Children of the Scroll

In Tabor’s debut fantasy novel, a colorful cast of characters seeks a magic scroll that can resurrect the dead.

A few months after his mother, Lilith, dies from Covid-19, Brian Newman stops to take a tour of a run-down abandoned synagogue he passes on the way home from work. Inside, he finds an ancient scroll written in Hebrew that can bring people back from the dead. Teaming up with the rabbi Wendell Rosenburg, the duo performs a ritual to resurrect Lilith as a golem, a creature sculpted from clay. The ritual works, but not without consequences. “According to legend, the purpose of a golem created by a mystic rabbi has been to defend and avenge its people—the Jews,” Rabbi Rosenburg explains. This means Lilith is bound to the scroll and charged with protecting any Jewish people the scroll’s owner cares for. Complicating matters, they aren’t the only ones who know about the magical relic: On their heels are a Russian drug dealer who moonlights as a private investigator for “dubious clients,” a dangerous ancient artifact collector named Eva, and a company called Israeli Defense Systems that aims to steal the scroll and create an army of supersoldiers with special powers. Brian and his family must do whatever they can to keep the scroll, and Lilith, safe. Tabor’s intriguing concept gets buried a bit in the execution. Because the story is narrated from multiple points of view, it takes a long time to set up the plot, and the constant switching between characters’ perspectives can occasionally grow distracting. Everyone in the cast feels unique and fun, but the author’s inclusion of numbered citations within the text and bibliographies at the ends of the chapters can sometimes make the novel feel more like a textbook.

A compelling premise meets a somewhat rocky execution.