*Huge thanks to Harper Collins Canada and Inkyard Press for a physical ARC of this book. I offer this review willingly and without any compensation whatsoever.*

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A BIT OF SPOILERS, NOT MANY, BUT JUST SO YOU KNOW.


I have to be honest, the striking cover with the girl’s fierce expression and the Hebrew writing got me interested in this book. Then, I saw the title and got excited—sounded totally up my alley! I read the blurb and I just fell for it. I had to read this gem! And so, I requested it from Harper Collins Canada and I’ve been honoured to have it granted to me as a paperback galley!

But what do I think of this book?

Well, for starters, I just loved it and I will never forget it. Vera and Akiva are dear to me, they’re seared into my heart. The book will sit high on my bookshelves, and I will look upon it with affection and satisfaction.

Also, honestly, this is the most humane fantasy story I have read in a long time.

Care to discover how so?

Keep reading, loves!


The Positive Points
Underneath the surface of this book is a coming of age story about identity, your place in the world, figuring out who you truly are and what you value versus the opinions of others, and how you choose to go about it. All told from the point of view of a golem girl made of a dead girl’s body parts and clay. It’s as surprising as poignant as it sounds (and even more when you read it!) Vera’s reflections on on life, death, pain, happiness, and what it means to be human are touching, poignant, and relatable (although she is a golem, but it is indeed an interesting vessel for these reflections.) The story revolves around the concepts of monster and man, who’s the monster and who is the man (or woman here) in that war? It reminds me of Clopin singing “Who’s the monster and who is the man?” in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Disney.

The great friendship and companionship between Vera and Akiva is sweet and comforting. They have a cute, bittersweet companionship. And their banter is fun; it’s genuine, like Vera describes it. Vera’s attraction and affection for Akiva seems forbidden, due to the nature of her creation, yet it’s what she wants as well as Chaya, but as herself. Golems have wants too. I was suffering reading their moments together because shipping them feels forbidden, like a transgression somehow, but they’re so cute. And believe me, there will be many surprises with their relationship! You’re in for a jolly good ride with them; several tears, groans, smiles, and one joyful shriek (at least that’s how it went for me). Moreover, Vera’s confrontation with Akiva learning the truth about her being a golem is so sad and rife with angst. But I love how she still tries to claim her right on her body parts and life, although it does seem weak, poor doll. I was so shocked, but glad in the end because Akiva’s always been that good guy, I know. :)

Also, I looooved meeting their enemies and friends; mostly their friends, like a kind girl named Miriam, and Gulzifa (you’ll see). There were several plot twists along the reading, two of which I hadn’t seen coming, so kudos there. It was both incredibly sweet AND heart-wrenching. And Omfg, meeting the Nazi they’re after was such a surprise! Mostly in the how it’s done! Plus, It’s so f*** true how appearances can be deceiving; how monsters can hide in plain sight and look innocent. Yet the true innocent are persecuted and viewed as monsters.

I particularly noticed a “polyglot moment”. I saw that in some scenes where Vera struggled with which word to utter in what context, yet they all surged in her mind for her to use in all the languages she knows. It feels exactly like that as a polyglot, ha! (I’d know because I’m one.)

One thing that is very important in Wrath Becomes Her is how Vera wants so much to be loved. As herself. Don’t we all? Plus, the imagery to describe her emotions is often interesting because the author uses words related to water, rocks, and rivers, and so on (where she comes from). She doesn’t understand death, and is always trying to grasp its concept, just as life, yet her descriptions are striking.

At some point, Vera has to fight some clay or creatures like her. she doesn’t want to do it, yet she has to. This is just like some did to survive, they had to kill the enemy to breathe air for one more day… Like in the concentration camps and out of them during the war. It was a good mirror moment.

I must say the last chapters are quite dark and horror-like, which is beautiful and fitting to this novel. And they’re quite exciting, with thrilling action!

As for another character, Ezra, he’s such a complex yet angsty character. We don’t like him right away, but we can understand his motives. But in the end, it’s lovely and he’s thoughtful. That took me by surprise, even though I’d hoped for something similar from him. Finally, he accepts his “creation”. We get to we see what acceptant and love can do. In addition to that, I love how their creators (Ezra being Vera’s) give the Golems traits and purposes; like Vera got rage, emotions, curiosity, and empathy.

According to theories and beliefs explained here and there in the book, it seems Vera does have a soul of some kind. So sweet! It’s about the Luz bone (where the soul resides) and reincarnation, interesting! Also, Vera goes from being seen and feeling like a monster, to being seen as and acting like a protector. That transformation of perspective and reactions is amazing and touching. It pulls my heart out but replaces it a bit better, too. This book explores death, grief, life, happiness, survival, injustice, love, and fear. It’s beautiful and heart-wrenching, yet it aims so true. It’s human, and it’s beautiful, in all its messiness.

And awwww, wow, a lovely, fitting ending!!! Such a twist! I’M LOVING IT! I was somehow hoping for it, yearning for it, but I thought it was too… dark for a young adult book, but hey, the author surprised me greatly! Dang, I just adored that!!! The perfect ending for Wrath Becomes Her in my opinion!!! I will never forget it, it left its mark on me, haha.


The Negative Points
The only negative point is that sometimes the author would repeat words and phrases a few times in the same page, it’s slightly annoying but it doesn’t happen too often. Yet it’s not worth taking away a star for this!


In Conclusion
All in all, Wrath Becomes Her is also about how to make a difference in the world, in something seemingly insurmountable, and it’s positive, it’s about helping people, which I adored. This is honestly the most humane fantasy story I have read in a long time. For all these reasons of positivity and humane feelings, I give Wrath Becomes Her a solid, unbreakable rating of 5 stars out of 5.

The premise of this work is excellent, and the author did a good job executing it. The incorporation of magical realism and Jewish folklore into the setting of Lithuania during the early 1940s was an interesting combination. I enjoyed that this work was adjacent to the war but focused more on civilian struggles than on the war itself.

Wrath Becomes Her is certainly interesting… it wasn’t a super easy story for me to get into but someone who loves more historical aspects would probably love this as it’s a take on WWII and the holocaust. The writing style was great though.

A unique take on the historical, WWII book. The war and the time felt more like a setting instead of another character which I actually enjoyed. Chaya (while not human) helped humanize and center this story and took the "coming of age" archetype in a refreshing direction. I wish there was more rage but I understand the layers that were added to this story. The Jewish folklore mixed with the historical backdrop and a different kind of found family make this a book I will happily recommend for those want a different kind of WWII book.

What I found interesting about the book is the cultural reference to the golem and how this creature represents the anger against the Nazis. In the story, a father grieves his daughter who was killed by the Nazis. He can’t bring her back from the dead, but he can use kishuf — an ancient and profane magic — to create a golem in her image. A Nazi killer, to avenge her death. While reading it, I was filled with immense sadness - more so than other novel set during this time.

This book was an interesting and different take on World War Two and the holocaust.

It was a little hard for me to get into in the beginning but overall I enjoyed the writing and would read more by the author.

I quite enjoyed Wrath Becomes Her with its Frankenstein feeling with folklore entwined. It wasn’t quite what I expected with the cover/title/summary I did enjoy the storytelling and world building.

Wrath Becomes Her tells the story of a father desperately trying to find a way out of his grief of the loss of his daughter. What comes next is a heart breaking but oh so beautiful story of the golem he creates in his dead daughter's image.

I am all for and 100% ON BOARD with any and all revenge stories, but you add in that it's revenge on Nazis and *chefs kiss* perfection.

The writing was beautiful and the metaphor of Vera learning her place in the world fits perfectly with a young adult novel. I would have liked more showing and less telling of how the characters felt, but I'm a little older than the normal demographic for this novel and take that into account.

So well written. I think historical fiction readers will enjoy this new addition to the genre. The characters are well developed and I cared immediately about them.

Wrath Becomes Her by Aden Polydoros has such a great premise- a Jewish man creates a golem in his daughter’s image after she is murdered by Nazis in WWII Lithuania. The golem’s only purpose is to avenge Chaya’s death and exact retribution on all those that have contributed to the atrocities brought on during the war. Bits of magical realism and Jewish folklore are sprinkled throughout the novel. When Vera wakes after her creation, she has some of Chaya’s memories, but also has to learn to “live” as a human on her own. She quickly meets Akiva, the boy who Chaya was with prior to her murder. Vera and Akiva work together to to destroy the Nazis who patrol and terrorize the lives of innocents caught in the hell surrounding them. Vera discovers that there are those that are trying to harness the powers that allowed her to be created to destroy humanity- and she feels the need to stop them at all cost.

The premise was so interesting; the execution was not. While I understand the book is YA, I felt as though the author wasn’t sure where they wanted to take the story- was it magical realism? Was it romance? Was it folklore? The story just never seemed to find its roots and so it was very disjointed to me. Vera was a golem that did have emotions, but didn’t; she was supposed to be a strong, independent young woman , but she was constantly following around the men. I never felt fully immersed in the story. It was a serious premise that seemed superficial and silly at times. Unfortunately, Wrath Becomes Her is not one I would readily recommend. 2.5/5 for me. This is an honest review and solely my own thoughts and opinions. Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard for the opportunity to read the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy.

A story of self discovery through the eyes of a gollum created for vengeance during WW2. Ezra has made Vera in the image of his daughter, Chaya, after she died in an ambush.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

Polydoros has been a favorite author since their debut because the world definitely needs more queer Jewish stories, but every time I tried to read this one I couldn't get past the opening scene. Good chance this is a case of being in the wrong mood for this one, and maybe I'll come back to it when I'm in a better place to handle the violence, but for now this just did not work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I really liked this historical fantasy, I just think I’m outgrowing YA. Would still reccomend to other readers though.

I love that both of the books I’ve read by Aden Polydoros look at lesser understood parts of major historical events, and makes them Jewish and queer. The other book I read, The City Beautiful, followed a Romanian immigrant during the Chicago World’s Fair, and here we are in Lithuania during WW2.

The concept here is fantastic. The main character is a golem, so you have this whole idea of what is a human and what makes humanity, and you get to see the toll for death and destruction and laser. Focus on vengeance does to people, I think all of the questions Polydoros intended on bringing to this book are fascinating make for great discussion. Yet I didn’t really enjoy this book. I don’t know if it was the execution, or if it was the audiobook narrator, or if I just wasn’t in the right headspace for it, but I found myself quite bored through a lot of this.

I found myself feeling strangely distant from the main character, and that made it hard to be invested in her struggles or the relationships she was developing, and I think, as much as I loved all of the description and the atmosphere, that it held the pacing back which then made the book feel quite long. Ultimately, this was a book that I think relied on the character emotion and connecting to Vera, and because I felt so distant from her I didn’t get the full impact. That being said, I do like a Polydoros’s writing, and I love their concepts, so I am very interested and whatever they write next.

I really enjoyed the incorporation of Jewish folklore with magical realism in this novel. I loved the historical aspect of it. However, the characters were not my cup of tea, they felt too "young" to me. I think the YA genre may just not be for me anymore. Overall this is worth reading!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for an EARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions

I really wanted to like this book however the book doesn't live up to the title. I wanted more wrath and I just didn't get that from the main character. I did like the Jewish representation and the different take on WW2. The book was still enjoyable but just felt very YA at times which made it hard to relate to the main character.

Genre: Fantasy Horror/ Historical Fiction
TW: PLEASE CHECK
Spice: None (YA)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4/5]
Format: E-Book
Review written by: M

*Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

(Scroll down for rating)

This was a very interesting read. I have never read a historical fiction like this before where it merges historical concepts with fantasy.

This book introduces you to Vera, a Golem, who was created by a grieving father with the sole purpose; to avenge his daughter Chaya’s death by the Nazi. Once Vera awakens, she quickly realizes she has inherited glimpses of Chaya’s memories: of stolen kisses, adventures, and rebellions. As she sets off to avenge Chaya, she begins to encounter the two opposing truths of life, love, and cruelty. She must now battle with the fact that she has a reason not only to fight, but to live.

Aden Polydoros writing is very lyrical. He has a way of describing scenes so vividly and beautifully that it made it quite easy to view the entire book as a movie in my head while I read.

The only reason this book did not get a 5-star rating for me was because I felt the ending was lacking slightly. I expected more from it with such a strong last 1/3 of the book. It felt like the ending was a bit too abrupt and left too much to crave.

I don’t know much about Jewish traditions or their folklore but the incorporations of it within this book was done in such a magical and very educational/entertaining. It was a beautiful balance between fantasy and reality.

This book may be triggering for many, and the TW should be read. It is quite gory and does not shy away from the cruelty of humanity with a strong focus on the suffering that the Jewish community has endured throughout the years. It really makes you question what empathy is and how we as humans, have the free will to be as gentle or as cruel as we wish.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this read and can’t wait to see what else has been written by Aden Polydoros.

I loved the mix of fantasy and history. You could also feel the wrath so well. A great take on Jewish people fighting back in World War Two.