I finally read this after it had been talked up to me by friends for years. I may be one of the few people who didn't really think it was that great of a read. I don't know exactly what I didn't like because the characters were well developed and the author clearly has a lot of knowledge of NY in that time period, but at the end of the day it wasn't my cup of tea. ( )

I was thrilled with the sample for this book. It hooked me from the beginning, had a lovely, literary voice, and the characters seemed to come to life before me. Unfortunately, that same literary quality that I loved so much made the book fall apart for me in the later chapters. It felt slow and self-indulgent at times, and there were dozens of pages upon pages where nothing happened. The story became tedious, and I had to force myself to finish. It's such a shame, because I adore fantasy, and the occasional literary novel. I thought combining the two was brilliant. It's just too bad it couldn't hold my interest. ( )

I love love loved this book. It's about a (Jewish) golem and an (Arab) jinni (genie) who meet in turn of the century NYC. It's beautifully written and full of historical detail. The various backstories of the main characters wind loosely around each other and get connected and intertwined bit by bit until the story comes to a climax. I was so sad for this book to end! ( )

This is the slowest novel I've read in a long time.
I liked following the lives of the protagonists but I couldn't stand waiting endlessly for the obvious to happen.
This is the reason I dropped the book. I got sick and tired of waiting for the plot, which is obviously being set up, to happen. I would've loved reading the same world, same protagonists but without this painfully slow plot.
I haven't actually seen much of the plot itself yet but the basic setup is incredibly obvious and I found the suspense very tiring beyond a certain point.
It felt like dying of thirst while only being able to drink through an absurdly thin straw.

The main bad guy was introduced early on and revealed as the antagonist sometime later, but up to the 50% mark there didn't actually happen ANYTHING. We know who he is, we know what he wants, and a few very cheap plot conveniences have been put in place early on to provide him with the means. I've listened to 10 hours of very enjoyable nothing but I am not willing to wait another 8 hours for the plot to finally happen.

Something I loved about this book is how things are complicated. This is something most books I've read fail at miserably and which is one of the main reasons a lot of writing appears so cheap and clichéed.
Even if the only way of saving the universe is to accomplish some impossible task, things just seem too simple, too neat most of the time.
The world is messy and convoluted. Things just don't align nicely.
On one hand, this book nails this in regards to the cast and their individual backstories but on the other hand, it very much fails at this exact hurdle in regards to the actual plot.

The protagonists are complex and flawed enough to be interesting and the author managed to give an amazing sense of time and place.

I enjoyed the various philosophical discussions that characters had with each other and the author had with the reader or whatnot.

Maybe I am just damaged by the fast-food of fantasy I'm reading most of the time. ( )

My actual rating is a 3.5. Entertaining, and I would like to know what happens next. I had trouble liking the Golem. ( )