Reviews with content warning for Cursing - The Bandit Queens

The main character starts catching feelings for the dude who not only enabled her husband’s domestic violence but also was overheard encouraging another man to escalate his domestic violence.

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scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I have listed almost all the content warnings I can think of it, and yeah, that full list can be pretty damn intense, and at first I thought I was going to have to take this book in small increments because a lot of these triggers may be really hard to deal. BUT, the book is wrought with dark humor, and it was sufficiently hilarious enough that I was able to keep going while not watering down or minimizing the serious topics discussed.

The main character, Geeta, is a social pariah in her village because her abusive husband left her five years prior to the start of the novel and they all think that she murdered him. She never confirms or denies this because it means people leave her alone while at the same time, buys from her jewelry business because they don't want to piss off the woman because heaven forbid she come after them! It all starts spiraling out of her control when one of the women of the village comes to her and asks her for help in killing her abusive husband. The Bandit Queen of the title references the Real Life Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi and she is talked about repeatedly in the book for the sake of making parallels to the MC. I strongly suggest looking up her life story, it is so interesting.

As you can see, the story has a lot to do with misogyny, domestic abuse, the patriarchy that plagues a lot of areas of India. There's a lot of classism spoken on in the book as well. Parini Shroff is able to make a reader both laugh and wince at what the MC and her found family (yes, this one has a found family trope!) go through.

Okay, I know I'm praising the book but why the lower rating? Because there's some ableism and fatphobia/fat-shaming that happens that is mostly just super glossed over or played for laughs. The MC uses it to insult her best friend turned enemy turned ally again and although afterward, she apologizes for her behavior, the fat-phobic jokes/insult still keep coming well into the end of the book. I feel like the author could have done a way better job addressing those issues because even if the book focuses heavily on sexism and domestic abuse/SA, I don't think ableism or body-shaming should EVER be used as comic relief. Because of this, honestly, I cannot recommend the book, but if you decide to read it, you will learn about another culture, but keep in mind all the trigger warnings as well as topics that Shroff could have done better. I would suggest keep an Internet search bar open as well because while I'm from India and understood all the foreign words and customs, readers might not because not everything is explained fully in the book.

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abookandaspotoftea's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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purl2together's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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ninahuynh's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This was such a roller coaster read!! The bond between the female characters and standing up the the male characters and the patriarchy was chef's kiss 👌✨ I think it was a good choice to read this as an audiobook, as the characters and situations just came to life! This would make a great drama series 😻 (The f-bomb is dropped quite a bit.)

Definitely a feminist piece and humorous.

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brynebo's review

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medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Slow in the middle but otherwise darkly funny and engaging as well as thought provoking

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mtnest's review against another edition

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Too much swearing/taking the Lord’s name in vain. There are some truly funny moments and love learning about the culture but just so tired of the excessive cussing. Definitely not healthy relationships either.

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