I finished The Hidden Palace a while back and now I want to talk to myself about it, so.
I honestly expected Chava and Ahmad to have a will-they-won't-they thing going for about half this novel, but NOPE. That's clarified like 20 pages in. They will. And they do. Often. 🎉🎉🎉
Something that's explored a bit more in this book is not only how different Chava and Ahmad are due to their natures as a golem and a jinni, but also how different they are just because one's trying to live as a woman and the other as a man.
Like that scene where they're talking about women's suffrage (as one does immediately after sex), Ahmad just doesn't get why Chava would give a damn about it when she's not a human woman, and Chava can't make him understand that regardless of her being a golem, she's seen as and treated like a woman, and blending in for her means a lot more capitulating to what he sees as petty human problems that are beneath him.
And Ahmad really does take his freedom -- even while he's bound to human form -- as a male for granted. And it takes him forever to realize that Chava can't have that (and likely won't have it for several decades). The fact that the book ends with Ahmad leaving for a new city purely to satisfy his own curiosity while Chava disguises herself as a maid in her own house (that she can't even own outright because of her sex) is such a fitting way to cap that theme, honestly.
All this made me wonder how their storylines would change if Ahmad were female and Chava male, tbh. I think Ahmad would've snapped and resorted to total isolation much, much sooner, while Chava likely wouldn't exist at all because the whole reason she was created was to fulfill some creepy dude's desire for the perfect obedient woman.
Something that really bothered me, though, was how Ahmad handled Arbeely's diagnosis. Like I always imagined he wouldn't take Arbeely's death well, but I didn't expect him to just leave at the first sign of it and never see him again.
It's funny because Ahmad sort of justifies distancing himself from humans because of what he did to Sophia (and Fadwa, but she's weirdly never mentioned in this book), but obviously you can hurt someone through inaction, too. I get that Ahmad had his own way of processing his grief about what was coming, and that he and Arbeely rarely actually talked about what they needed to even before the latter's diagnosis so maybe this reaction was just par the course, but still. That's such a callous way for their relationship to end, and Arbeely deserved so much better from him.
Honestly, Ahmad is almost insufferable in this book, lmao. Like that's perfect characterization, and I wouldn't change anything about it, but just. I totally understand why almost every female character ends up hating him.
I loved so many of the character relationships/interactions in this book:
I think Ahmad and Maryam's might be my favorite, what with her basically taking on the responsibility (from Arbeely) to protect the community from Ahmad and vice versa. It was a perfect follow-up to learning that she was the one who actually brought Ahmad to NYC in the first place. And I loved her line to Ahmad about humans eventually catching up to and possibly even surpassing him within his lifetime.
Sophia and Dima's relationship was interesting, too. I was hoping they would stay together in some way, especially after Dima got fed up with Ahmad after like two days, lmao. She even says that she wishes Sophia had been the one she had been searching for all this time, which.... 👀
Anyway, Dima and Sophia are essentially bound together anyway at the end of the book. If there's a third book, I'd love to see more of them together, trying to navigate their bizarre relationship (especially with both of them being outcasts).
I like that Anna and Chava still have this awkward, arm's-length sort of friendship going on, while Anna continues to just have 0 patience for Ahmad, period.
Honestly, I think my favorite part of the whole book was the last few chapters where all of the main cast is finally in the same room together. You have, what, five humans who likely would've never met one another if it weren't for the fact that they all have a fantastical creature or two in common. At a certain point, I just started wondering which human was going to knock on the Amherst door next. Sophia? The Radzins?
It was really sweet, too, because Ahmad's initially so annoyed by everyone and their mother showing up at his building, but then he gradually eases into it.
I'll admit I didn't really like Toby's little sleuthing storyline all that much. It actually reminded me a lot of Schaalman trying to track down the key to eternal life in the first book: it's a character trying to solve a mystery that the reader already knows most of the answers to. The main difference is that Schaalman was a fascinating character, while Toby... is just Toby, God love him.
But I did like his first scene with Kreindel, though, and how he was the one who got her to start thinking that she didn't have to fully depend on Yossele for protection/emotional support.
One thing that I'm not totally sure how I feel about is Yossele's ending. I get that he and Dima are in this story (partly) just to show how different Chava and Ahmad are from who they used to be/what they're supposed to be, and also highlight just how drastically different jinn and golems are as creatures. Jinn are free and flighty and arrogant and don't answer to anyone, while golems are almost more akin to tools than conscious beings. And Yossele embodies that so clearly that when his master has to destroy him, it really puts his nature at odds with Chava's.
I was hoping that he'd get a more ambiguous ending, like maybe he'd stay wandering at the bottom of the Hudson or even the Atlantic, and somehow eventually gain more self-awareness, but in the end, he's destroyed because he's dangerous and because he's just... not needed anymore. Kreindel now has friends and people who will look out for her, so there's no reason for Yossele to keep living as her protector. It's bleak, but that's what's meant to happen to a golem that's outlived its purpose, and that just leaves you wondering about Chava's future.
That said, Ahmad giving Chava the instructions for her destruction because he understands that it's something she has a right to, but writing that "[she] deserves life" regardless? Like........... I didn't cry at any point while reading this book, but I came close there.
For the record, I don't care that Ahmad broke his promise Chava, honestly, like I kind of doubt he'd have kept it even if they hadn't been essentially broken up by that point. I think the way their promise was amended at the end of the book -- that they'd always love each other, even if they wouldn't always be together -- was a nice touch. That's really a perfect way to handle a relationship between two creatures like them who will likely live for centuries (if not longer for Chava). I'm hoping this means that they'll just weave in and out of each other's lives, and think that was meant to be implied when Chava picked up a train schedule after Ahmad left for Chicago.
I loved Chava as a teacher. That was such a perfect role for her to fit into because she can totally empathize with having to learn completely new information with 0 background to any of it, and she'd always take her students seriously. It’s sweet, and it seems like she really could make a life out of this because she clearly enjoys it so much and it comes to her so naturally, but then she finds Yossele, and it all falls apart. It sort of reminds me of that moment near the end of the first book where she briefly experienced having a master again, and how it was strangely exhilarating for her, even though she was being forced to hurt someone she cared about. And now that knowledge is just something she’ll have to live with.
I also liked that Chava's apparently going to run a boarding house for outcasts (or that's how I understood it, anyway), with a door open for Dima if she ever decides she doesn't want to be alone anymore. Her and Sophia keeping in touch and wanting to look out for Dima is honestly really sweet.
Oh, another thing I really liked was the theme about storytelling, especially in the hands of children (human and jinn alike), and how stories are living parts of a culture that change with every retelling. There was a specific line somewhere about humans always trying to "attach" ourselves to bigger stories -- sometimes just as a means to bond with one another, and other times for more self-centered reasons (like the characters trying to relate tragedies like Triangle or Titanic back to themselves even when they didn't have any real connection to either) that’s stayed with me ever since I finished the book.
Overall, I really liked The Hidden Palace. Not as much as the first book, but eh, that's usually the case. It was great for a sequel: The character arcs evolved very naturally from where they left off at the first book, and it didn't retread too much on covered ground.
That said, I read through the whole thing in like 24 hours, so I probably missed some finer details and themes. I'm definitely going to reread it once I get through my ILLs and other checkouts.
