 | Title: The Last Jewish Virgin Author: Janice Eidus Series: N/A Cover Art: N/A Genre: Fiction Paperback: 160 pages Publisher: Red Hen Press ISBN-10: 1597093939 ISBN-13: 978-1597093934  Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Julia |
Book Description
Lilith Zeremba, a young woman rebelling against her intellectually complex, feminist Jewish mother, is The Last Jewish Virgin. In this playful and provocative, sensual and suspenseful novel, Janice Eidus merges the timeless, romantic myth of the vampire with contemporary life in volatile New York City —and beyond.
Determined to make her own way —on her own terms —as a successful Jewish woman in the world of fashion, Lilith finds herself in a place where mythology and sexuality collide. She meets two men to whom she is drawn in ways that feel dangerous and yet inevitable: the much older, wildly mercurial and mesmerizing Baron Rock, and Colin Abel, a young, radiant artist determined to make the world a better place, one socially progressive painting at a time.
The Last Jewish Virgin, an innovative and universal tale of longing and redemption, refreshes and reinvents the classic vampire myth for a contemporary world in which love, compassion, faith, and politics are forever evolving and intersecting in surprising and original ways.
Review
THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN was a difficult book for me to write about, if only because I feel like I shouldn’t be reviewing it in the first place. Most of this book felt like an allegory that I couldn’t unlock, or a parable whose moral I didn’t understand. Despite a blurb that made me think this would be more accessible, I can say with confidence that THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN shouldn’t be classified as Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance.
My main point of disconnect with this story was the main character, Lilith. From the outset, it is clear that Lilith is unreliable and melodramatic. Seemingly simple events take place, all the while with Lilith quaking, shuddering, and generally over-acting her own story. When speaking to the Urban Fantasy genre, Lilith is the anti-thesis of heroine that learns and develops throughout the story. If nothing else, her break from reality grows more and more pronounced, and rather than believing that any real paranormal events were taking place around her, I was more convinced that she had an eating disorder, delusions, and an unhealthy obsession with her professor.
I have read books where an unreliable narrator adds spice to the proceedings, and I was able to enjoy untangling their observations from the greater “reality” around them (Iain Bank’s THE WASP FACTORY comes to mind). Unfortunately, THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN never managed to slip me into that process. The book’s arc did not center on Lilith (or the reader) gaining any greater sense or reality. Rather, we all spin deeper into Lilith’s psychosis without hesitation or clarity. THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN creates a caricature of an UF heroine in the real world. If Bella were written in the real Forks, Washington, most likely she would have ended up in a mental institution or dead in an alleyway when her blood-drinking, older “boyfriend” showed his true psychotic colors. That was the fate I kept expecting for poor Lilith (and part of me still believes that is Lilith’s “off camera” future).
While I don’t want to give you the impression that THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN was poorly written, it was certainly not something I would read for pleasure. There are details from the book that I enjoyed and will remember, and as a concept it is an interesting premise, but the process of reading this book was more chore than enjoyment for me.
My Rating:
2/5
Okay – Somewhat disappointing with significant flaws. Library/swap/borrow if you want.
Previous books in the series:
- N/A
- Amos at Reviews by Amos Lassen
