himself that forcing ANYONE to do what he had Rachel do is horrible, regardless of health.

Maybe there's some great aspect that I'm missing, but I just could not find any reason to continue on with this book. None of the characters held me at all; even Rachel, who I mostly liked, was ruined by her ableism and her interactions with Mickey because of how he was written. As a librarian, I can say for a fact that there are almost zero Hanukkah books written for adults, and it's really disappointing that of the few, this is what we have.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the book up through Lewis' ending, and then it became kind of a mess. The death scene for Gabe, Cassidy, Jo, and Nathan felt extremely contrived and over-wrought, and it took me completely out of the story. I think if the entire book had shifted continuously between the main characters and all had the same kind of slow descent into madness Lewis did it would have been a lot better.

Also, the introduction of Denorah as an important character in the last fourth of the book was very odd; it felt a lot like SGJ slapped a Final Girl plot onto the end of a completely different story. I cared about Denorah surviving but it was hard to be invested in her because I barely knew her outside of “she's just like her dad” and “good at basketball”. The way she played basketball against a vengeful spirit was pretty rad, but SGJ's attempt at describing basketball in prose didn't work for me. Half the time I didn't know what was happening. Having her show up, play basketball, and then plow straight into the Final Battle was a disservice to her character. Again, if she had made appearances throughout, if the story had shifted perspectives continuously and then tied them all together at the end rather than splitting them into sections, I think it would have worked a lot better.

Lastly I was kind of uncomfortable with the way SGJ would give detailed descriptions of the brutal murder of women while the men either died offscreen or their deaths were much more vague. It just felt very bizarre; if you're going to lean into the gore, then why not also describe Cassidy getting beaten to death by Gabe the same way you did Shaney getting scalped by a motorcycle?

3 stars because I really enjoyed Lewis' section and I think it had a lot of good creepy stuff in it, but the structure and pacing kind of ruined it and SGJ should have waited to keep all his Final Girl stuff in the book he wrote a year later.

this book, in premise and in many scenes regarding the relationships between women and the idea of womanhood, is very good.

but it is also INCREDIBLY whitewashed; it takes inspirations from civil rights movements actually happening during the time period of the setting and co-opts them to be about dragons while barely, if at all, recognizing the actual struggles against racism that Black and Indigenous people were fighting.

also, it's fatphobic, just a heads up

spoilers ahead



so i did like a lot about it. there was recognition given to how teenagers can be very unreasonable and that's okay, the lesbian dragon aunts were basically a polycule, there was recognition of trans women and women of all sorts. i really liked those bits, and the complex nature of the relationships and how they played out.

that said - I'm white. and even i knew that the whole “recognition of dragons” as well as their ostracization and oppression were completely ripped off of anti-racist movements at the time. it's so very clearly based on the civil rights movement but with a majority of white women i was honestly almost shocked nothing was said during editing or proofreading (almost. this is common in publishing of works by white authors). the marches, the HUMANS ONLY signs, the “in 1971 we got personhood and (reconstruction) dragon achievements started happening!” is so very obviously appropriated from Black history. Black movements are half mentioned or very vaguely alluded to in ways that could just be more dragoning instances: there is ONE allusion to a Black womens' movement resulting in dragoning, and when Alex's dad mentions a list of protests the scenarios are similar to the civil rights movement. However, again, these references can all come back to the general dragoning of ALL women, esp white women. the premise is sound, but the way it is handled is so incredibly White that it really just seems to be another fantasy novel that invokes oppression/racism themes without ever actually acknowledging those who were, and are, actively treated as second hand citizens.

also, considering the time period, nothing is mentioned at all of the AIM movement happening parallel to the civil rights movement. one Mexican girl is mentioned as having a quinceañera and that's it for other references to poc. none of the main or secondary characters are non-white. i don't care if it's wisconsin.

there is also a section at the back concerning “progressive dragoning news” that comes across as white saviorism. not only are almost all of the dragons we see with lines/screentime white Americans or white europeans, despite mentions of other countries having dragons, this “peaceful dragon initiative” is run by white american women (dragons) interfering in other countries with “seething warlords” etc. the implication is very clear that they are saving “impoverished” nations overseas from their “evil” militaries etc, which is the exact rhetoric used by america especially to invade and occupy foreign peoples in the middle east, latin/south america, asia, and africa. again, it was another instance that slapped me so hard in the face i really feel like nobody who isn't white was shown anything about this manuscript at all.

and on top of all this. on top! of all this! we are given a jk rowling-esque description of alex's father's secretary/second wife. i felt sick reading alex's account of this woman's cheek rippling with fat where her fist rested against it in alex's first interaction with this woman. honestly, i don't think she's ever given a name, only painted with a broad “evil stepmother” brush on top of the fatphobic descriptions, to the point where she's even shown as being evil to alex's absent father.

there was a lot i liked about this book. but the whitewashing, white saviorism, and fatphobia really ruined it for me.

i ended up DNFing because the second half twist just completely lost me. i liked the set up and beginning a lot though, like “fake horror camp ends up experiencing real murders” is a concept i really like. one of my favorite psych episodes is about that! but unfortunately when the twist came i just couldn't do it.

maybe if this book had been written in the spirit of hot fuzz + sean of the dead, or even scream (which is referenced) where it wholeheartedly embraces how campy/goofy it is, the story would have worked for me. but from what i read i really don't think you're supposed to take this as a comedy and therefore what should have been really scary moments just didn't work. like the scene where charity sees porter's corpse. instead of being terrified of that, i kept thinking about the fact that there's a grown ass man in an owl fursuit standing right next to it.

i still gave it three stars because i love the concept and i liked the characters, i liked charity + her friends/girlfriend being qpoc/poc. i think bayron is really good at setting up a creepy atmosphere and writing gore. the supernatural element tho just really undermined the whole thing.

also have to say, the casual transphobia in the very beginning made me :/. if charity was outing herself to javier anyway, she could've just said she had a girlfriend instead of her and porter making jokes about only liking a certain type of genitals. there are obviously women with penises and men with vaginas. and usually i would let it slide because they're meant to be teenagers and teenagers are cringey/aren't the most informed, but if you want me to believe there's a giant owl god out there granting wishes to people killing children then i think even the teens could be a bit more informed on that front.