I feel like I learned a lot in this book. I am not Jewish but my aunt and her family are so I’ve celebrated the high holidays with them, but they’re the opposite of orthodox. So this book was definitely enlightening. I have a lot of feelings about the orthodox community because, on one hand, I would think it is comforting to have everyone have a role in society and “know their place,” as it were. But it also just seems very limiting and isolating.

I think Lola/Leah’s Journey was fascinating, and I wonder if she would have become orthodox had she (spoiler) not lost her fiancé in that hiking accident.

I loved her interactions with the children, and then with Yaakov, and how their relationship grew from there. I wished there was more focus on Shaindele, the older daughter, and her relationship with Leah — that would have been so interesting to explore, they seem very similar if you dig into the characters.