THE JUDGEMENT OF YOYO GOLD

As the rabbi's daughter, Yoyo Gold is supposed to set a good example for the other girls in her Orthodox community. She keeps kosher, does her schoolwork, cares for her younger siblings, and organizes the food distribution for Jewish Hunger Relief each week. She's also in charge of making sure her friends don't break any of the numerous rules observant Jews live by. It's no easy task, given that her best friend, Esti Saperstein, seems bent on breaking every rule there is.

When Esti goes too far and gets shipped across the country as punishment, Yoyo is left behind without her closest confidant. Suddenly, she's finding it much more difficult to be the model rabbi's daughter. The community's expectations feel more like burdens, her responsibilities more like chores. Plus, there are new distractions. There's a Reform girl, Mickey, volunteering at Jewish Hunger Relief, who makes TikTok videos and kisses boys. Then there's the handsome Shua Holtzman, a friend of Yoyo's older brother who has just been unceremoniously kicked out of boarding school for his loose interpretations of their faith. What is Yoyo supposed to do with the feelings she has for Shua, or the thrills she gets from scrolling through social media with Mickey? And why should she be the only one abstaining from the modern world, when seemingly everyone else in her community is breaking one rule or another? Yoyo makes a gossipy anonymous TikTok account putting the hypocrites she knows on blast. But when it goes unexpectedly viral, she finds herself caught in a scandal that might cleave her from her community forever. Isaac Blum's sophomore novel is a smart, witty examination of community, faith, and the dicult balance of old tradition in a new world. Isaac Blum (he/him) holds an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University, Camden. His stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Iowa Review, and One Teen Story, among other publications. He's taught writing at several colleges and universities, and English language arts at Orthodox Jewish and public high schools, and he served as the emerging-writer-in-residence at Penn State, Altoona. He currently lives with his wife outside of Philadelphia, where he watches Philadelphia sports and reads books that make him laugh while showing him something true about the world. The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen is his debut novel. You can visit Isaac online at isaacblumauthor.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @isaacblum_.