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I Made It Out of Clay
In this darkly funny and surprisingly sweet novel, a woman creates a golem in a desperate attempt to pretend her life is a romantic comedy rather than a disaster.
Nothing’s going well for Eve: She’s single, turning forty, stressed at work and anxious about a recent series of increasingly creepy incidents. Most devastatingly, her beloved father died last year, and her family still won’t acknowledge their sorrow.
With her younger sister’s wedding rapidly approaching, Eve is on the verge of panic. She can’t bear to attend the event alone. That’s when she recalls a strange story her Yiddish grandmother once told her, about a protector forged of desperation… and Eve, to her own shock, manages to create a golem.
At first everything seems great. The golem is indeed protective—and also attractive. But when they head out to a rural summer camp for the family wedding, Eve’s lighthearted rom-com fantasy swiftly mudslides into something much darker.
Nothing’s going well for Eve: She’s single, turning forty, stressed at work and anxious about a recent series of increasingly creepy incidents. Most devastatingly, her beloved father died last year, and her family still won’t acknowledge their sorrow.
With her younger sister’s wedding rapidly approaching, Eve is on the verge of panic. She can’t bear to attend the event alone. That’s when she recalls a strange story her Yiddish grandmother once told her, about a protector forged of desperation… and Eve, to her own shock, manages to create a golem.
At first everything seems great. The golem is indeed protective—and also attractive. But when they head out to a rural summer camp for the family wedding, Eve’s lighthearted rom-com fantasy swiftly mudslides into something much darker.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 2024
62 people are currently reading
15193 people want to read
About the author
Beth Kander
19 books121 followersBeth Kander is a USA Today bestselling writer with tangled roots in the Midwest and Deep South. The granddaughter of immigrants, her work often explores how worlds old and new intertwine—or collide. Beth earned an MSW from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women, where she has also served as a visiting professor. She calls Chicago home these days, and is lucky to live there with her very favorite characters: her heroic husband, their two brave, hilarious kids, and a giant rescue dog named Oz.
For more: www.bethkander.com
For more: www.bethkander.com
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December 21, 2024
Many years ago I read the book, The Golem and The Jenni by Helene Wecker and really enjoyed it so when I saw I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander I was excited to read it. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t what this book presented. There was no comparison between the two books. I was really disappointed by the way Beth Kander chose to represent the Golem in I Made It Out of Clay. It started out with some promise but quickly grew unrealistic and even violent. It focused on family, friendships, depression, coping with loss, grief, stress, layoffs and antisemitism. The ending had some redeeming elements. Overall, I was disappointed. I don’t think that this was the best book for me to read.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 22, 2024
Meet Eve Goodman. She’s about to turn 40 and her younger sister is getting married. Eve has been mourning the sudden death of her father for a year now and is trying to get her act back together. Eve, her mother and her sister have all been handling their grief in completely different ways. Eve “threw herself into work, started eating everything in sight, and stopped making any decisions.”
Between the pressure from the upcoming family wedding (her sister is a well-known TikTok influencer and has been posting lots of wedding-related videos) and expected layoffs at her Chicago marketing agency, Eve is stressed. Her best friends have also been acting a bit oddly and she doesn’t know why. In addition to all this, she’s faced with the upturn in antisemitism, both around the world and right there in Chicagoland. In fact, her family’s synagogue has just had a bomb threat (that turned out to be a false alarm) and she is verbally assaulted for being Jewish while on a Chicago train ride, while wearing one of those “ugly Christmas/Hanukkah sweaters” in honor of the season. So Eve is very stressed. Not a spoiler due to the title of the book - while drunk she somehow manages to create a golem.
For anyone who doesn’t know what a golem is - it is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. (Thank you to Wikipedia for this brief definition.) Its purpose is to protect the Jewish people. It doesn’t have free will but will do whatever its master/mistress tells it to do. (A mixed blessing, as you may imagine.) This particular golem is rather handsome and Eve is determined to bring this golem as her Plus One to her sister’s wedding. The scenes of her shopping for appropriate clothing for him and dining out with him were pretty funny. This golem LOVED coffee!
There are some really wonderful observations about everyday modern life, social media, etc. “It’s so easy to just keep things surface level. Do a cursory check-in, hit the proverbial like button, and just move on.”
(Quotes are from an advance readers copy and may be changed in the final, published book.)
Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
UPDATE: I was lucky enough to revisit this story via audiobook. Gail Shalan did a fabulous job with all the voices. Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the chance to listen to the audio version of I Made It Out Of Clay by Beth Kander
Between the pressure from the upcoming family wedding (her sister is a well-known TikTok influencer and has been posting lots of wedding-related videos) and expected layoffs at her Chicago marketing agency, Eve is stressed. Her best friends have also been acting a bit oddly and she doesn’t know why. In addition to all this, she’s faced with the upturn in antisemitism, both around the world and right there in Chicagoland. In fact, her family’s synagogue has just had a bomb threat (that turned out to be a false alarm) and she is verbally assaulted for being Jewish while on a Chicago train ride, while wearing one of those “ugly Christmas/Hanukkah sweaters” in honor of the season. So Eve is very stressed. Not a spoiler due to the title of the book - while drunk she somehow manages to create a golem.
For anyone who doesn’t know what a golem is - it is an animated, anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. (Thank you to Wikipedia for this brief definition.) Its purpose is to protect the Jewish people. It doesn’t have free will but will do whatever its master/mistress tells it to do. (A mixed blessing, as you may imagine.) This particular golem is rather handsome and Eve is determined to bring this golem as her Plus One to her sister’s wedding. The scenes of her shopping for appropriate clothing for him and dining out with him were pretty funny. This golem LOVED coffee!
There are some really wonderful observations about everyday modern life, social media, etc. “It’s so easy to just keep things surface level. Do a cursory check-in, hit the proverbial like button, and just move on.”
(Quotes are from an advance readers copy and may be changed in the final, published book.)
Thank you to NetGalley and MIRA for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
UPDATE: I was lucky enough to revisit this story via audiobook. Gail Shalan did a fabulous job with all the voices. Thank you to Harlequin Audio for the chance to listen to the audio version of I Made It Out Of Clay by Beth Kander
December 19, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
I Made It Out of Clay.
When I read the premise, I immediately thought of the golem episode from The X-Files so I had certain dark expectations for this.
** Minor non-scary spoilers ahead **
I love the premise but not the stereotypical tropes:
The main character, Eve, is single, pushing forty, and depressed her little sister is getting married.
Naturally, there's a hottie neighbor in her building she's crushing on...and he's Jewish, too!
What are the odds?
When Eve builds herself a golem (as her plus-one) she's delighted to have someone, not just a protector, but just a person to rely on, depend on...much like her dad was for her until his untimely death.
But when her golem's behavior turns dangerous, Eve must confront her fears because that's what's truly holding her back.
First, this is neither darkly comedic or hilarious.
The narrative is quite dark since it focuses on dealing with sorrow and grief, hate crime, and antisemitism.
There are plenty of references to her grandmother's tale of harrowing survival during Hitler's regime and that never makes for light reading.
It was hard to like Eve; I understand she was mourning her father and grandmother, but she didn't have any real friends or identity.
She wasn't interesting or compelling; like most main characters in these types of genres, she's kind of a loser so why should I care about her?
I did like the scene where Eve's sister's partner calls Eve out on her behavior and how she needs to hold herself accountable for her own actions.
The golem is the most exciting part of the story but he doesn't appear until nearly halfway through the novel and even his appearance is lackluster and underutilized.
He's supposed to be the star of the show!
The tone of the narrative is confusing; it's dark and heavy, and the rom-com moments aren't funny or sweet.
I wished the story had gone in either one of two directions: straight up rom-com hilarity like Bridesmaids with some serious moments or outright scary like The X-Files.
The premise had potential but I didn't like Eve, the tone of the story, and the cheesy romance with the 'hottie' neighbor (because they're always hot in books).
When I read the premise, I immediately thought of the golem episode from The X-Files so I had certain dark expectations for this.
** Minor non-scary spoilers ahead **
I love the premise but not the stereotypical tropes:
The main character, Eve, is single, pushing forty, and depressed her little sister is getting married.
Naturally, there's a hottie neighbor in her building she's crushing on...and he's Jewish, too!
What are the odds?
When Eve builds herself a golem (as her plus-one) she's delighted to have someone, not just a protector, but just a person to rely on, depend on...much like her dad was for her until his untimely death.
But when her golem's behavior turns dangerous, Eve must confront her fears because that's what's truly holding her back.
First, this is neither darkly comedic or hilarious.
The narrative is quite dark since it focuses on dealing with sorrow and grief, hate crime, and antisemitism.
There are plenty of references to her grandmother's tale of harrowing survival during Hitler's regime and that never makes for light reading.
It was hard to like Eve; I understand she was mourning her father and grandmother, but she didn't have any real friends or identity.
She wasn't interesting or compelling; like most main characters in these types of genres, she's kind of a loser so why should I care about her?
I did like the scene where Eve's sister's partner calls Eve out on her behavior and how she needs to hold herself accountable for her own actions.
The golem is the most exciting part of the story but he doesn't appear until nearly halfway through the novel and even his appearance is lackluster and underutilized.
He's supposed to be the star of the show!
The tone of the narrative is confusing; it's dark and heavy, and the rom-com moments aren't funny or sweet.
I wished the story had gone in either one of two directions: straight up rom-com hilarity like Bridesmaids with some serious moments or outright scary like The X-Files.
The premise had potential but I didn't like Eve, the tone of the story, and the cheesy romance with the 'hottie' neighbor (because they're always hot in books).
December 8, 2024
Thank you NetGalley, and Mira (Harlequin) and Beth Kander for providing an eARC for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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Reviews are for readers, and no one else.
As another reviewer pointed out, this book is not anything it promised to be: it is not darkly funny nor surprisingly sweet, there is no lighthearted rom-com fantasy to mudslide into something darker. Someone commented on that review, stating the author isn't responsible for writing the marketing copy, and if we as readers feel misled, that's not the author's problem. But I'm not reviewing the author. I'm reviewing the book. And if I went into a restaurant and saw Steak au Poivre on the menu, ordered it, and received a steak with brown mushroom gravy that just happened to have coarse ground peppercorns, well, I'd be pissed and want my money back. It's immaterial who wrote the menu: it was advertised as one thing, and something else was delivered, and I'm not happy about it.
However, I can say a few nice things about this book, which is why it's not a one star, although make no mistake, I absolutely seriously disliked this book and cannot and will not recommend it. The nice things I can say are as follows: I liked the FMC Eve's relationship with her dad, I liked her dad as a character (although he was, y'know, not alive), I liked Eve's fondness for Christmas as an event rather than a religious holiday, and I liked Sasha, Eve's friend, as a character, flawed though she may be.
The FMC, Eve (what a name) is a miserable person. She is struggling with grief (as many of us do during the "most wonderful time of year"), but she's been struggling for a year, and has basically just turned into a bitch. She keeps her phone turned off and ignores everyone. She resents her self-imposed isolation and blames everyone around her for it. She is hung up on having a plus one for her baby sister's wedding- a wedding she's Maid of Honor of and is rejecting all duties related to, and instead of gracefully stepping down, chooses to lash out when asked to pick up wine and flowers, and then pouts when she's not invited to hair and makeup, even after she declined attending any other prewedding celebratory or preparatory events.
The golem, made in a fit of drunken desperation to not be alone at said wedding, shows up around 40% as other reviewers mentioned, and has no personality or motivation and barely qualifies as a character because hello- he (it?) is a golem. It (he?) has one single function: protect. That function does not include "be a good date at my sister's wedding", but it does include "f%ck my brains out" which frankly gave me the ick. I'm not a religious person by practice or heritage, but since the golem must obey it's creator's commands, it kind of opened up a question of consent for me, but does a golem need consent? Was this sex, or was it masturbation with a toy made out of clay and magic? The blasé way the golem was handled in general was really strange to me. Again, I'm not Jewish, so maybe I need to shut up. But he was treated like hired muscle/an escort, but maybe it didn't matter because he's not real. There is a disclaimer at the start of the book that we're playing fast and loose with the mythos around golems, which, fine, I can buy that. I can suspend disbelief as well as the next dragon-loving, wanted-my-Hogwarts-letter-when-I-was-11, reader. But something here with the execution just felt really, really off. The golem was naïve, and childlike, had no free will (this was explicitly stated), and didn't understand really what anything was. Eve had to explain a menu, and choices, and coffee, and TV, and wine, and other things to the golem, and then explain what is real and what is not, and that just because there are sirens on TV does not mean Eve is in danger. And then she had sex with him. I can't really be alone in finding that icky, right? That does not say "rom-com" to me, that says "dark-ish romance with TWs" to me. The golem's name itself was even kind of weird. I think it was trying to be the "com" part of the "rom-com" but I didn't find it funny, I found it cringe. His name is which I guess is better than Joe Dirt, but not by much. And yes, Eve was reminiscing on the 90s cult classic movie Clueless when thinking about a name for her creation/animated d!ld0.
My first red flag though came before any of this happened, very early in the book, in chapter two. Whenever a gay best friend is introduced whose only personality trait is being gay... I know I'm going to get irritated. However, in the interest of being fair, I should mention that the character is gay AND is married to a hot doctor, so that's two personality traits. Hashtag winning. Nearly every time this character speaks, he brings up his hot doctor husband. Might get laid off? It's fine: he has a hot doctor husband. Turning 40 and body starting to fall apart? That's fine, he can recommend a fabulous doctor. Please, please give gay characters a personality trait other than their gayness.
I haven't even gotten to the plot holes and skewed timeline red flags yet.
I considered omitting the plot holes and messed up timeline from my review altogether, because this is an ARC! It's not final yet! I've read enough of these to know how this works, maybe I need to chill out and have a little grace (that thing our FMC is utterly lacking). So when I found the first plot hole, where the FMC finished her food and threw away her plate, and then the next paragraph was looking down at her empty plate surprised it was empty, and then the next page was finishing the last bite off food off her plate, I thought, "Well, maybe she got a new plate and refilled it a few times and the author just didn't bother to say that, even though she made sure to point out the plate's empty state."
Related to this, the FMC is constantly describing herself as peckish, hungry, starving, wanting food, having an empty stomach, snacking, overeating, having her stomach audibly rumble and growl, and otherwise indicating she needs to eat and cannot satisfy her insatiable appetite. She also criticizes her body and her mother harps on her eating habits, so readers with sensitivity to food or body image should absolutely steer clear on that factor alone.
In a more dangerous sense, the FMC has a truly godawful relationship with alcohol and gets drunk and makes terrible decisions no less than six times, but possibly more. I have nearly 200 highlights in this book and am having a hard time finding each incident, but spoilers: Some of these incidents happen in the same day (such as 2 and 3, and 5 and 6) because Eve likes to get drunk, f*ck around and find out, and then get drunker still and then go f*ck around and find out some more. The whole book takes place though over the course of a single week. This is a lot of binge drinking to be happening in the span of a week.
Weird food relationships and blatant alcohol abuse aside, when I found another inconsistency, Eve and her best friend Sasha confusing Bryan and Carlos and which one was singing in the very gay Christmas musical extravaganza, I got even more concerned. And they kept coming. Eve talking about her best friend Eve (maybe Sasha got a name change!). Eve follows her sister's TikTok on Tuesday at her mother's encouragement while having lunch together, but then on Saturday she opens up TikTok and clicks on her sister's profile which she hasn't visited since following her sister a year ago. Which is it? Later in the book, Sasha catches a ride somewhere with Bryan and Carlos, and then someone else says they spoke to Bryan and Carlos in the parking lot just a moment ago, but Sasha supposedly sent them home an hour prior to that conversation. These all seem pretty small, and could easily happen during the editing process or rewriting process, but at this stage, any major edits and rewrites should already be done.
Maybe EVERYBODY is an unreliable narrator?
Either way, the biggest plot hole is with Sasha, and her missed call and twenty two unread text messages that Eve receives Friday morning. You see, Sasha was calling/texting about the argument the two of them have on Friday night which obviously hasn't happened yet. I reread this several times to make sure I wasn't crazy, but I'm not. Sasha is freaking out Friday morning about something that happened Friday night. This is a big 'un, and it's gotta go behind a spoiler tag.
See? Even typing that I had to go back and reference the book several times to make sure I had the timeline right, because it just doesn't make sense.
Some other things are just never explained, such as:
Eve's weird hunger situation, but I assume it had something to do with grief and/or the urge to make a golem? But the hunger thing resolves seemingly without connection to grief, and remains resolved after so that doesn't seem to fit.
The hallucination that prompted Eve to make the golem. Was it real or not? What was the hallucination trying to actually say, if not "Make a golem"?
"Spot-the-menorah: a holiday I-spy game inadvertently played by every Jewish person in the world." but Eve only mentions the menorah in this restaurant and one other restaurant and not any other time. It would have been a cute recurring theme if she noted "Menorah!" or "No menorah..." whenever she went into a business, and she does go into many over the course of the week: multiple coffee shops, multiple bars, a hotel, a few restaurants, her work, Men's Warehouse, TJ Maxx...
At the 80% mark, a new threat emerges from seemingly left field, and it felt contrived. Earlier in the book a b0mb threat is mentioned and it's presented like it's just some general kind of antisemitism situation, which sounds blasé when I put it like that but that's how it was conveyed, like this was just normal every day hatred and when Eve asks if the temple will have increased security, her mom says no, they won't, and they move on to other matters. It's given very little weight or consideration, so when it comes back up around the 80% mark, it was very surprising. If it had been just Eve who had pooh-poohed the situation, then I could chalk it up to Eve being out of touch and reclusive, but her very involved mother pooh-poohed it too!
So when
It was also super convenient that no one had their phones on them, since it was an "unplugged wedding" and everyone's phones were in a basket with a cute Pinterest-esque sign that read, "We request your full presence, to help us celebrate right; please leave your phone here ’til the end of the night!". So when the activities in the spoiler tag above were happening, no one had their phone and couldn't call for help. Not that it would matter, because 1) there's no cell signal and 2) they're so far remote it would take thirty minutes for help to arrive anyways. Neither of these statements are conjecture or just my personal opinion; they're specifically stated in the book about the location.
Throughout all of this, Eve is just a bitch. Plain and simple. She complains about everything, worries only about herself, has abandoned her sister during the most important time of her life, has abandoned her friends and coworkers during times of difficulty (layoffs, budget cuts, etc), leaps to outlandish conclusions about Hot Josh (because only drug dealers drive minivans), is a raging alcoholic, and somehow still has the nerve to think she's a victim in all this. Despite this, her family still loves her and forgives her, her friends love her and forgive her, and Hot Josh I like "unlikable" or flawed characters, but Eve has zero redeeming qualities. If she tried and was still struggling, or if she made any kind of effort to acknowledge her shortcomings, I could forgive her, but she has to pathologically make everything about her.
The final nail in the coffin for me was the end.
While Eve and Sasha are discussing the above spoiler tag over mimosas, because that's exactly what Eve needs, more alcohol, Bryan rushes in and drops a bombshell at the eleventh hour, proclaiming, which is super exciting, but weird to drop at the end of a story. Which has me concerned it's related to my next point.
This book has sequel bait at the end, and I honestly might have to read it if it comes out, to see if it's just as bad as this book. Don't want to read this and find out what the sequel bait is? Let me save you the trouble: AND THEN THE BOOK ENDS. That is so ominous.
Between Eve being irredeemable and insufferable, side characters being as flat as my mousepad, and the plot holes and inconsistencies, I can't like this book. I can't recommend this book, unless you want to read it and see how deep the rabbit hole goes yourself. Maybe it will be different when it's published. It's possible, for whatever reason, major edits happened after the eARC was provided, but I really doubt it, and that's a real shame.
(edit: this review took me three and a half hours to write. I have 692 characters, not including this edit (449 including this edit), remaining before I hit the limit, which means if I felt like it, I could easily cap the limit on this review)
.
.
.
Reviews are for readers, and no one else.
As another reviewer pointed out, this book is not anything it promised to be: it is not darkly funny nor surprisingly sweet, there is no lighthearted rom-com fantasy to mudslide into something darker. Someone commented on that review, stating the author isn't responsible for writing the marketing copy, and if we as readers feel misled, that's not the author's problem. But I'm not reviewing the author. I'm reviewing the book. And if I went into a restaurant and saw Steak au Poivre on the menu, ordered it, and received a steak with brown mushroom gravy that just happened to have coarse ground peppercorns, well, I'd be pissed and want my money back. It's immaterial who wrote the menu: it was advertised as one thing, and something else was delivered, and I'm not happy about it.
However, I can say a few nice things about this book, which is why it's not a one star, although make no mistake, I absolutely seriously disliked this book and cannot and will not recommend it. The nice things I can say are as follows: I liked the FMC Eve's relationship with her dad, I liked her dad as a character (although he was, y'know, not alive), I liked Eve's fondness for Christmas as an event rather than a religious holiday, and I liked Sasha, Eve's friend, as a character, flawed though she may be.
The FMC, Eve (what a name) is a miserable person. She is struggling with grief (as many of us do during the "most wonderful time of year"), but she's been struggling for a year, and has basically just turned into a bitch. She keeps her phone turned off and ignores everyone. She resents her self-imposed isolation and blames everyone around her for it. She is hung up on having a plus one for her baby sister's wedding- a wedding she's Maid of Honor of and is rejecting all duties related to, and instead of gracefully stepping down, chooses to lash out when asked to pick up wine and flowers, and then pouts when she's not invited to hair and makeup, even after she declined attending any other prewedding celebratory or preparatory events.
The golem, made in a fit of drunken desperation to not be alone at said wedding, shows up around 40% as other reviewers mentioned, and has no personality or motivation and barely qualifies as a character because hello- he (it?) is a golem. It (he?) has one single function: protect. That function does not include "be a good date at my sister's wedding", but it does include "f%ck my brains out" which frankly gave me the ick. I'm not a religious person by practice or heritage, but since the golem must obey it's creator's commands, it kind of opened up a question of consent for me, but does a golem need consent? Was this sex, or was it masturbation with a toy made out of clay and magic? The blasé way the golem was handled in general was really strange to me. Again, I'm not Jewish, so maybe I need to shut up. But he was treated like hired muscle/an escort, but maybe it didn't matter because he's not real. There is a disclaimer at the start of the book that we're playing fast and loose with the mythos around golems, which, fine, I can buy that. I can suspend disbelief as well as the next dragon-loving, wanted-my-Hogwarts-letter-when-I-was-11, reader. But something here with the execution just felt really, really off. The golem was naïve, and childlike, had no free will (this was explicitly stated), and didn't understand really what anything was. Eve had to explain a menu, and choices, and coffee, and TV, and wine, and other things to the golem, and then explain what is real and what is not, and that just because there are sirens on TV does not mean Eve is in danger. And then she had sex with him. I can't really be alone in finding that icky, right? That does not say "rom-com" to me, that says "dark-ish romance with TWs" to me. The golem's name itself was even kind of weird. I think it was trying to be the "com" part of the "rom-com" but I didn't find it funny, I found it cringe. His name is which I guess is better than Joe Dirt, but not by much. And yes, Eve was reminiscing on the 90s cult classic movie Clueless when thinking about a name for her creation/animated d!ld0.
My first red flag though came before any of this happened, very early in the book, in chapter two. Whenever a gay best friend is introduced whose only personality trait is being gay... I know I'm going to get irritated. However, in the interest of being fair, I should mention that the character is gay AND is married to a hot doctor, so that's two personality traits. Hashtag winning. Nearly every time this character speaks, he brings up his hot doctor husband. Might get laid off? It's fine: he has a hot doctor husband. Turning 40 and body starting to fall apart? That's fine, he can recommend a fabulous doctor. Please, please give gay characters a personality trait other than their gayness.
I haven't even gotten to the plot holes and skewed timeline red flags yet.
I considered omitting the plot holes and messed up timeline from my review altogether, because this is an ARC! It's not final yet! I've read enough of these to know how this works, maybe I need to chill out and have a little grace (that thing our FMC is utterly lacking). So when I found the first plot hole, where the FMC finished her food and threw away her plate, and then the next paragraph was looking down at her empty plate surprised it was empty, and then the next page was finishing the last bite off food off her plate, I thought, "Well, maybe she got a new plate and refilled it a few times and the author just didn't bother to say that, even though she made sure to point out the plate's empty state."
Related to this, the FMC is constantly describing herself as peckish, hungry, starving, wanting food, having an empty stomach, snacking, overeating, having her stomach audibly rumble and growl, and otherwise indicating she needs to eat and cannot satisfy her insatiable appetite. She also criticizes her body and her mother harps on her eating habits, so readers with sensitivity to food or body image should absolutely steer clear on that factor alone.
In a more dangerous sense, the FMC has a truly godawful relationship with alcohol and gets drunk and makes terrible decisions no less than six times, but possibly more. I have nearly 200 highlights in this book and am having a hard time finding each incident, but spoilers: Some of these incidents happen in the same day (such as 2 and 3, and 5 and 6) because Eve likes to get drunk, f*ck around and find out, and then get drunker still and then go f*ck around and find out some more. The whole book takes place though over the course of a single week. This is a lot of binge drinking to be happening in the span of a week.
Weird food relationships and blatant alcohol abuse aside, when I found another inconsistency, Eve and her best friend Sasha confusing Bryan and Carlos and which one was singing in the very gay Christmas musical extravaganza, I got even more concerned. And they kept coming. Eve talking about her best friend Eve (maybe Sasha got a name change!). Eve follows her sister's TikTok on Tuesday at her mother's encouragement while having lunch together, but then on Saturday she opens up TikTok and clicks on her sister's profile which she hasn't visited since following her sister a year ago. Which is it? Later in the book, Sasha catches a ride somewhere with Bryan and Carlos, and then someone else says they spoke to Bryan and Carlos in the parking lot just a moment ago, but Sasha supposedly sent them home an hour prior to that conversation. These all seem pretty small, and could easily happen during the editing process or rewriting process, but at this stage, any major edits and rewrites should already be done.
Maybe EVERYBODY is an unreliable narrator?
Either way, the biggest plot hole is with Sasha, and her missed call and twenty two unread text messages that Eve receives Friday morning. You see, Sasha was calling/texting about the argument the two of them have on Friday night which obviously hasn't happened yet. I reread this several times to make sure I wasn't crazy, but I'm not. Sasha is freaking out Friday morning about something that happened Friday night. This is a big 'un, and it's gotta go behind a spoiler tag.
See? Even typing that I had to go back and reference the book several times to make sure I had the timeline right, because it just doesn't make sense.
Some other things are just never explained, such as:
Eve's weird hunger situation, but I assume it had something to do with grief and/or the urge to make a golem? But the hunger thing resolves seemingly without connection to grief, and remains resolved after so that doesn't seem to fit.
The hallucination that prompted Eve to make the golem. Was it real or not? What was the hallucination trying to actually say, if not "Make a golem"?
"Spot-the-menorah: a holiday I-spy game inadvertently played by every Jewish person in the world." but Eve only mentions the menorah in this restaurant and one other restaurant and not any other time. It would have been a cute recurring theme if she noted "Menorah!" or "No menorah..." whenever she went into a business, and she does go into many over the course of the week: multiple coffee shops, multiple bars, a hotel, a few restaurants, her work, Men's Warehouse, TJ Maxx...
At the 80% mark, a new threat emerges from seemingly left field, and it felt contrived. Earlier in the book a b0mb threat is mentioned and it's presented like it's just some general kind of antisemitism situation, which sounds blasé when I put it like that but that's how it was conveyed, like this was just normal every day hatred and when Eve asks if the temple will have increased security, her mom says no, they won't, and they move on to other matters. It's given very little weight or consideration, so when it comes back up around the 80% mark, it was very surprising. If it had been just Eve who had pooh-poohed the situation, then I could chalk it up to Eve being out of touch and reclusive, but her very involved mother pooh-poohed it too!
So when
It was also super convenient that no one had their phones on them, since it was an "unplugged wedding" and everyone's phones were in a basket with a cute Pinterest-esque sign that read, "We request your full presence, to help us celebrate right; please leave your phone here ’til the end of the night!". So when the activities in the spoiler tag above were happening, no one had their phone and couldn't call for help. Not that it would matter, because 1) there's no cell signal and 2) they're so far remote it would take thirty minutes for help to arrive anyways. Neither of these statements are conjecture or just my personal opinion; they're specifically stated in the book about the location.
Throughout all of this, Eve is just a bitch. Plain and simple. She complains about everything, worries only about herself, has abandoned her sister during the most important time of her life, has abandoned her friends and coworkers during times of difficulty (layoffs, budget cuts, etc), leaps to outlandish conclusions about Hot Josh (because only drug dealers drive minivans), is a raging alcoholic, and somehow still has the nerve to think she's a victim in all this. Despite this, her family still loves her and forgives her, her friends love her and forgive her, and Hot Josh I like "unlikable" or flawed characters, but Eve has zero redeeming qualities. If she tried and was still struggling, or if she made any kind of effort to acknowledge her shortcomings, I could forgive her, but she has to pathologically make everything about her.
The final nail in the coffin for me was the end.
While Eve and Sasha are discussing the above spoiler tag over mimosas, because that's exactly what Eve needs, more alcohol, Bryan rushes in and drops a bombshell at the eleventh hour, proclaiming, which is super exciting, but weird to drop at the end of a story. Which has me concerned it's related to my next point.
This book has sequel bait at the end, and I honestly might have to read it if it comes out, to see if it's just as bad as this book. Don't want to read this and find out what the sequel bait is? Let me save you the trouble: AND THEN THE BOOK ENDS. That is so ominous.
Between Eve being irredeemable and insufferable, side characters being as flat as my mousepad, and the plot holes and inconsistencies, I can't like this book. I can't recommend this book, unless you want to read it and see how deep the rabbit hole goes yourself. Maybe it will be different when it's published. It's possible, for whatever reason, major edits happened after the eARC was provided, but I really doubt it, and that's a real shame.
(edit: this review took me three and a half hours to write. I have 692 characters, not including this edit (449 including this edit), remaining before I hit the limit, which means if I felt like it, I could easily cap the limit on this review)
December 31, 2024
Confession time - though I chose this book BECAUSE of the golem element, that ended up being my least favorite bit of the story.
This starts like a light romcom, and I was enjoying the trials and tribulations of Eve. She's not a particularly likeable character, but I sympathized with her concerns over keeping her job, and the pressure to participate in family functions. Like our heroine, I'm not a big fan of returning emails and replying to texts.
Sometimes a gal just wants to be left alone.
Then the fantasy element was introduced, and my interest cooled quickly. So much about the golem is murky, from how he was created to how an inert "statue" got transported, and stashed in the back of a closet. And the really annoyed me.
(Wrong religion, I know, but maybe God will forgive me.)
I'm usually a fan of dramedy, but this one just didn't work for me.
Still a fan of golems, though . . .
Thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for the read.
This starts like a light romcom, and I was enjoying the trials and tribulations of Eve. She's not a particularly likeable character, but I sympathized with her concerns over keeping her job, and the pressure to participate in family functions. Like our heroine, I'm not a big fan of returning emails and replying to texts.
Sometimes a gal just wants to be left alone.
Then the fantasy element was introduced, and my interest cooled quickly. So much about the golem is murky, from how he was created to how an inert "statue" got transported, and stashed in the back of a closet. And the really annoyed me.
(Wrong religion, I know, but maybe God will forgive me.)
I'm usually a fan of dramedy, but this one just didn't work for me.
Still a fan of golems, though . . .
Thanks to NetGalley and MIRA for the read.
June 17, 2024
Do the people writing the blurbs actually read the books they are blurbing? Because it is increasingly looking to me that they do not...
The cover, the title, and the blurb all focus on the Golem and the hilarity that ensues from his accidental creation. Yet it is 50% of the book in before you even get to the Golem. And there is no hilarity in that 50%. Up to that point, this is primarily a book about grief and struggle and fear. It's very well written and deeply moving, but not even remotely what I thought it was going to be and as a result I struggled to keep picking it up and reading because it was depressing and dark and not at all what I was lead to expect.
This is not a book I would have requested if I had been fully aware of what it was actually about. Not because there's anything wrong in any way with it, but because it is not the kind of book I am drawn to or the kind of story I need right now. Massive amounts of the book focus on her father's death and her Holocaust Survivor grandmother's death. I am still dealing with my own father's death and would never have chosen a book so heavily weighted in that direction because I simply can't read it right now. I pushed and pushed until I got to the Golem to see if, at that point, the tone would shift, but it didn't. And unfortunately I couldn't keep reading as a result..
If you are looking for a heavy personal drama and personal growth story with some lighter elements thrown in, this is an excellent choice. As I said, the writing is good. It just wasn't for me. And I really think that the publisher did a disservice to the author with the cover art and focus of the blurb, because I find it unlikely that I am going to be the only reader that feels bait- and-switched here...
4 stars for the writing, though - it's not the author's fault that the publisher blurbed it as they did!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
The cover, the title, and the blurb all focus on the Golem and the hilarity that ensues from his accidental creation. Yet it is 50% of the book in before you even get to the Golem. And there is no hilarity in that 50%. Up to that point, this is primarily a book about grief and struggle and fear. It's very well written and deeply moving, but not even remotely what I thought it was going to be and as a result I struggled to keep picking it up and reading because it was depressing and dark and not at all what I was lead to expect.
This is not a book I would have requested if I had been fully aware of what it was actually about. Not because there's anything wrong in any way with it, but because it is not the kind of book I am drawn to or the kind of story I need right now. Massive amounts of the book focus on her father's death and her Holocaust Survivor grandmother's death. I am still dealing with my own father's death and would never have chosen a book so heavily weighted in that direction because I simply can't read it right now. I pushed and pushed until I got to the Golem to see if, at that point, the tone would shift, but it didn't. And unfortunately I couldn't keep reading as a result..
If you are looking for a heavy personal drama and personal growth story with some lighter elements thrown in, this is an excellent choice. As I said, the writing is good. It just wasn't for me. And I really think that the publisher did a disservice to the author with the cover art and focus of the blurb, because I find it unlikely that I am going to be the only reader that feels bait- and-switched here...
4 stars for the writing, though - it's not the author's fault that the publisher blurbed it as they did!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.
June 13, 2024
Beth Kander, you’ve done it—what a great read! Eve is a hot mess who is down on her luck. Everything seems to be going wrong in her life, and she is desperate for a little help and security. Enter Golum to save the day; however, things start to take a sinister turn, and this is where the story gets interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found myself constantly picking it up with the intention of reading just one chapter, only to never want to put it down. The length was perfect, with no parts that dragged on. While Eve did get on my nerves at one point, it all came together seamlessly in the end. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to a friend.
Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, for the advanced reader's copy of this book.
Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, for the advanced reader's copy of this book.
August 22, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC of this book for an honest review.
Another book that I wasn’t a fan of. The basic gist is that Eve is about to turn 40. Her dad died a year ago and she’s still in heavy mourning, her mom has decided to sell her childhood home, she might be losing her job, the guy she likes turned her down for a date, and her younger sister is getting married the day before Eve’s birthday. She is depressed and keeps seeing her deceased grandmother everywhere. When she recalls a story her grandmother told her about wanting to create a golem for protection in WWII, but her family was captured by Nazi’s before she could, Eve gets it in her head to create a golem to help with her love life (to be honest, she’s really drunk when she does it).
The main problem I have is that Eve just isn’t likable. She uses her father’s death to pull away from her family and friends, she doesn’t keep her phone on, but then gets upset when she doesn’t know what’s going on with her family and friends. Not to mention she’s overweight and this is told to us by her stomach constantly growling.
When the golem is created, she brings him out with her, and even though all he does is grunt and drink coffee, everyone thinks he’s this great guy. But anyone he perceives as a threat to Eve he wants to destroy. She’s constantly having to calm him down. Meanwhile, whenever anyone tries to talk to her, her best friend, Sasha, her crush, Josh, her mom and sister, she just brushes them off as if she knows what they’re going to say, and she has no idea what they’re going to say. She’s very self-centered. And also, despite his grunting and not knowing how to eat and drink without Eve teaching him, the golem apparently knows how to kiss and have sex, which was very uncomfortable because he has to listen to anything Eve said and he didn’t have a choice.
But the worst part of this, is that Sasha figures out that this guy is a golem because her ex was apparently also a golem! Like why are two Jewish girls making golems for their love lives? Jewish lore usually makes them be huge mud men that terrorize bad guys. I just don’t understand the route this went.
And then after all that, Eve faces exactly zero consequences, as everyone’s memories go fuzzy and can’t remember the golem that well, Eve ends up with her hot neighbor, and everything is just hunky dory.
2.5 stars.
Another book that I wasn’t a fan of. The basic gist is that Eve is about to turn 40. Her dad died a year ago and she’s still in heavy mourning, her mom has decided to sell her childhood home, she might be losing her job, the guy she likes turned her down for a date, and her younger sister is getting married the day before Eve’s birthday. She is depressed and keeps seeing her deceased grandmother everywhere. When she recalls a story her grandmother told her about wanting to create a golem for protection in WWII, but her family was captured by Nazi’s before she could, Eve gets it in her head to create a golem to help with her love life (to be honest, she’s really drunk when she does it).
The main problem I have is that Eve just isn’t likable. She uses her father’s death to pull away from her family and friends, she doesn’t keep her phone on, but then gets upset when she doesn’t know what’s going on with her family and friends. Not to mention she’s overweight and this is told to us by her stomach constantly growling.
When the golem is created, she brings him out with her, and even though all he does is grunt and drink coffee, everyone thinks he’s this great guy. But anyone he perceives as a threat to Eve he wants to destroy. She’s constantly having to calm him down. Meanwhile, whenever anyone tries to talk to her, her best friend, Sasha, her crush, Josh, her mom and sister, she just brushes them off as if she knows what they’re going to say, and she has no idea what they’re going to say. She’s very self-centered. And also, despite his grunting and not knowing how to eat and drink without Eve teaching him, the golem apparently knows how to kiss and have sex, which was very uncomfortable because he has to listen to anything Eve said and he didn’t have a choice.
But the worst part of this, is that Sasha figures out that this guy is a golem because her ex was apparently also a golem! Like why are two Jewish girls making golems for their love lives? Jewish lore usually makes them be huge mud men that terrorize bad guys. I just don’t understand the route this went.
And then after all that, Eve faces exactly zero consequences, as everyone’s memories go fuzzy and can’t remember the golem that well, Eve ends up with her hot neighbor, and everything is just hunky dory.
2.5 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 29, 2024
I like reading books about women in their 30s and 40s (I’m getting tired of 18 year old wunderkinds and 20-somethings with it all figured out). However, Eve did not have her shit together, and felt like someone freaking out about her 30th birthday, not 40th. She was immature and many times I did not understand the choices she made. To be honest— she kinda sucked, and it made it hard to read the book.
Mostly I wanted everyone to go to therapy. Grief is hard, and people experience it in different ways, but come on. You’re a Jewish millennial with issues on top of your debilitating grief, how are you not in therapy??? How is it possible that no one in this book talks about therapy at all?
Besides that, the story felt disjointed. Why was there work drama in this story? It felt completely irrelevant. Sure, we are introduced to her friends at work, but the rest was random and unnecessary. Even the friends felt kind of like random, flat additions to the story, with little depth.
This is not a rom com (though weirdly seems marketed as such??)- the golem isn’t a love interest, and her crush is kind of a side character we see very little of (but also why did he show up at the end?). I also didn’t find the book funny (darkly or otherwise) nor particularly sweet.
I appreciated the Jewish culture, and understand the fear of antisemitism that Eve feels. Every mention of her Bubbe made me miss my own.
The ending was quick, simple, and entirely too convenient. Lucky that everyone gets to forget the trauma of an antisemitic lunatic taking everyone hostage and then the golem doing the same! But luckily everyone remembers Eve’s lovely speech.
Mostly I was disappointed and it left me wanting something different entirely.
Also: why tf did she keep the damn golem? He’s dangerous, and probably takes up way too much space.
Mostly I wanted everyone to go to therapy. Grief is hard, and people experience it in different ways, but come on. You’re a Jewish millennial with issues on top of your debilitating grief, how are you not in therapy??? How is it possible that no one in this book talks about therapy at all?
Besides that, the story felt disjointed. Why was there work drama in this story? It felt completely irrelevant. Sure, we are introduced to her friends at work, but the rest was random and unnecessary. Even the friends felt kind of like random, flat additions to the story, with little depth.
This is not a rom com (though weirdly seems marketed as such??)- the golem isn’t a love interest, and her crush is kind of a side character we see very little of (but also why did he show up at the end?). I also didn’t find the book funny (darkly or otherwise) nor particularly sweet.
I appreciated the Jewish culture, and understand the fear of antisemitism that Eve feels. Every mention of her Bubbe made me miss my own.
The ending was quick, simple, and entirely too convenient. Lucky that everyone gets to forget the trauma of an antisemitic lunatic taking everyone hostage and then the golem doing the same! But luckily everyone remembers Eve’s lovely speech.
Mostly I was disappointed and it left me wanting something different entirely.
Also: why tf did she keep the damn golem? He’s dangerous, and probably takes up way too much space.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2024
Eve is a 39 year old Jewish woman currently going through a difficult time. She’s grieving the loss of her father, isolating herself from her friends and family, and is facing the possibility of losing her job right before the holidays. Her sister is getting married on Saturday, and Eve herself will be turning 40 on Sunday. She has not yet found a date for the wedding and has also not written her maid of honor speech. Additionally, she has a crush on her neighbor, Hot Josh, who is a British Jewish unicorn of a man. She finds herself acting awkwardly around him due to her feelings. To make things more complicated, she wakes up next to a naked man who turns out to be her golem.
This book explores themes of grief, healing, and acceptance in a story filled with heartfelt humor.
This book explores themes of grief, healing, and acceptance in a story filled with heartfelt humor.
February 8, 2025
I don't like it when the main character is so unpleasant and her choices are annoying.
June 23, 2024
I Made It Out of Clay by Beth Kander ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In a moment of grief and desperation,
Eve creates a Golem but does he fit into her world?
While the plot of this one may sound a little out there, this is a pretty serious book with a lot of emotional. Grief is a heavy topic within. I loved the Jewish mysticism in it and that’s what initially attracted me to the story. There is a lot about family and how grief affects our relationships. I enjoyed this one; it was a very fast read with a few surprises.
“Just a story… as if stories are not the most powerful things we have?”
In a moment of grief and desperation,
Eve creates a Golem but does he fit into her world?
While the plot of this one may sound a little out there, this is a pretty serious book with a lot of emotional. Grief is a heavy topic within. I loved the Jewish mysticism in it and that’s what initially attracted me to the story. There is a lot about family and how grief affects our relationships. I enjoyed this one; it was a very fast read with a few surprises.
“Just a story… as if stories are not the most powerful things we have?”
December 10, 2024
I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA, all opinions are my own.
It appears that I'm in the minority here, but this didn't work for me. This is described as follows "In this darkly funny and surprisingly sweet novel, a woman creates a golem in a desperate attempt to pretend her life is a romantic comedy rather than a disaster." The only thing accurate about this statement is that Eve's life is a disaster. I didn’t see this as a rom-com in any way, and is lacking the comedy it promises. This was depressing and sad, and kind of weird. I felt was a case of a book that was marketed as one thing, but is in fact something very different and I feel very mislead after reading it.
Eve is suffering from deep depression. Her father has died in the last year and she hasn't dealt with the grief and instead of leaning on her family and friends she unknowingly is pushing everyone away. Her younger sister is getting married, and while Eve thought she was OK with being single she feels pressured to bring a plus one to the event. The company she works for is facing layoffs around the holidays, and she is about to turn 40 adding to the pressure and her feelings of inadequacy are overwhelming.
What drew me to read this book was the lore of the golem, it is fascinating. I'm always interested in learning about other cultures and religions and their traditions, mythology and folklore, this promised just that. Eve's family is Jewish, and her grandmother passed on stories of her survival as wells many of their traditions and lore before she passed. As Eve spirals out of control, she remembers a strange tale about the golem her grandmother told and about how it offered protection in times of great need. Eve is certainly in need, and she constantly feels unsafe. In a drunken haze, Eve crafts herself a golem to take care of her. Unfortunately it takes until almost halfway through the book for him to show up on the page, which made it hard to stay interested. Then when he does, Eve becomes infatuated with her man made out of clay, and I thought their interactions were strange and kind of creepy. I had a hard time suspending my belief for this particular storyline, because the golem never fully took on human characteristics and became real to me. Her golem takes his role as protector very seriously and Eve quickly realizes that she doesn’t fully understand what his purpose is and what he is truly capable of.
My main issue with this is that Eve doesn't take any responsibility for her own actions and she makes a lot of poor decisions. I can forgive poor decision making if lessons are learned along the way, but she doesn’t seem to be interested in learning any lessons until the very end of the book. She pushes everyone away, but blames everyone for her problems. She has a cell phone that she never turns on so no one can get a hold of her, but laments that no one invites her to things and if she is invited she doesn’t participate anyway. Not a fan of the walking contradiction. She is literally unreachable and never checks her text or voicemails. The best scene in the book is when her future sister-in-law calls her out for being unreachable and uninterested in being present for anything. It really puts things into perspective, that Eve's resentment of everyone in her life is somewhat misplaced. I appreciated that Ana (the SIL) not only calls Eve out, but also indicates that everyone makes mistakes and has to take responsibility for their part. They have all had a rough year and need to be there for each other. I had a really hard time rooting for Eve, she judges people without having all of the information about them or only remembering things that suit her narrative. Fortunately, she figures things out in the end, but I had a really hard time connecting with her throughout the book. It was only in the last few chapters that I felt the emotional connection I was looking for with the book.
I thought the author captured grief and depression, especially during the holidays well. She also captured feelings of inadequacy and fear of living in the world as a minority. I think this was a really great opportunity to discuss mental health and grief, but those discussions were kind of glossed over and left me wanting. I think the dark humor was lost on me. I read some of the glowing reviews, and those readers connected with Eve in a way I didn't and they laughed out loud which I didn't. Unfortunately, despite really wanting to love this book, I didn’t. This one just wasn’t for me, and that is OK. I know there are others out there who really connected with Eve and the author’s humor.
It appears that I'm in the minority here, but this didn't work for me. This is described as follows "In this darkly funny and surprisingly sweet novel, a woman creates a golem in a desperate attempt to pretend her life is a romantic comedy rather than a disaster." The only thing accurate about this statement is that Eve's life is a disaster. I didn’t see this as a rom-com in any way, and is lacking the comedy it promises. This was depressing and sad, and kind of weird. I felt was a case of a book that was marketed as one thing, but is in fact something very different and I feel very mislead after reading it.
Eve is suffering from deep depression. Her father has died in the last year and she hasn't dealt with the grief and instead of leaning on her family and friends she unknowingly is pushing everyone away. Her younger sister is getting married, and while Eve thought she was OK with being single she feels pressured to bring a plus one to the event. The company she works for is facing layoffs around the holidays, and she is about to turn 40 adding to the pressure and her feelings of inadequacy are overwhelming.
What drew me to read this book was the lore of the golem, it is fascinating. I'm always interested in learning about other cultures and religions and their traditions, mythology and folklore, this promised just that. Eve's family is Jewish, and her grandmother passed on stories of her survival as wells many of their traditions and lore before she passed. As Eve spirals out of control, she remembers a strange tale about the golem her grandmother told and about how it offered protection in times of great need. Eve is certainly in need, and she constantly feels unsafe. In a drunken haze, Eve crafts herself a golem to take care of her. Unfortunately it takes until almost halfway through the book for him to show up on the page, which made it hard to stay interested. Then when he does, Eve becomes infatuated with her man made out of clay, and I thought their interactions were strange and kind of creepy. I had a hard time suspending my belief for this particular storyline, because the golem never fully took on human characteristics and became real to me. Her golem takes his role as protector very seriously and Eve quickly realizes that she doesn’t fully understand what his purpose is and what he is truly capable of.
My main issue with this is that Eve doesn't take any responsibility for her own actions and she makes a lot of poor decisions. I can forgive poor decision making if lessons are learned along the way, but she doesn’t seem to be interested in learning any lessons until the very end of the book. She pushes everyone away, but blames everyone for her problems. She has a cell phone that she never turns on so no one can get a hold of her, but laments that no one invites her to things and if she is invited she doesn’t participate anyway. Not a fan of the walking contradiction. She is literally unreachable and never checks her text or voicemails. The best scene in the book is when her future sister-in-law calls her out for being unreachable and uninterested in being present for anything. It really puts things into perspective, that Eve's resentment of everyone in her life is somewhat misplaced. I appreciated that Ana (the SIL) not only calls Eve out, but also indicates that everyone makes mistakes and has to take responsibility for their part. They have all had a rough year and need to be there for each other. I had a really hard time rooting for Eve, she judges people without having all of the information about them or only remembering things that suit her narrative. Fortunately, she figures things out in the end, but I had a really hard time connecting with her throughout the book. It was only in the last few chapters that I felt the emotional connection I was looking for with the book.
I thought the author captured grief and depression, especially during the holidays well. She also captured feelings of inadequacy and fear of living in the world as a minority. I think this was a really great opportunity to discuss mental health and grief, but those discussions were kind of glossed over and left me wanting. I think the dark humor was lost on me. I read some of the glowing reviews, and those readers connected with Eve in a way I didn't and they laughed out loud which I didn't. Unfortunately, despite really wanting to love this book, I didn’t. This one just wasn’t for me, and that is OK. I know there are others out there who really connected with Eve and the author’s humor.
November 26, 2024
Rounded to 4.5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
CONTENT WARNING: grief, death of a parent (off-page), antisemitism, violence
I first learned about this book on Jinstagram (the Jewish corner of Instagram) and absolutely had to read it. A Jewish book featuring a golem with humor? Bestill my Jewish heart. I had high hopes going into this, and this story far exceeded them.
This book had such an appealing summary that I couldn’t wait to start reading. Reading Jewish books featuring golems are a secret weakness of mine; they’re an endless source of fascination to me. A golem is referenced in the Middle Ages and was intended to protect Jewish people from a threat, and continues to hold a place in Ashkenazi folklore.
I loved the plot. It has a current of dark humor running throughout the story, and has mingled periods of joy and pain. Although it was a really funny book, Kander also touches on some heavy themes throughout the story, mainly grief and antisemitism, and she handles the topics beautifully. Eve’s grief has taken over her life after her father’s death, and she felt like her father and her bubbe (Yiddish for grandmother) were the only people that really got who she was, leaving her disconnected from her mother and sister. But what most impressed me was Eve’s character arc and how she worked through her emotions and grief, and even her fears. Not being able to process her grief with her family was exceptionally difficult on Eve, who was so detached from any supports in the family. On top of all of that, her life is basically imploding due to her repressing her grief and outside situations that she has no control over. It would make sense that she’d find something to exert control over, and it turned out to be a golem.
After reading this on audiobook, I loved Gail Shalan’s narration. She did wonderful accents, particularly for Eve’s flashbacks to things her grandmother said or did. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the way the narrator pronounced Hebrew words. She made them sound unfamiliar and exotic. While reciting the blessing over the Chanukah candles, Shalan mispronounced it. While she was able to read the words, she struggled to make the ‘ch’ sound and used the ‘h’ sound instead, such as when saying challah as opposed to hallah. The Chanukah prayers are said for eight consecutive nights, every single year, so having a narrator that couldn’t pronounce certain words took me out of the story.
There are romantic elements in the story, along with the humor, which is why it’s labeled as a ‘darkly funny rom-com,’ but that isn’t all it is. There’s also a lot of emotional baggage involved with Eve, and she’s easy to love as her life feels like it’s crumbling around her. I cringed at more than a couple of interactions between Eve and her crush, but she was perfectly fine when talking to anyone else.
Despite the romance, this is a closed door read with not so much spice to it, so it can also appeal to readers of clean romance. There is LGBTQ representation, with Eve’s sister marrying a woman, and one of her two best friends is a married gay man, and the other is a Black Jewish woman.
Overall, that was a tiny blip on an otherwise incredible story. Judaism is a closed religion, and since we’re such a small part (0.2%) of the world’s population, many people have never met a Jewish person or learned about our ethnoreligion. Kander did an outstanding job of making Jewish traditions and holidays accessible to people outside of our communities. She explains the meaning of the Yiddish and Hebrew words that pop up throughout the story. With her sister’s wedding looming, Eve decides to find out why the groom traditionally breaks a glass at the end of the wedding, and it is so indicative of Judaism—we celebrate joy at every opportunity, but even on a day that is hyped as the happiest of our lives, we have a symbolic reminder of our people’s pain. I can’t say enough great things about this book, but don’t rely on the pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish words in the audiobook version. I highly recommend this book, and rather than specify an audience, I’m just going to say everyone should read it!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
CONTENT WARNING: grief, death of a parent (off-page), antisemitism, violence
I first learned about this book on Jinstagram (the Jewish corner of Instagram) and absolutely had to read it. A Jewish book featuring a golem with humor? Bestill my Jewish heart. I had high hopes going into this, and this story far exceeded them.
This book had such an appealing summary that I couldn’t wait to start reading. Reading Jewish books featuring golems are a secret weakness of mine; they’re an endless source of fascination to me. A golem is referenced in the Middle Ages and was intended to protect Jewish people from a threat, and continues to hold a place in Ashkenazi folklore.
I loved the plot. It has a current of dark humor running throughout the story, and has mingled periods of joy and pain. Although it was a really funny book, Kander also touches on some heavy themes throughout the story, mainly grief and antisemitism, and she handles the topics beautifully. Eve’s grief has taken over her life after her father’s death, and she felt like her father and her bubbe (Yiddish for grandmother) were the only people that really got who she was, leaving her disconnected from her mother and sister. But what most impressed me was Eve’s character arc and how she worked through her emotions and grief, and even her fears. Not being able to process her grief with her family was exceptionally difficult on Eve, who was so detached from any supports in the family. On top of all of that, her life is basically imploding due to her repressing her grief and outside situations that she has no control over. It would make sense that she’d find something to exert control over, and it turned out to be a golem.
After reading this on audiobook, I loved Gail Shalan’s narration. She did wonderful accents, particularly for Eve’s flashbacks to things her grandmother said or did. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was the way the narrator pronounced Hebrew words. She made them sound unfamiliar and exotic. While reciting the blessing over the Chanukah candles, Shalan mispronounced it. While she was able to read the words, she struggled to make the ‘ch’ sound and used the ‘h’ sound instead, such as when saying challah as opposed to hallah. The Chanukah prayers are said for eight consecutive nights, every single year, so having a narrator that couldn’t pronounce certain words took me out of the story.
There are romantic elements in the story, along with the humor, which is why it’s labeled as a ‘darkly funny rom-com,’ but that isn’t all it is. There’s also a lot of emotional baggage involved with Eve, and she’s easy to love as her life feels like it’s crumbling around her. I cringed at more than a couple of interactions between Eve and her crush, but she was perfectly fine when talking to anyone else.
Despite the romance, this is a closed door read with not so much spice to it, so it can also appeal to readers of clean romance. There is LGBTQ representation, with Eve’s sister marrying a woman, and one of her two best friends is a married gay man, and the other is a Black Jewish woman.
Overall, that was a tiny blip on an otherwise incredible story. Judaism is a closed religion, and since we’re such a small part (0.2%) of the world’s population, many people have never met a Jewish person or learned about our ethnoreligion. Kander did an outstanding job of making Jewish traditions and holidays accessible to people outside of our communities. She explains the meaning of the Yiddish and Hebrew words that pop up throughout the story. With her sister’s wedding looming, Eve decides to find out why the groom traditionally breaks a glass at the end of the wedding, and it is so indicative of Judaism—we celebrate joy at every opportunity, but even on a day that is hyped as the happiest of our lives, we have a symbolic reminder of our people’s pain. I can’t say enough great things about this book, but don’t rely on the pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish words in the audiobook version. I highly recommend this book, and rather than specify an audience, I’m just going to say everyone should read it!
February 5, 2025
I was so excited about this novel when I heard about it, but it disappointed me across the board. As other reviews have noted, the golem doesn't appear until halfway through the story, which I think is a huge mistake--it leaves us with too little time to explore the significance of the golem and what it means for Eve's life, which becomes especially apparent at the end of the book when the conclusion of the plot has to force all of these reflections to happen quickly. The first half of the book should have been maybe 30 pages, not 175, or if it does need to be 175 pages, I wanted to see way more development of the relationships in the protagonist's life.
Beyond that, the book is way too reliant on the main character interrupting people midsentence, ignoring them, and never answering her phone--it's like that trope in romance novels where the lovers break up because of a miscommunication that neither of them makes any effort to clarify and you're like "omg??? just talk to each other for two seconds???" except Eve does this with literally everyone she knows, over and over and over. Consequently, we are robbed of moments that could have been more significant to the emotional themes of the book--conversations between characters get crammed into the end of the story when they could have happened 50% of the way through, for instance. It also needs to a late-stage plot twist that's so frustrating because we weren't getting hints about it, just Eve ignoring people trying to tell her things.
Tonally, the novel is just all over the place. I appreciate when a book is multiple things, but I want the swinging between tones to feel purposeful. It was like the story couldn't decide if it was a romcom, a novel about anxiety and the disastrous state of the modern world, or an HBO drama about a strained family. It could be all of these things if blended well together, but it never happened for me. The ending is way too easy and tidy and swings the book hard into traditional romcom territory, for instance.
Just not a winner for me.
Beyond that, the book is way too reliant on the main character interrupting people midsentence, ignoring them, and never answering her phone--it's like that trope in romance novels where the lovers break up because of a miscommunication that neither of them makes any effort to clarify and you're like "omg??? just talk to each other for two seconds???" except Eve does this with literally everyone she knows, over and over and over. Consequently, we are robbed of moments that could have been more significant to the emotional themes of the book--conversations between characters get crammed into the end of the story when they could have happened 50% of the way through, for instance. It also needs to a late-stage plot twist that's so frustrating because we weren't getting hints about it, just Eve ignoring people trying to tell her things.
Tonally, the novel is just all over the place. I appreciate when a book is multiple things, but I want the swinging between tones to feel purposeful. It was like the story couldn't decide if it was a romcom, a novel about anxiety and the disastrous state of the modern world, or an HBO drama about a strained family. It could be all of these things if blended well together, but it never happened for me. The ending is way too easy and tidy and swings the book hard into traditional romcom territory, for instance.
Just not a winner for me.
December 13, 2024
Eve’s life is a mess. She’s mourning the loss of her father, her little sister is getting married, she’s terminally single, and she’s about to turn 40. In a moment of drunken desperation, Eve creates a golem. A very handsome golem. Shenanigans ensue.
To cobble together a definition, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud, brought to life by ritual incantations and sequences of Hebrew letters.
Lest anyone get on my case, I hate what is happening in Palestine. It’s a big pile of war crimes. However, Israel is one country. Judaism is a religion and ethno-cultural group. A lot of Jewish people do not agree with what Israel is doing. I don’t agree with what the United States is doing a lot of the time. What would you like me, personally, to do about it?
I’ve spent a lot of time around Jewish people and had many friends in that community. For a period in college, I was assumed Jewish until proven gentile. That community still carries the scars from the genocide that killed millions of people less than 100 years ago. Kander does a good job of showing that generational trauma and how it combines with the rise in anti-semitism today.
Kander shows that visceral fear when someone HATES you just for existing as you are. That combined with grief and feeling like you’re failing at an important part of your life is true for so many of us.
When things got spicy, Kander showed us the start of the steam then closed the door. I had questions about the logistics of boning a golem so I was disappointed that wasn’t explored. Everything else I really enjoyed.
Eve’s relatable pain and messiness. Her selfishness was frustrating but believable. It was a very enjoyable read. If you’re looking for something a little different this holiday season, I recommend it. 4.5/5
To cobble together a definition, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore, which is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud, brought to life by ritual incantations and sequences of Hebrew letters.
Lest anyone get on my case, I hate what is happening in Palestine. It’s a big pile of war crimes. However, Israel is one country. Judaism is a religion and ethno-cultural group. A lot of Jewish people do not agree with what Israel is doing. I don’t agree with what the United States is doing a lot of the time. What would you like me, personally, to do about it?
I’ve spent a lot of time around Jewish people and had many friends in that community. For a period in college, I was assumed Jewish until proven gentile. That community still carries the scars from the genocide that killed millions of people less than 100 years ago. Kander does a good job of showing that generational trauma and how it combines with the rise in anti-semitism today.
Kander shows that visceral fear when someone HATES you just for existing as you are. That combined with grief and feeling like you’re failing at an important part of your life is true for so many of us.
When things got spicy, Kander showed us the start of the steam then closed the door. I had questions about the logistics of boning a golem so I was disappointed that wasn’t explored. Everything else I really enjoyed.
Eve’s relatable pain and messiness. Her selfishness was frustrating but believable. It was a very enjoyable read. If you’re looking for something a little different this holiday season, I recommend it. 4.5/5
May 3, 2024
What a fun book!! Couldn’t put it down.
December 12, 2024
This was a great quick read that reminds us that while the world can feel lonely and scary, we can’t give in to fun. I love that the joy and light of Hanukkah shines through this novel.
February 16, 2025
A fresh and funny page turner, darkly comedic and thrilling. Brilliant writing and timing from Beth Kander. This was a really fun read.
December 23, 2024
I’m not a huge holiday romance reader but 𝗜 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘆, a weird yet darkly funny book, offers a very unique twist on the Jewish golem legend.
Eve is about to turn 40, her sister is getting married, she doesn’t have a date to the wedding and her advertising agency job is feeling precarious. Added to all this stress is Eve’s unresolved grief over her father’s recent passing. In a desperate moment, she makes a golem, a figure traditionally known for protection, and calls him Paul Mudd. Hijinks ensue!
Kander deftly touches on antisemitism as well as Jewish customs and traditions without the narrative ever feeling too ponderous. I especially loved Eve’s handsome British neighbor Josh who also happens to be Jewish (“𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯! 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯, 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦!”). The story very cleverly subverts the typical romance tropes while exploring deeper themes of safety and control. This is fun romantasy with authentic Jewish representation, and it makes a perfect holiday read.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a #gifted copy of this book. I also listened to the audiobook and Gail Shalan did a fantastic job with the voices!
Eve is about to turn 40, her sister is getting married, she doesn’t have a date to the wedding and her advertising agency job is feeling precarious. Added to all this stress is Eve’s unresolved grief over her father’s recent passing. In a desperate moment, she makes a golem, a figure traditionally known for protection, and calls him Paul Mudd. Hijinks ensue!
Kander deftly touches on antisemitism as well as Jewish customs and traditions without the narrative ever feeling too ponderous. I especially loved Eve’s handsome British neighbor Josh who also happens to be Jewish (“𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯! 𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘯, 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦!”). The story very cleverly subverts the typical romance tropes while exploring deeper themes of safety and control. This is fun romantasy with authentic Jewish representation, and it makes a perfect holiday read.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a #gifted copy of this book. I also listened to the audiobook and Gail Shalan did a fantastic job with the voices!
September 23, 2025
Read it for book club!! Very interesting story line and plot, I think the ending was a little rushed and could have been another 100 pages. I liked the lowkey jewish elements, it was really nostalgic in a great way
December 30, 2024
I thought this would be goofy and kind of “what’s real and what’s not? Who knows!!!” but it was neither.
I’m also super atheist and was annoyed that the main character’s religion played such a central role in the development and plot. I would not have read it if I had known how often religion came up.
I’m bad and predicting plots and still easily figured out what was happening. Really lazy writing at times with unbelievable plot lines that don’t make sense except that it’s a convenient way to tie something up. Other plot lines seemed abandoned and inconclusive.
Golem doesn’t even appear until 40% ish.
Overall though I think the premise was good, but very badly executed.
I’m also super atheist and was annoyed that the main character’s religion played such a central role in the development and plot. I would not have read it if I had known how often religion came up.
I’m bad and predicting plots and still easily figured out what was happening. Really lazy writing at times with unbelievable plot lines that don’t make sense except that it’s a convenient way to tie something up. Other plot lines seemed abandoned and inconclusive.
Golem doesn’t even appear until 40% ish.
Overall though I think the premise was good, but very badly executed.
December 23, 2024
Because this happens during the holiday season and although the main character and her family are all Jewish, I’m counting this as one of my favorite holiday reads of all time. Second only to Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze.
Eve is turning 40 the day after her younger sister’s wedding, which is during the holiday season. Although Eve is Jewish, she and her late father always enjoyed all the cheerfulness that the Christmas season brings—delighting in joining in with ugly Hanukkah sweaters and proudly noting that all the best Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters. It’s been a year since her father suddenly passed away and she’s grieving pretty hard without really realizing it. Instead, she’s focusing on how annoying her family is and stressing over not having a date for the wedding. Remembering a story her bubbe told her about creating a golem to protect them from the Nazis, somehow in a drunken stupor, Eve creates one to bring to the wedding. What follows is hilarious but also thrillingly scary chaos.
This holiday read has it all—humor, grief, magic, family drama, Christmas and Hanukkah spirit, and so much more. I really loved this story and all the characters in it.
Thank you, @BethKander, @HTP_Hive, @Harlequin_Audio, and @NetGalley for my free copy of the audiobook, which, by the way, Gail Shalan did a terrific job narrating.
Eve is turning 40 the day after her younger sister’s wedding, which is during the holiday season. Although Eve is Jewish, she and her late father always enjoyed all the cheerfulness that the Christmas season brings—delighting in joining in with ugly Hanukkah sweaters and proudly noting that all the best Christmas songs were written by Jewish songwriters. It’s been a year since her father suddenly passed away and she’s grieving pretty hard without really realizing it. Instead, she’s focusing on how annoying her family is and stressing over not having a date for the wedding. Remembering a story her bubbe told her about creating a golem to protect them from the Nazis, somehow in a drunken stupor, Eve creates one to bring to the wedding. What follows is hilarious but also thrillingly scary chaos.
This holiday read has it all—humor, grief, magic, family drama, Christmas and Hanukkah spirit, and so much more. I really loved this story and all the characters in it.
Thank you, @BethKander, @HTP_Hive, @Harlequin_Audio, and @NetGalley for my free copy of the audiobook, which, by the way, Gail Shalan did a terrific job narrating.
March 9, 2025
This book was unlike anything I could have predicted! And what fun! It was a great and fast read which incorporated so many great Jewish themes. Loved it!
July 10, 2024
“I Made it Out of Clay” by Beth Kander is the story of a woman who is about to have her 40th birthday the day after her younger sisters very Jewish wedding. This is all happening as she is grieving the recent loss of her beloved grandmother, and father. She is also having stress because of the possibility of losing her job. All of this is negatively affecting her relationships with family and friends.
With desperation and fear taking over her life she creates a Golem for her own sanctuary. The author brilliantly uses the Golem as a metaphor to help her learn to navigate her “black hole of loss, questions, fears and doubts”.
I recommend this book to everyone as there are many lessons about survival told with a fun touch of humor.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
January 14, 2025
Eve is about to turn forty. She’s also about to lose her job. And she’s about to go to her sister’s wedding without a date, despite rsvp’ing for a plus one. All this while she’s still grieving the recent death of her father, which no one else seems to care about.
One thing leads to another, and she brings to life the man of her dreams. Or so she thinks.
This book explores the serious themes of grief, fear, disappointment, and hitting middle age, without being too heavy handed or overwhelmingly sad. In the end, we learn a lot about how facing our negative feelings and experiences can help us take control of our lives.
One thing leads to another, and she brings to life the man of her dreams. Or so she thinks.
This book explores the serious themes of grief, fear, disappointment, and hitting middle age, without being too heavy handed or overwhelmingly sad. In the end, we learn a lot about how facing our negative feelings and experiences can help us take control of our lives.
January 3, 2025
I loved this book so much. I expected a silly story about a lonely girl creating a golem as a wedding date, but it is much deeper than that. The story deals with grief, family, dealing with unrealized expectations, and navigating relationships during difficult times. It felt like a very honest portrayal of the grief process, with a little magical realism in the form of a golem thrown in. I have read Beth Kander’s plays in the past and always loved them, and I’m so happy that she is writing novels now. I’m looking forward to hearing more from her!
January 14, 2025
A Jewish woman is struggling through grief for her lost father, feeling disconnected from her family and friends, experiencing anti-Semitism and floundering. In a rage, she creates a golem to help her feel safe, but things go awry (as they often do) and she has to decide whether to be safe or live a greater life.
Love a great #ownvoices book and always love a #jewish one! Characters felt real and complex, situations were funny without being over the top (except when they were lol), and everything was perfectly imperfect.
OLUF25 - "square" in the setting
Love a great #ownvoices book and always love a #jewish one! Characters felt real and complex, situations were funny without being over the top (except when they were lol), and everything was perfectly imperfect.
OLUF25 - "square" in the setting
January 9, 2025
Okay, I really enjoyed this book but was hesitant to start it. I'm glad I did. It's weird, but in the best way. It really puts forth that you don't know most of the things people are going through...even those you love the most. It has heartache, happiness, and a bit of humor. I'm not sure if any of the Jewish history is actually a "real thing" but it was a fun aspect and creative for sure. I'm surprised it isn't rated higher to be honest.
January 12, 2025
I loved the writing and the pacing was excellent. I will definitely read Beth Kander's next book. From the cover and the blurb I was expecting more of a rom-com, but this is a more profound story dealing with heavier topics like grief and antisemitism. I thought those topics were handled sensitively and the story was clever and poignant.
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