Reviews with content warning for Classism - When the Angels Left the Old Country

WAUGH. i love. i'm squeezing little ash and uriel and rose and essie in my hands. i love you queer people i love you jewish folklore i love you otherworldly beings that don't subscribe to human concepts of gender i love you labor unions i love you critiques of the american dream and establishment i love you non normative depictions of love!!!!! genuinely could not believe this was a debut novel it's SO GOOD and the ending is so like,,,,,, it's a happy ending and it makes you feel Good but it also doesn't feel Unearned and it's Satisfying and i just. sacha lamb the author that you are. very excited for anything they write in the future.

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sashahc's review

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I love that the current renaissance of queer Jewish fantasy is delving into the rich history of Yiddish folklore. It's full of supernatural beings who are themselves Jewish and who have their own hierarchies and quirks.

“When the Angels Left the Old Country” by Sacha Mankins (writing as Sacha Lamb) is about Uriel and Little Ash, an angel and a demon, who are Torah study partners, bickering cheerfully in the corner of the shul of their tiny shtetl in the Pale of Settlement for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, the shtetl is collapsing in the wake of pogroms and mass migration to the New World. When one of their young emigrants goes missing, they decide to travel to New York, specifically the Lower East Side, where they get caught up with human traffickers, striking garment workers, and vengeful dybbuks. There are rebbes and bubbes and plucky gay girls making their own way. It’s funny and sweet and very queer and very very Jewish. I also love how there is other rep shown in ways that deepen the story. Little Ash has chronic pain from his rooster feet. Uriel's pronoun is "it." And the romance between them is deep and also ace.

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shoohoob's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is so wordy and introspective…. very Jewish if you ask me

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puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

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hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love this book so much I can’t talk about it because my thoughts inevitably devolve into unintelligible noise. From the first page (figuratively, because I read the audiobook) it was like the story vibrated at the same frequency as my brain.

It’s a fundamentally queer, neurodivergent and Jewish story with love, kindness and humour at its core. I want to read it a thousand more times!

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shaipanda's review

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adventurous funny hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.
I genuinely absolutely loved this book just as much, if not more, than I expected to. As someone who grew up deeply entrenched in my Jewish culture and community, it was so amazing and such a special experience to be able to read a book with so many references I recognized. This book was so clearly deeply deeply rooted in Jewish (specifically Ashkenazi) culture and mythology which was really amazing to read.
Additionally, all of the characters are so loveable and I absolutely loved seeing the characters grow, whether they were teenage girls or immortal beings. This was especially true given the queer Jewish representation in this which is just so important and I have not come acros nearly enough of. I do wish we got to see more of Rivke as she essentially disappears from the story once they leave Ellis Island and I really liked her character and would’ve loved to see more of her.
One other thing I noticed is while I’m very glad there’s a glossary at least in the back, this book has so so many very specific references in it that it could benefit from having footnotes. This was because some of the references I’d actually never even heard of some of them before such as sheydim and ibburim, and I've spent a significant amount of time in Jewish spaces and constantly expanding my knowledge of Judaism. I feel like because of this, having footnotes would make it significantly more accessible for the general public since how it is now, I’m slightly worried people will put the book down because they don’t understand all of the terms and Jewish context and don’t want to keep Googling or flipping back and forth to the glossary.

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