The Golem and the Jinni review: “A wonderful historical fantasy. Wecker provides amazing imagery and has an array of multicultural characters. Looking at immigrant lives in early New York through the newborn eyes of a golem and the ancient eyes of a Jinni the ambience and cadence of this is book is definitely what makes it a gem. A refreshing twist on cultural stories the reader may already know.” 

For the most part, this review is applicable regarding The Hidden Palace. Helene Wecker is a wonderful writer. She has a way of describing the world that seems to just jump off the page. Her characters are memorable and each one has a unique voice that can easily be recognized even as the pov shifts from one to another. 

The story continues in The Hidden Palace, but the golem no longer sees the world with new eyes and the story becomes bogged down with the day-to-day life of the people around here. The story quickly becomes more about the events happening around them than the actual plot of the story. This saddens me mostly because the first book had a wonderful balance between the two while this one the scales are tipped making the storyline feel far more disjointed. 

That being said the characters are the drive to this story. I found myself wanting to read more and more about Sophia’s journey, but all of the characters had their own charisma. In fact it has been pointed out to me recently that there is a shockingly low amount of literature that focus’ on the Yiddish and Jewish culture that does not revolve around the holocaust. The fact that these two books contain a female protagonist that could be considered Jewish is something that is seldom heard of and a fact I must commend. (Seeing as I am not Jewish I will admit I had not realized this until a Jewish friend who had recommended the books pointed it out.) 

I will also say that the plot is far too predictable. The fact that these characters continuously run into one another in such a large city makes the pattern far too easy to see, but then again, I usually feel this way about many of the books I read. 

All these things being said, the characters are lovable and unique, the exploration of cultures a breath of fresh air, the magical realism stunning, and surprisingly a very coherent sequel after such a long gap. 

Solid 3 out of 5