The Maiden and Her Monster

Malka just wants to take care of her family. She works with her mother who is a healer for her village and makes sure her two younger sisters have what they need. But life doe not make it easy. They are forced to pay tributes to a church they don’t believe and the woods are killing girls if they stray out too late. When her mother is accused of witchcraft using the blood of a young woman killed by the monster in the woods Malka promises to return with the beast to prove her mother’s innocence. What starts as a hunt she doesn’t expect to survive uncovers so much more about the world they live in.

There was so much more to this book than I had expected. I love a good retelling and it’s fun to discover folklore I’m not familiar with. This book was beautiful and heartbreaking. The author is a fantastic writer. You can really feel every moment of tension and joy. As the plot progresses and things become so much bigger than when they started you can’t help but feel for what every character is going through. The pacing was fantastic, and I will admit it was a bit stressful hoping it would go in a certain direction but having to be patient to find out if it did or not.

Malka is a great protagonist. She’s brave but naive to the world beyond her village. That’s not to say she doesn’t understand that things are kind of terrible, just the she really doesn’t know to what depth yet. It’s exciting to learn along with her. Every character in the narrative has so much personality and fit so well.

This is sadly one of those books that I don’t want to dig too deeply into. There were so many shocking or surprising moments that it feels like a spoiler to discuss any of them. I would not want to ruin that for someone else. This is a book you definitely need to go into not knowing any plot twists or reveals.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good tragic fantasy with a historical feel that isn’t bogged down by those same historical vibes.

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