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jlllzz's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
thestateofash's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
cronads's review
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Mass/school shootings
librarydancer's review
Started out with promise -- maybe a modern day Chosen type-book, but lost my interest & momentum.
dangerpronedaphne's review
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
mierke's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jaimiethelibrarygoat's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lesserjoke's review
4.0
Overall an excellent #ownvoices slice-of-life YA contemporary, about a frum -- ultra-observant Orthodox -- Jewish teen who finds himself shunned by his insular community for striking up a friendship and potential romance with an outside girl. Hoodie (short for Yehudah) is a great protagonist in the vein of Darius the Great is Not Okay or The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: earnest and funny but clearly carrying his share of flaws, including a stubborn streak, some anger issues, and an extreme naivety about the gentile world. It's plain to the reader that Anna-Marie is not his girlfriend, for instance, despite him describing her that way after they've hung out a few times and hugged. Luckily, that particular misunderstanding is eventually confronted and doesn't majorly derail the plot or anything.
Outside those characters, the main story concerns rising antisemitism in the area, fueled by a perception that recent Jewish arrivals are displacing older residents and altering the local culture of the place. Drawing on and mirroring real incidents of hatred, gravestones are desecrated with spray-paint swastikas, yeshiva schoolboys are mocked and attacked in the streets, and in a horrific moment late in the text, the fifteen-year-old hero is one of the surviving victims of a mass shooting at a kosher market that sees several of his personal acquaintances killed right in front of him.
That point marks a massive pivot in the novel, and I'm not wholly convinced that it needed to be included in order to get author Isaac Blum's message across. It's certainly a jarring tonal shift from the celebration of Jewish life earlier on, as well as a dramatic escalation from the low-level bigotry that has previously struck the sheltered Hoodie as more surreal than hurtful. Ultimately I like the book and its titular narrator too much to offer a rating any lower than four-out-of-five stars, but my favorite parts are the combative classroom arguments about Torah and the wistfully tentative cross-cultural connection between two lonely kids, not the bloody violence that upends all that or its traumatic aftermath.
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Outside those characters, the main story concerns rising antisemitism in the area, fueled by a perception that recent Jewish arrivals are displacing older residents and altering the local culture of the place. Drawing on and mirroring real incidents of hatred, gravestones are desecrated with spray-paint swastikas, yeshiva schoolboys are mocked and attacked in the streets, and in a horrific moment late in the text, the fifteen-year-old hero is one of the surviving victims of a mass shooting at a kosher market that sees several of his personal acquaintances killed right in front of him.
That point marks a massive pivot in the novel, and I'm not wholly convinced that it needed to be included in order to get author Isaac Blum's message across. It's certainly a jarring tonal shift from the celebration of Jewish life earlier on, as well as a dramatic escalation from the low-level bigotry that has previously struck the sheltered Hoodie as more surreal than hurtful. Ultimately I like the book and its titular narrator too much to offer a rating any lower than four-out-of-five stars, but my favorite parts are the combative classroom arguments about Torah and the wistfully tentative cross-cultural connection between two lonely kids, not the bloody violence that upends all that or its traumatic aftermath.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
erine's review
4.0
Content Warning: violent hate crime.
A little bit of Orthodox Jewish family and school life, a little bit of forbidden romance, a little bit of anti-Semitism. There are some nice moments where characters wrestle a bit with their religion, where folks have to look at prejudice and bigotry in ways that are uncomfortable, and when people change their preconceived notions.
Some elements seemed more jagged than others: Hoodie's insta-romance moment hurt, the growing animosity toward him from within his own community was very uncomfortable, and the final tragedy was a harsh truth inserted into a generally light story. I can see the entire story as being very discussable.
A little bit of Orthodox Jewish family and school life, a little bit of forbidden romance, a little bit of anti-Semitism. There are some nice moments where characters wrestle a bit with their religion, where folks have to look at prejudice and bigotry in ways that are uncomfortable, and when people change their preconceived notions.
Some elements seemed more jagged than others: Hoodie's insta-romance moment hurt, the growing animosity toward him from within his own community was very uncomfortable, and the final tragedy was a harsh truth inserted into a generally light story. I can see the entire story as being very discussable.
evamadera1's review against another edition
3.5
I have such conflicted thoughts about htis book, especially in light of the current g3nocid3 in Gaza and many horrific statements made by hardline conservative Zionists in the Knesset regarding Palestinians. I also struggled because of my own religious trauma from my upbringing in fundamentalist Christianity. The actions of the community felt eerily reminiscent of many of the actions that leaders of my community made. I also could not get a realistic grip on the time period that the book is supposedly set in for various reasons. I think that the book is structurally sound but it has too many other issues for me to come close to a recommendation.