Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

WRATH BECOMES HER

Aden Polydoros

A highly anticipated YA novel that was named Harper Children's Lead Read for Fall 2023. It's Inglorious Bastards meets Frankenstein, a beautiful and heart-pounding historical novel perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys.

Lithuania, 1943. The Nazis have killed Ezra's daughter. He can't bring Chaya back from the dead, but he can craft something in her image - a golem, infused with pointed rage, to avenge Chaya's death. A Nazi killer made with kishuf, an ancient and profane magic.

When Vera awakens, she can feel her violent purpose - her reason for existing - thrumming within her. But she can feel other things, too: glimpses of a human life lived, of stolen kisses amid the tragedy, and of a grisly death. And when she meets Akiva, she recognizes the boy with soft lips that gave warm kisses. But these memories aren't hers, and Vera doesn't know if she gets to have a life beyond what she was made for. If she deserves one.

Vera's strength feels limitless - until she learns that there are others who would use kishuf for means far less noble than avenging a daughter's death. As she confronts the very basest of humanity, Vera will need more than what her creator gave her: not just a reason to fight, but a reason to live.

Aden Polydoros is an author of YA dark fantasy and gothic horror novels. In addition to receiving starred reviews from School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Bookpage, and Booklist, his novel, The City Beautiful, won the Sydney Taylor Book Award and was a finalist for the Lambda Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the 2022 World Fantasy Award. His most recent fantasy novel, Bone Weaver, came out in September 2022 from Inkyard Press/HarperCollins.

Available products
Book Published 2023-10-11 by HarperCollins/Inkyard
Book Published 2023-10-11 by HarperCollins/Inkyard

Comments

WRATH BECOMES HER received a Sydney Taylor Honor at today's American Library Association Awards.

Aden Polydoros' WRATH BECOMES HER is intoxicating and visionary, a rare book that peels apart the idea of what personhood is, what our obligations are to those who made us who we are, and our obligations to the living and to the dead. Vera's story is riveting and compelling, and I could not put it down. I was blown away. No one's writing Jewish historical fantasy like Aden does. This is a tour de force.

In a world where those in power prefer civility to justice, Wrath Becomes Her is the perfect book for those who know the fight for truth will always be a brutal one. Haunting, exhilarating, and a howl of vengeance.

Philosophical questions of humanity, monstrousness, and what counts as either (or both); horrific violence both psychological and physical; layer upon layer of fury and vengeance - and yet, the sum of the parts is as hopeful as it is desolate, and as lovingly crafted as it is furious and brokenhearted. VERDICT A gut-wrenching, eminently important Holocaust narrative that centers Jewish humanity, and a punch in the face to fascism.

A tale of power and agency that is just as timely now as the setting, 80 years prior, Aden Polydoros has one again proven himself to be the master of storytelling who is a talent to watch. If you're looking for one novel to sate your horror hungers, this is the book to read. I'll be thinking about this one for months to come.

Without sacrificing emotional impact or contemporary resonance, Polydoros implements frequently explored Jewish lore surrounding golems with a fresh and inventive angle. Relentlessly disconcerting ambiance adds to the novel's eerie feel, making for an engrossing alternate history adventure.

A haunting and thoughtful World War II tale with a dark, magical bent.