The Maiden and Her Monster author Maddie Martinez: ‘Telling queer stories is an act of resistance’

‘The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark…’ PinkNews speaks to author Maddie Martinez about her debut novel The Maiden and Her Monster, creepy forests, sapphic longing and overcoming the patriarchy. 

(Warning: Spoilers for The Maiden and Her Monster follow). 

The Maiden and Her Monster is heavily inspired by the Jewish Golem myth. What was it about this story that sparked your imagination?

I really loved the questions that it asked about violence and protection, and what it means to be able to protect someone at the cost of violence. It also offered a lot of interesting perspectives on what it means to be a monster and what we make of monsters. So, I had a really great time taking the historically-inspired setting of this myth and integrating it with all these questions that are really interesting to me, especially [using] a fantasy lens.

Many retellings of the Golem myth focus on male Golems. What was it that made you want to write Nimra as a female Golem?

The gendered nature of Golems is really interesting, and I highly recommend anybody who’s interested to look into it because it’s so broad. But I do feel like the more popular re-imaginings or myths that are more in the cultural zeitgeist are with masculine Golems. There [is] a rise in different Golem representations, which is really exciting. So I’m excited to contribute to that. 

I think I was just interested in seeing a woman figure in this role. One, because I really wanted to write a sapphic ‘monster in the woods’ story. I [also] found it interesting to tackle these ideas of violence and weaponisation through the lens of a woman character. Especially in a world where it’s still very patriarchal.

You’ve said previously that a lot of your inspiration was found in history, including medieval Prague. Why was that period such a big inspiration for this book?

It’s very loosely inspired by the late medieval ages in Prague. This wasn’t only interesting to me because of the Golem of Prague myth, but also because Prague in the late Middle Ages was a really interesting time politically. 

Specifically, I was interested in the time period where the church is losing its grip on power, what that means to be in that transitional period and what people do to try to maintain power when circumstances are pushing power in a different direction. 

I was also drawn to [take] inspiration from Prague. So quite a bit before that, there was a golden age in Prague and I found it really interesting to ask who is left out of supposed golden ages. So that was kind of initially what drove me to select this area in this very broad 300-year period.

The dynamic of the church in The Maiden and Her Monster was really interesting. Did you intend for an LGBTQ+ person within the book to contribute to the church’s downfall?

I actually didn’t even think about it until you just brought it up [laughs]. I didn’t think about it, but I’m so happy that I contributed to that. I think it was also probably unconsciously in the back of my mind.

At the end of the novel, when the traditional church has fallen, this new era of reformation is happening. There are still issues, and they still bring up a lot of the same issues that the church originally had while it was in power. I wanted Nimra [the Golem] to recognise that and also be at the forefront of forcing them to keep their promises, which is probably a little bit more hopeful than what actually happens in the real world. 

You said you wanted to write a sapphic ‘monster in the woods’ story. What was it about that idea that drew you to it?

I just don’t think I had read a lot of them, and I really liked that dynamic. I don’t think I’m the first to do it, but I wanted there to be more. I thought it could bring a really interesting dynamic, and also, I feel like I just wanted it to be sapphic. It was never not sapphic in my head. 

The magic system is also really interesting in that it is driven by faith and heavily connected to nature. What made you go down that route?

To create a Golem, it’s very intrinsically connected to religion and mysticism. It engages with the spiritual connection between language and the earth and humans. So I wanted to create something similar to evoke that, but also make it my own for the fantasy world that it’s set in.

Were you inspired by any particular people to create Malka and Nimra?

Nobody in particular, but there were some ideas I wanted to explore through them. 

So for Malka, I really wanted to explore what it’s like for a person to have to unlearn what they had been told and how they cope with that, because I think it’s a fork in the road when you unlearn something or you get new information. You can either dig your heels in, or you can change and grow with that new information. So I really wanted to explore what it was like for a character who has been isolated her whole life, and has been given a really easy scapegoat to believe in what it was like for her to unlearn that and how she’s able to move forward. 

For Nimra, she’s very much my take on the brooding love interest that we get a lot of, who are usually men. I love those stories, but I really wanted to do this Golem take. I thought she was the perfect character for that because she is blamed for things, and she internalises that. She has to unlearn and overcome the fact that she was created for a very specific purpose, and that purpose was violence. What does it mean when you try to be more than that? So that was really fun for me to work on. 

The forest is almost a character throughout the book as it’s always lurking there as a malevolent force. Was there a basis for how you wrote the forest?

I was inspired by a lot of winter fantasies that I love. Like the Winter Night trilogy by Katherine Arden, Uprooted by Naomi Novik, The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid. I really liked how the forest was used as a vehicle to explore the worlds, the politics, and the mythologies of those worlds. Um, so I was definitely inspired by those books. 

Also, because the magic system is so tied to nature and evoking things from nature and the relationship between humans and nature, I thought that this kind of cursed magical forest would be a really interesting avenue to explore that relationship.

How important do you think LGBTQ+ stories are right now?

I think they’re so important. They’ve always been important and they always will be. 

I think it’s extra important to dig your heels in and tell these stories and be honest to the story you want to tell and the way you want to tell it. Telling queer stories is always, somewhat, an act of resistance. Also, just knowing that they mean something to people and that they can help people when the world around them may not offer them that same escape. I’m honoured to be able to contribute to them.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about or already writing their own queer story at the moment?

Stay true to the story you want to tell because the most vital thing you can bring to the table is the story only you can tell. I know there’s lots of fear around publishing queer stories, and I won’t say it’s easy, and I won’t say you don’t get fewer opportunities, because I would be lying. But, they’re so important that I think they’re worth continuing to write. There are agents and editors who will fight for these stories, and that’s important to keep in the back of your mind as well.

The Maiden and Her Monster is coming out next month (September 2025), but are you working on anything else already?

I’m working on my second contracted book with Tor. I can’t really talk much about it, but it’s a sapphic gothic fantasy that retells a very popular gothic story. It’s another standalone as well. 

What are you reading right now?

I’m currently reading As Many Souls As Stars by Natasha Siegel, which is another sapphic gothic book. It’s pitched as kind of Addie LaRue-esque where there’s a bargain between a demon and a woman that lasts through centuries. Natasha’s writing is amazing, and I’m really enjoying it.

The Maiden and Her Monster is available in the US on 9 September 2025 and in the UK on 11 September 2025.