#Ariel Kaplan

[kazz-brekker]

i read a lot of fantasy novels (like, a LOT a lot) and my current read is the pomegranate gate by ariel kaplan, a portal fantasy novel inspired by jewish myths and history, so when i say that it's one of the most fresh and unique books i've read in awhile and i genuinely have no idea where i think the characters and story will go next, that's one of the highest book compliments i can give

#there are definitely some familiar elements like portals to other worlds and a changeling-ish situation #but as for the overall world and myths and characters am i just happy to see where it goes #one of the pov characters is a woman who turns her arm into a sword decapitates her enemies and turns their heads into apples!!! #truly can't get more unique than that kind of stuff #i am only halfway through this book but i am becoming high key obsessed with it #pie says stuff #the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan #pie reads books

[tailorwww]

The Courser; a swift horse, a blunt weapon.

From The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan. Big thanks to the book that started my Reading Renaissance 

#the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan #the courser #toba #naftaly #toba bet #book fanart #fanart #digital art #digital painting #book fandom #art #original art #illustration #drawing #pomegranate #tarot #tarot card #tarot card inspired #horse #horses #horseart #horse art #equine art #book recs #book reccomendation #fantasy #queer fantasy #fantasy art #fantasy character

[roguelibrarian]

Book club with Rogue, part 2

The book: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan

CW: the plot involves antisemitic persecution and violence, so I'm gonna be touching on that a bit in this post

I literally just finished this one last night and damn. damn. Okay. So, brief plot overview:

Our main characters are Toba Peres and Naftaly Cresques, two Jewish young adults living in the fictional city of Rimon. Toba was raised by her grandparents since her mother died giving birth to her and she's Weird. Naftaly is also Weird, and when his father dies shit gets even Weirder because Naftaly is entrusted with a book that's been in his family for generations but that they're never supposed to open. When the Jews are expelled from Rimon, Toba falls behind a group that's heading for the border and gets attacked by a man who believes she might be smuggling valuables with her. She escapes but gets lost in the woods and stumbles through a magical gate into another world. Toba's grandmother Elena realizes she's missing and doubles back to find her. She meets up with Naftaly and the nameless old woman he's traveling with and the three of them stick together for safety and begin their search for Toba. On the other side of the gate, Toba meets Barsilay, who doesn't particularly like her (don't worry, they become friends later), but offers her shelter with his uncle so she won't get killed for being a human who crossed the gate. Toba learns she's stuck there for a month because the gate only opens on the night of the full moon. While there, Toba learns that there's a reason for all her Weirdness: she's not actually completely human. Turns out her father was a Mazik (one of the magical beings who live on the other side of the gate) and she has supernatural abilities that her grandmother suppressed with an amulet that she told Toba never to take off.

I'm ending the plot overview there because I don't wanna give the whole thing away and also because so much happens in this book. It's nearly 600 pages long. There's a lot of plot. If I summarized it all, we'd be here all night.

Now, thoughts:

this book is so, so unapologetically, beautifully, proudly Jewish

like, I'm honestly having trouble putting into words just how Jewish this book is and how much it means to me, but I'm sure other Jews will get what I'm saying

like at the very beginning of the book there's a list of characters and just seeing so many extremely Jewish names in one book was like...relief

see also, in the first few pages of the book, when Toba is reflecting on how even when she was a small child her grandmother would play the 'where would you go if you had to flee?' game with her

Toba is extremely autistic coded and you may quote me on that

seriously, there's this one quote that's just very Autism Vibes: "It was one of the peculiar things about Toba, and there were several: Toba could walk, but she could not run; she could talk, but she could not shout; and she could write faster-with either hand-than she could speak."

see also: "She was too quiet, too peculiar" and "Food often tasted poorly to her, and she ate little as a consequence."

Like yes, all of this does end up being related to her magic and the suppression thereof, but it's also very Autism Vibes and even after the suppression of her magic stops there's a lot of Autism Vibes still.

she's also very asexual coded imo

Naftaly is also very autistic coded

someone needs to cut Naftaly a break like yesterday

like let's see (SPOILERS), his father dies, his entire community gets kicked out of the country, he almost gets eaten by wolves, he gets drugged and sealed in a coffin, almost gets thrown into the sea, gets kidnapped and tortured, and that's just the highlights of bad shit that happens to him (END SPOILERS)

they're only around for like a page and a half but heck yes Jewish pirates I am always here for Jewish pirates

I absolutely called the plot twist about (SPOILERS AGAIN) the Big Bad being Toba's father (END SPOILERS) which does not mean it was a bad twist, it was in fact a very good one and I'm always here for this specific type of twist

my one big complaint about this book is that after over 400 pages without a hint of romance, I got ambushed by some unnecessary romantic nonsense. luckily none of it took up too much focus in the story because more important stuff was happening.

this book was just so damn good, okay? I was hooked by page 4, that's how good it is, and in almost 600 pages it never got boring. it never felt like it was too long. that's skill, right there.

also I'm weak for good, complex fantasy worldbuilding and boy was there a lot of that.

anyway, it was good. go read it. highly recommend for people who like long, dense fantasy novels, and portal fantasy in particular (though I will say I normally don't even like portal fantasy but I loved this one)

#book blogging #book club with rogue #the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Pomegranate Gate

By Ariel Kaplan.

#The Pomegranate Gate #Ariel Kaplan #books #book covers

[tirkdi]

okay where is my the pomegranate gate fandom?? what do we have to do to get it going on here? I will write a tiny fic for it if I can think of an idea so feel free to toss prompts my way. I will also need to find a reference for how everyone's names are spelled because I listened to the audiobook and have no idea lol

#maybe 'on the philosophy of being - by toba bet' #the pomegranate gate #the mirror realm cycle #ariel kaplan

[nzbookwyrm]

#on the tbr #the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan #the mirror realm cycle

[authorunpublished]

Book Review: The Pomegranate Gate

Title: The Pomegranate Gate [The Mirror Realm Cycle 1] Author: Ariel Kaplan Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical Rating: 4 Stars Description/Synopsis: Toba Peres can speak but she can’t shout; she can walk but she can’t run; and she can write in five languages… with both hands at the same time. Naftaly Cresques dreams every night of an orange-eyed stranger; when awake, he sees things that…

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#1 #ariel kaplan #author #authorunpublished #book #fantasy #historical #review #the mirror realm cycle #the pomegranate gate #unpublished #ya #young adult

[hawkwinglb]

Reviews at Tor.com and Locus

There never seems to be enough time. But while I’m bemoaning entropy, here are some reviews I wrote elsewhere: Hannah Kaner’s debut Godkiller is unexpectedly excellent: First published in the UK in January 2023, it received strong praise (including from Samantha Shannon and Tasha Suri) and rapidly became a UK bestseller. Despite my initial misgivings [about it], I can see why. Blood and demons…

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#Ariel Kaplan #book reviews #books #fantasy #Hannah Kaner #Locus #Melissa Scott #RJ Barker #Shelly Parker-Chan #Tor.com

[a-l-kaplan-author]

MY SCHEDULE FOR BALTICON 57

Balticon is one of my favorite Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions. It is held on Memorial Day weekend an comprises of four days of fantasic programing. I’m loaded up on programing this year. Here is where you can find me. When Muses Collide (Sat 10:00 AM) Balancing your WIPs when you have more than one kind of creativity. How do you decide what you want to do? A. L. Kaplan moderator, Heidi…

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#A. L. Kaplan #Alan Smale #Ariel Burgess #Autographs #Balticon #Balticon 57 #Bjorn E. Hasseler #Carl Cipra #convention #Costume #Costuming characters #D. H. Aire #Dr. Jim Thorne #Elektra hammond #Eric Hardenbrook #Fantasy #Fifi #fun #Heidi Hooper #Jack Campbell #Jennifer R. Povey #Joshua Bilmes #Ken Schrader #Leah Cypress #Memorial Day Activities #memorial day weekend #Michael A. Ventrella #Michael M Jones #MWA #reading

[graphicpolicy]

No One is Safe in R.L. Stine's Stuff of Nightmares Finale!

No One is Safe in R.L. Stine's Stuff of Nightmares Finale! #comics #comicbooks

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#a.l. kaplan #ariel olivetti #boom studios #dustin nguyen #dylan todd #elizabeth torque #francesco francavilla #goncalo lopes #jim campbell #jonathan marks barravecchia #r.l. stine #stuff of nightmares

[kazz-brekker]

my most pressing question that has yet to be answered in the wake of reading the pomegranate gate

#evidence in support of no: does not actually have any children and probably does not look super old since mazik don't age much #evidence in favor of yes: has been married is definitely old enough to be a father and has strong dad vibes when interacting with barsilay #i'm leaning towards a yes myself personally #too many hot immortals who look like they're 20 not enough immortal dilfs #pie says stuff #pie reads #the pomegranate gate #ariel kaplan #books

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

Queer Books July 2023

🦇 Good morning, my beloved bookish bats. I'm sorry this post is coming to you so late in the month; I planned more content than I realized! Let's rewind and look back on all the queer books released this past month. Though I'm sure a number of these covers look familiar, there are also as few that haven't received the attention they deserve!

What books are you adding to your summer reading list at the last minute?

🌈 Role Playing by Cathy Yardley 🌈 A Place for Us by Brandon J Wolf 🌈 A Thorn Among Roses by Hayley Anderton and G. L Preston 🌈 Of Love & Libraries by Brenna Bailey 🌈 A Crime of Secrets by Ann Aptaker 🌈 The Beasts of Paris by Stef Penney 🌈 Wanderlust by Elle Everhart 🌈 The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson 🌈 Go the Way Your Blood Beats by Emmett de Monterey 🌈 The Lighthouse Keeper by Liv Rancourt 🌈 Overemotional by David Fenne 🌈 Lioness by Emily Perkins 🌈 All About Romance by Daniel Tawse

🌈 Moonlight and the Monarch by Evelyn Carver 🌈 The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera 🌈 A Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow 🌈 All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky 🌈 A Warning About Swans by R.M. Romero 🌈 Digging for Heaven by Jenna Jarvis 🌈 Marigold by Melissa Brayden 🌈 All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan 🌈 On an Ebbing Seafoam Tide by Alannah Radburn 🌈 The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa 🌈 The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqqi 🌈 Play to Win by Jodie Slaughter

🌈 A Rulebook for Restless Rogues by Jess Everlee 🌈 Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch 🌈 The Sea Elephants by Shastri Akella 🌈 More to Love by Georgina Kiersten 🌈 Defiant Bodies: Making Queer Community in the Anglophone Caribbean by Nikoli A. Attai 🌈 The Ink Drinkers by Dror Bloodwood 🌈 Counting Lost Stars by Kim van Alkemade 🌈 Women of the Post by Joshunda Sanders 🌈 Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle 🌈 Sammy Espinoza’s Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia 🌈 The King is Dead by Benjamin Dean 🌈 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

🌈 Buzzing by Samuel Sattin & Rye Hickman 🌈 The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley 🌈 Firebird by Sunmi 🌈 A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui 🌈 What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan 🌈 The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan 🌈 The Stablemaster’s Heart by Sarah Honey 🌈 The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero LaCruz 🌈 The Valkyrie's Shadow (The Helheim Prophecy #2) by Tiana Warner 🌈 In the Case of Heartbreak (Fern Falls #2) by Courtney Kae 🌈 The Hunt by Kelly J. Ford 🌈 Rana Joon and the One and Only Now by Shideh Etaat

#queer fiction #queer books #books #book recs #lgbtqia #battyaboutbooks #batty about books

[lgbtqreads]

hey!! my younger brother recently came out as bi to me and he was quite nervous as he did not know i was queer too and he is living with my very conservative family now.

i want him to have a safe space for when i'm away for studies so i want to gift him some books. but i do not particularly read ya so can i have some recs for ya books with bi male characters (preferable in m/f relationships. but m/m & m/nb recs are fine too!!) thanks!!

Sure! In m/f YA, there's Tonight We Rule the World by Zack Smedley, Verona Comics by Jennifer Dugan, Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong, Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson, and Coda by Emma Trevayne, plus We Regret to Inform You by Ariel Kaplan, This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura, and The Art of French Kissing by Brianna Shrum all have cishet female MCs with bi male love interests.

Some other recs, which are pretty much all m/m: This is Why They Hate Us by Aaron Aceves, The Disasters by MK England, The Rules of Mediating Myths and Magic by F.T. Lukens, Autoboyography by Christina Lauren, They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera, Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley, and Running With Lions by Julian Winters.

#LGBTQReads #Bisexual Books #YA

[glompcat]

book asks - 3 and 12 please!

3 - What were your top five books of the year?

(order is not reflective of preference) The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan While fleeing the Inquisition, a teen girl named Toba slips into the world of the Maziks. There she not only learns about the court politics of their world, she discovers things about herself that had been hidden her whole life, purposefully hidden by her grandmother. Meanwhile her grandmother refuses to escape to safety without her, and teams up with a inept tailor named Naftali to track her granddaughter down so that all of them (including an old woman traveling with Naftali) can find passage to somewhere safe to live. This was the first in a series and I am SO EXCITED to see where it goes when the next book comes out this summer. He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan Second and final book in the The Radiant Emperor Duology. I would need to reread both books in the duology to tell you if I liked it more than the the first one (She Who Became the Sun) or simply Really Love the way it follows up on the first one and continues, and finishes, the story. This is of course a fantastical imagining of the Red Turban Rebellions against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. The story essentially kinda sorta follows the Hongwu Emperor, from humble beginnings 'till he takes the throne (the second book starting with him as a general of an army and ends with him on the throne). In this story the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is instead our main character Zhu Chongba, a peasant set on proving his worth to the world. Only Zhu has a secret - the name and fortune he carries belonged to his dead brother. A brother whose identity he stole, because he didn't want to be a girl anymore. Oh, also, the Mandate of Heaven is real, as are ghosts. (Pls know if you want to read it, if it would be a dealbreaker for you, that while there is no question at all that Zhu is trans, Zhu uses she/her pronouns throughout the books in the sections from Zhu's POV) A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon I love the Roots of Chaos series, I really do. I especially love the choice to have the second book be set 500 years before the first one. There is so much to love in this fantasy epic, but as said I was mostly impressed with the choice to take us so far into the past of the first book in the series. I love being able to get lost in a book and its worldbuilding, but there is something particularly special about a world where the worldbuilding flavor turns into a full on novel, so when I read this one I can have the thrill of knowing how people will be remembered/the impact the actions will have on the future/what is and is not forgotten around their actions, and when I reread Priory of the Orange Tree the references to the figures of the past leap off the page all the more now that I know them and their lives. I truly can not wait to see what stories set in this world Shannon chooses to tell next. The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi So many second books in series on this list. Whoops. I've recently run into the recurring issue where I'll enjoy the first book in a series just fine, but not love it, and then love the second book. This happened with SO MANY series I read in 2023, enough that I really wanted to highlight my favorite of the books where I experienced this. The Battle Drum, which followed The Final Strife, was full of rich worldbuilding which vastly expanded upon the setting (literally). I am still thinking about the characters, and am excited to reunite with them this summer when the third book in the trilogy is released.

I just want to note that the first book I thought to put here was the one I just finished, a book I began and finished in 2024. Whoops. There are also some books I have not finished (but started in 2023) I think could take this top five spot if I actually finished them (call out to myself). Also there is a whole hell of a lot to be said about the fact that I want to put the book I just finished here. I call myself out with recency bias. The fresher characters and/or a world are in my mind, the more excited I am about them. Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner Best romance novel I read in 2023, no contest. Everything about it was an utter delight. I laughed so hard while reading this book that other people who were at Riis on that day came up to me to ask what I was reading. Absolutely unhinged book. The plot? It's parents weekend at MC's college. She doesn't have a relationship with her parents, so instead of participating in any of the parent focused events, she decides to go to a bar on the other side of the city to have a hot one night stand. It's super hot, they have sex in the older woman's car. The next day one of her besties asks her to join her for brunch with her mom. You'll never guess who the mom is. For reasons of sheer plot chaos, she and the mom decide to hide the hot sex in the car situation from the daughter, a situation that snowballs dramatically because plot. Amazing book, had SO MUCH FUN with every moment of it.

12 - Any books that disappointed you?

SO MANY

oh wow

I read SO MANY duds this year.

From critically acclaimed stories that were just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short for me (particularly for me to listen to as an audiobook while hiking, it was soooooooooo short omg there was nothing to latch onto or fall in love with, and was over like right as my hike started!) to series I inexplicably read all of even though I wasn't feeling any of it because each book picked up right at the end and promised to deliver in the next book (and then I'd again have to wait until the end of the following book for things to get good and then finally read a fucking short story collection set in the world to get the worldbuilding I was missing all series long), to a book so bad I can't stop thinking about how much I hated it and how godawful the worldbuilding and character logic was because HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE AND WHY DIDN'T ANYONE FUCKING POINT OUT ANY OF THE ISSUES? I KNOW TOR HAS EDITORS! I uh............... I am not sure if I want to name any of these duds? Mainly because while none of them worked at all FOR ME, I am sure there are people who love them and I really don't want to shit on anyone's fav.

[posi-pan]

22 holiday books with canon pansexual characters!

The Christmas Chevalier by Meg Mardell

Christmas Mountain by Garrett Leigh

Christmas Trio by Shandi Boyes

Claiming Mrs. Claus by R.M. Virtues

O Come All Ye Kellys by Isla Olsen

The Country Village Christmas Show by Cathy Lake

Dear Daddy, Please Want Me by Reese Morrison

Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West

Eternal Hoptimist by Lee Blair

Face It by Georgette Kaplan

A Holiday Crush by CJane Elliott

Honeymoon for One by Rachel Bowdler

Knit Two Together by Ariel Tachna

The Lights on Knockbridge Lane by Roan Parrish

Lunar New Love by Ophelia Silk

Mama, Me, and the Holiday Tree by Jeanne G’Fellers

Merry Faking Christmas by Della Cain

Milestone by J. Hayden Bailey

Random Acts of New Year by Julia Kent

Socks for an Otter by Posy Roberts

Tow Trucks & New Year’s Kisses by Lila Leigh Hunter

A Very Merry Krewmas by Nicky James

Check out the article for more information about these books! I hope y’all find something to cozy up with this holiday season and Pan Week! 📚💗💛💙❄

#pan week #pan positivity #pan pride #pansexual #pan books #text #mine #medium #the majority are christmas books but there are some other upcoming holidays in there too!

[usuallyhats]

rules: tag 9 people you want to get to know better. I was tagged by @thecroissantgirl, about a million years ago, I am bad at getting round to things

last song: I'm listening to @always-theocean‘s Taylor Swift playlist and the last great american dynasty just came up - I wasn’t really in the right headspace for evermore/folklore when they came out, but I’m really getting into them now.

last show: I saw Camille O’Sullivan at Union Chapel back in November, I don’t know her stuff that well but she’s INCREDIBLE live, fully recommend seeing her if you get a chance, especially in such a spectacular venue.

currently watching: Critical Role as ever. Just finished this year’s Sewing Bee, also have got very in Motherland: Fort Salem recently (three episodes into season 2!) and am enjoying slowly rewatching Nirvana in Fire.

currently reading: I’m about halfway through Ariel Kaplan’s The Pomegranate Gate and really liking it - it took me a while to get into it, but now I’m through the set up chapters and the plot’s up and going, I’m enjoying it tremendously. And I’m really vibing with its sense of humour.

current obsession: still very much in a Critical Role/D&D space all the time. Plus BOOKS ALWAYS BOOKS.

tagging I feel like I lost my right to tag anyone else after taking THREE MONTHS to get round to this, but anyone who wants to do it, consider yourself tagged, I feel like I always want to know the answers to these questions!

#usuallychats