Tag: Isaac Blum

The Judgement of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum (YA)

A surprisingly engaging coming-of-age story about Yoyo Gold — a young Orthodox Jewish girl who has always been a model for the community. She kind of has to be as she is the daughter of the rabbi and held to higher standards than most. As she explores and experiments with her place in the world — the one she has been raised to inhabit and other enticing options — she gets closer to understanding what is actually important to her.

I’ve always respected the questioning aspect of the Jewish religion, but I’ve never cared for the more conservative sects of any religion. Those are the groups where so much of daily life is proscribed that it feels too controlling — at least to me as a complete outsider. However, in this book I was able to see both sides of the religion — the questioning and the proscription — through the eyes of someone growing up in that culture. I was better able to see how the required conformity gave rise to a true sense of a close knit community that can be a strong attractor to a person contemplating the life they want to live. People seemed to have purpose and be apparently more free to experience the joys of life without the anxieties and neuroses that seem to plague so many people today.

I learned a lot about the orthodox culture — much of which was new to me, even though I’ve read about that world in the past. The characters were vibrant and had more depth of thought, responsibility, and inquisitiveness than most coming-of-age books I’ve read. I enjoyed seeing the interfaces between her community and people outside — reform Jews and non-Jews alike — through her eyes. Her thoughts, feelings, and experiences were quite real and her reactions easy to understand and to identify with. I also learned quite a bit about the practices of Orthodox Jews which were new and interesting to me — much more depth than the typical story covers.

Thank you to Philomel Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 15th, 2024.