The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor
by: Amanda Panitch
August 9, 2022 Roaring Brook Press
320 pages
There’s a lot I could talk about in Amanda Panitch’s Middle Grade novel The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor. It features a Jewish magical creature – we all know I’m trash for those, an interfaith family – many BookishlyJewish readers have asked for that content, a female Rabbi – she’s a marvelously complex character by the way, and so much more. Still, I’d like to start with something a bit more basic to a writer’s toolkit: voice.
Ruby is delightfully “voice-y.” To put it mildly, Ruby is not easily grossed out. She keeps up a running commentary with the reader on everything from animal dissections to the various antics of her younger cousins. This gives the reader a humorous place from which to approach some very serious issues. Namely, Ruby’s grandmother making her feel less loved than her perfect cousin Sarah because she disapproves of the fact that Ruby’s mother isn’t Jewish. Not to mention the resulting fall out on Ruby and Sarah’s previously close relationship or the complicated emotions that arise when Ruby accidentally causes Sarah to be possessed by a dybbuk.
A Dybbuk is essentially the malevolent soul of someone who has died but refuses to move on due to some unfinished purpose. They then posses another being to achieve their nefarious goals. In this particular case the Dybbuk’s original goal is actually not all that nefarious. The dybbuk started out as a woman who wanted to study Torah back in the shtetl but was refused due to her gender. After the resulting betrayals from everyone who could have helped her, and her tragic death, she decided she needed revenge on the establishment. We’ll overlook the fact that Dybbuk’s aren’t supposed to stick around for decades and the fact that you cannot trap them in boxes. Allowing that little bit of creative license leaves us with a Dybbuk that, upon being released from her cage, takes hold of Sarah and proceeds to torpedo all of Sarah’s relationships. Needless to say, Ruby is concerned about this turn of events, but how can she expel the dybbuk when nobody will believe her, and she’s starting to doubt she’s Jewish enough herself? The dybbuk is no slouch – it uses the tension between the cousins to make all of Ruby’s attempts at helping Sarah appear like Ruby’s own petty jealousy.
Along the way to solving this demonic pickle, The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor delves into some serious discussions about friendship and how one friend can’t be everything to a person, growing up interfaith, modernizing without alienating community members, and the difficult truth that sometimes relationships just can’t be salvaged and are not worth the pain and harm they cause. Throughout, Ruby never loses her humorous charm.
This is also an inclusive book. There is a wide cast of characters of various other religions as well as the presence of LGBTQIA+ people and parents within the community. Panitch has a light touch and the text reads quickly. The only thing I would have liked to see is a sequel told from Sarah’s point of view, because let’s face it, I was more of a Sarah as a kid and I’d love to see what Panitch can do with a narrator who has a more serious voice. As The Two Wrong Halves of Ruby Taylor shows, the world needs all of us and our unique voices.