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A review by judifer
Silencing Rebecca by Nikki Vogel
2.0
**Spoilers included **
I really wanted to like this book, as I was curious to see how the fascinating mythology of the golem would be incorporated into a modern-day YA novel. Recognizing that I'm older than the target demographic, the book still grabbed my attention at first and I was still able to appreciate the larger themes behind the teen angst, and look past some editing glitches, e.g. how the hebrew words were written from left to right instead of right to left.
As the story moved on, I started to suspect what the ultimate traumatic event would be, but hoped that I would be wrong so kept reading. With just a handful of pages left, I couldn't tell how everything was going to be wrapped up since the big reveal still hadn't occurred. I was deeply disappointed when my suspicions were proven right.
Yet again the trope of rape was used as a plot tool. While statistically it is extremely likely for a girl under 18 in Canada to experience some form of sexual assault, this has become a tired and lazy trope used by authors, essentially saying that rape is the very worst thing that could ever happen to a girl/woman in a book as a Thing To Overcome. That in this case it was revealed, recognized, accepted, and all cleansed by falling rain in the few final pages felt disrespectful to every person who has gone through this type of traumatic event.
I feel like the story could have been much richer by not including this element, as there were so many other themes to dig into and expand upon, such as the parent/child relationship, religious and spiritual questioning, the impacts of a patriarchal religion upon both genders, and social disconnection.
The way antisemitism was meshed with the sexual violence felt like it was being used for shock value. These two concepts are certainly not mutually exclusive, but in this case seemed like the author was trying to address too many issues at once which ended up feeling clumsy. There were certainly interesting parts to the story, and I love to see mythology weaved into narratives, but unfortunately, overall, this didn't work for me.
I really wanted to like this book, as I was curious to see how the fascinating mythology of the golem would be incorporated into a modern-day YA novel. Recognizing that I'm older than the target demographic, the book still grabbed my attention at first and I was still able to appreciate the larger themes behind the teen angst, and look past some editing glitches, e.g. how the hebrew words were written from left to right instead of right to left.
As the story moved on, I started to suspect what the ultimate traumatic event would be, but hoped that I would be wrong so kept reading. With just a handful of pages left, I couldn't tell how everything was going to be wrapped up since the big reveal still hadn't occurred. I was deeply disappointed when my suspicions were proven right.
Yet again the trope of rape was used as a plot tool. While statistically it is extremely likely for a girl under 18 in Canada to experience some form of sexual assault, this has become a tired and lazy trope used by authors, essentially saying that rape is the very worst thing that could ever happen to a girl/woman in a book as a Thing To Overcome. That in this case it was revealed, recognized, accepted, and all cleansed by falling rain in the few final pages felt disrespectful to every person who has gone through this type of traumatic event.
I feel like the story could have been much richer by not including this element, as there were so many other themes to dig into and expand upon, such as the parent/child relationship, religious and spiritual questioning, the impacts of a patriarchal religion upon both genders, and social disconnection.
The way antisemitism was meshed with the sexual violence felt like it was being used for shock value. These two concepts are certainly not mutually exclusive, but in this case seemed like the author was trying to address too many issues at once which ended up feeling clumsy. There were certainly interesting parts to the story, and I love to see mythology weaved into narratives, but unfortunately, overall, this didn't work for me.