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A Novel
by Gabrielle Sher
Book Reviewed by:In a powerfully imagined Russia at the height of the pogroms, a grief-stricken family turn to ancient magic to bring their daughter back from the grave.
Yetta is a bright, quick teenage girl with a wild, searching spirit. Stifled by her mother's anxiety, her father's rules, and the path that's been laid out for her, she craves freedom, the edges of which she doesn't know. But her family has reason to be cautious and restrictive. Fear has wrapped itself around their shtetl. Jews are mysteriously disappearing, and there are whispers of an impending attack. When violence comes to their door, Yetta is killed.
Her father, in his grief, fumbles through his nascent knowledge of ancient texts and old magic to bring her back. By some miracle, Yetta is returned—but although she looks the same, she is not the girl she once was. Yetta senses there is a secret her family is keeping from her. The answer resides, in part, in the creature lurking in the woods beyond the shtetl―something that may be of her father's making, and a being that has plans of its own.
Chapter 1
Frieda
Frieda was underwater. Her muscles contracted, shocked from the cold, and she was reminded suddenly of giving birth to her children: the way her own body had been a stranger
to her, knowing things she had never learned, moving without her command. She opened her lips and exhaled, forcing her muscles to relax. The pain turned to pleasure. Miriam's warm hand pressed gently on the top of her head and she opened her eyes, seeing her own pale hands illuminated by thin veins of light in the dark water. Frieda turned her hands over, the lines on her palms like tree roots, and began to pray, her chest aching from holding her breath. "Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech haolam shehecheyanu v'kiy'manu v'higiyanu laz'man hazeh. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this day." She could hear her own voice in her head.
Two warm hands held on to hers and lifted her up. She always loved this moment, the first ...
Though Mordechai bends the truth and forces his daughter into dangerous situations, he is not quite a villain in Odessa—he does these things because he genuinely believes they are the right things to do in order to protect his family and set his people free from persecution. Through her complex characters, Sher explores how, especially in times of conflict and war, good people can do bad things in the pursuit of freedom or self-defense...continued
Full Review
(789 words)
(Reviewed by Callum McLaughlin).
Monika Kim, author of The Eyes Are the Best Part
Odessa is a breathtaking debut novel. Sher's prose is quietly devastating and so beautiful that, like Yetta, I found myself split in half by the aching depths of a family's grief and their struggle to reconcile with loss. Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
I did not have 'lush Jewish gothic horror novel' on my 2026 bingo card, and now I can't imagine my life without it. Odessa is resplendent and unputdownable.
In her debut novel, Odessa, author Gabrielle Sher reimagines the legend of the golem to explore historical persecution of Jews, as well as notions of power and control. In traditional Jewish folklore, a golem is a being formed of earth or clay, given life by its creator using ritualistic incantations and scripture.
The word "golem" comes from ancient Hebrew and usually translates as "unfinished," "shapeless," or "embryo," reflecting both its creation from an inanimate substance and its status as not quite human, despite its humanoid appearance. There are many variations of the golem story throughout Jewish history, but most versions depict the creature as a protector of the Jews, following its creator's orders and using its superhuman...
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