by Sacha Lamb
First published 2024
Seventeen-year-old Sorel jumps from her bedroom window the night before her arranged wedding. She runs through the dark streets and adopts the name Isser Jacobs to hide her true identity. But Isser Jacobs was a real person, and dangerous people are hunting him. Sorel discovers that smugglers, forgers, and supernatural forces control the Jewish quarter of her city in the Pale of Settlement. She carries a knife and navigates this criminal underworld while presenting as male. The community faces growing restrictions on Jewish books and political activity. Sorel must learn why people want Isser dead and what he was involved in. She encounters dybbuks and other dark spirits as she moves through this hidden world. Her survival depends on understanding both Isser's secrets and her own desires for freedom and identity.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, fantasy, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, identity-swap
Setting: Pale of Settlement
Period: 19th-century
256 pages · Hardcover · Levine Querido
Content warnings: violence