The Hidden Palace

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

If you haven't already read The Golem and the Jinni, know that while this review will contain no spoilers from the Hidden Palace, events that happened in the first book may be mentioned.

The Hidden Palace picks up pretty much right where the Golem and the Jinni left off, with Chava the baker & Ahmad the metalsmith going for walks each night and continuing to learn how to live as mythical creatures disguised as humans in early 1900's New York. We also follow Sophia Winston as she travels to the east to try and find a cure for the damage the Jinni's flame did to her. We check in on Anna and Toby as they recover from the encounter with Sulayman. And of course we meet a few new characters who play a part in this new tale.

The story wanders and meanders as time passes, and the writing and pacing was such a pleasure to read. Plot-wise it also wanders as this book spans several years. I liked that I couldn't always tell where we were going to end up. In that sense it almost felt true to life, in the sense that it's hard to predict outcomes when a lot of variables are out of our control. And as the reader we have an insight into all of the characters in play, and even then I just had to watch things unfold to find out what would happen. I really enjoy a tale that keeps me curious.

Relationally, the Golem and the Jinni also have some ebbs and flows. They grow as individuals in ways that put some strain on their relationship. They adapt, or they don't. They deepen their understanding of who they each are, and they appreciate what they learn. They become less co-dependent. And again, it was just very satisfying to read the flow of this growth, regression and evolution in the way it's woven into the story.

I sometimes feel when I write reviews that I need to find something to be critical of in order for my review to be taken seriously, but that's really not how I read books, I read them to enjoy them, so I don't really have any critiques. The Hidden Palace was what I expected it to be and more. I savored it, I read it slowly at first, and then finished it quickly when the threads started coming together and picked up momentum, and I can't think of anything that I would've liked to happen differently. There are still one or two loose threads, which really could be left just as they are, or could potentially become a third book, so as a reader, I'm allowing a little spark of hope to exist for more of these characters and this world.