I got an ARC of this book.
What does it truly mean to be human? What does it truly mean to be a monster? Those are the two big questions this book raises over and over again. It is clear that Nazis are monsters, but they are also human. So it is sometimes hard to draw thick lines between the two. The lines are blurred even more when what is considered a monster shows more humanity and care than the humans around her.
I was completely on board for some Nazi killing revenge. I wanted gore. I wanted pain. I wanted so much from the golem. But she continuously challenged me. Why was my need for revenge, and that need from Ezra, her reason to be created? What gave Ezra that right? What right did I have for craving that revenge? What does revenge even do? It does not undo the past. It doesn't heal the future.
This was not a typical horror. There was not jump scares. There was some gore, but only a small amount. Instead the horror was about humanity and what it is capable of doing to itself and those around it. Nazis are horrifying. Nazi sympathizers, so you know Nazis without the uniforms, are horrifying. There was always an element of horrifying in the book. There was not any real danger feeling though, because Vera is pretty much immortal. She does not die from being shot. She can only be killed in a very particular way, which she knows and protects herself from. So it is hard to really worry about her safety. Instead, the plot was around how human she was. How she survived through the horror that was the Holocaust.
It is not an easy book to read. Polydoros does not speed things up. You have to walk with Vera the whole time. There is no jumping ahead. There is only her path. The speed of the book was slow, but it worked well. It worked for Vera coming into her own humanity/golemhood. Give the pace time, it works even when it is painful to be stuck.
What does it truly mean to be human? What does it truly mean to be a monster? Those are the two big questions this book raises over and over again. It is clear that Nazis are monsters, but they are also human. So it is sometimes hard to draw thick lines between the two. The lines are blurred even more when what is considered a monster shows more humanity and care than the humans around her.
I was completely on board for some Nazi killing revenge. I wanted gore. I wanted pain. I wanted so much from the golem. But she continuously challenged me. Why was my need for revenge, and that need from Ezra, her reason to be created? What gave Ezra that right? What right did I have for craving that revenge? What does revenge even do? It does not undo the past. It doesn't heal the future.
This was not a typical horror. There was not jump scares. There was some gore, but only a small amount. Instead the horror was about humanity and what it is capable of doing to itself and those around it. Nazis are horrifying. Nazi sympathizers, so you know Nazis without the uniforms, are horrifying. There was always an element of horrifying in the book. There was not any real danger feeling though, because Vera is pretty much immortal. She does not die from being shot. She can only be killed in a very particular way, which she knows and protects herself from. So it is hard to really worry about her safety. Instead, the plot was around how human she was. How she survived through the horror that was the Holocaust.
It is not an easy book to read. Polydoros does not speed things up. You have to walk with Vera the whole time. There is no jumping ahead. There is only her path. The speed of the book was slow, but it worked well. It worked for Vera coming into her own humanity/golemhood. Give the pace time, it works even when it is painful to be stuck.