4.5 stars for From Dust, a Flame by Rebecca Podos!
Synopsis:
Hannah’s whole life has been spent in motion. Her mother has kept her and her brother, Gabe, on the road for as long as she can remember, leaving a trail of rental homes and faded relationships behind them. No roots, no family but one another, and no explanations.
All of that changes on Hannah’s seventeenth birthday when she wakes up transformed, a pair of golden eyes with knife-slit pupils blinking back at her from the mirror—the first of many such impossible mutations. Promising that she knows someone who can help, her mother leaves Hannah and Gabe behind to find a cure. But as the days turn to weeks and their mother doesn’t return, they realize it’s up to them to find the truth.
What they discover is a family they never knew, and a history more tragic and fantastical than Hannah could have dreamed—one that stretches back to her grandmother’s childhood in Prague under the Nazi occupation, and beyond, into the realm of Jewish mysticism and legend. As the past comes crashing into the present, Hannah must hurry to unearth their family’s secrets—and confront her own hidden legacy in order to break the curse and save the people she loves most, as well as herself.
"Who can determine, in all of history, the very moment when they begin?"
This is another stop on my "catchup tour." I read From Dust, A Flame in February and adored it. Sometimes I find it hard to write reviews for books that I really liked and that made me think. Too many emotions and too many thoughts, for some reason, make it harder for me to write about it. I try so hard to not spoil anything about the stories, so maybe that's why. In a really good book, you just want to talk about everything!
I think I've mentioned before that I am just an unabashed lover of YA. I don't care that I'm in my (late) 30s; a good book is a good book. That being said, my oldest niece is 13 years old and I now read many of these stories with her in mind. 13 seems old, but it's really not, so I like knowing which books I feel comfortable recommending to her and which ones I'll wait until she's a little bit older. My brother and his wife, her parents, converted to Judaism years ago and I was excited to read a YA fantasy with a Jewish focus.
I wasn't 100% sure, like usual it seems when it comes to the ARCs I read, what to expect. I assumed there would be a lot of Jewish culture, but what I didn't expect was the pairing of World War II and Jewish mysticism. I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I do love books set in or around WWII because while it was a horrible time in history, there are so many stories of resiliency and people saving others. I also love magic, folklore, and mythology so, From Dust, A Flame ended up being a nonstop page-turner for me.
"A love that does not pretend away pain, but grows to encompass it, like a scar around a healing wound."
This is a multi-timeline book. The story follows Hannah and her (adopted) older brother Gabe in the present, their grandmother (Jitka) they never knew, during World War II, and their mother (Malka) in between. Hannah getting different, weird animal parts every day after her 17th birthday was such an interesting way to lead the reader into the main part of the story. I wish that had been fleshed out a little more. We find out why she's getting them towards the end of the book, but what I'd like to know more about is the how.
Throughout the book, Hannah and Gabe are both trying to understand the new Jewish side of the family they never really knew existed. It's a very different experience for both of them since Gabe was adopted and therefore not technically Jewish. To celebrate the rich Jewish heritage found throughout the story, I decided to try baking challah bread for the first time. My plait was a little off, but besides that, this was probably one of the best things I've ever baked! I used a recipe from BBC Good Food (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/challah) and we were so surprised by how good it tasted. The strange thing was that we tried slices when it was still warm and the loaf seemed underbaked. I was so disappointed, but then we tried it again once it was completed cooled and it was entirely different. Not sure if that's what normally happens, but once it was cooled it pulled apart beautifully and needed absolutely nothing to go with it. It was addicting and I can't wait to make more!
Thanks for stopping by!
-Kim
Comentários