This cover! It’s gorgeous. I laughed because a good friend of mine has frequently used the anthology’s tagline to describe Jewish holidays to me, “They tried to kill us, we survived. Let’s eat!” As gorgeous as the cover is, the stories inside are fantastic.
Aviva Blakeman and E.S. Wilder have put together a fantastic anthology. From the introduction to the end of the last story, Jewish authors have written stories that center Jewish resistance. The stories range from the time of the Spanish inquisition to humanity’s future in space.
The anthology starts quietly with Aviva Blakeman’s contemplative and lovely “Or.” It ends with another kind of bang, the kind that make more babies. In between there are demons, golems, dybbuk, ghosts, magical rituals, and the human will to live. The stories are saturated with love of all kinds.
Who is the audience for this? Everyone (ok, not children, this is for older teens and up). In her introduction, Blakeman talks specifically about the frustration of submitting a work for publication and being asked to tone down or eliminate the Jewishness. The stories here are both specifically Jewish and deeply universal. I hope as readers discover it, they will start asking for more stories that go beyond our cultural defaults.
In a time when resistance to rising fascism is incumbent on us all, Days of Awe is an invigorating read. It is a reminder that hate will always be among us and we must protect each other from it.
CW: Each of the stories has content warnings at the beginning. In general, there is anti-semitism, hate speech, hate crimes, murder, attempted murder, demonic possession, references to the Holocaust.
For transparency I need to say that Aviva Blakeman is an online friend and one of the kindest people you’ll find on the internet. Per my request, she sent me an arc. My review has been entirely honest, and I have done my best to ensure the review is based solely on the book itself.