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tetedump's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, and Racism
allergy reactionelyssarenae's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Otherwise, an intriguing premise and good writing! I give the first three sections a 4/5⭐️ and the last section a 1.5/5⭐️ for a 3.5/5⭐️ overall.
Graphic: Car accident and Death of parent
Moderate: Physical abuse, Cancer, Suicide, and Animal death
Minor: Self harm
viji's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Mental illness, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Suicide, Grief, Child abuse, Self harm, and Death
nu_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Despite the book claiming to span across many times, it is mostly linear safe for a couple of flashbacks and flash forwards in the earlier books. To me the book was more about Kalki and him trying to reconcile with the traumatizing family/father. He was lied to from a very young age, and being told that he had to bear the burden of his parents sacrifices. In a way this coincides with a lot of themes in South Asian culture where we have this fake reverence towards beings that are godlike, but not actually caring about them as individuals. Allowing our ability to put them on a pedestal of reference and divinity to essentially not let us treat them in a respectful and humane manner.
But his horrible person of a father was of course only thinking about himself and of the fortune that he could make. The main themes of this book like religion/seduction of belief is basically told through the trauma that Kalki goes through at the hands of a narcissistic parent who will do anything for power, including but not limited to, marketing a blue baby as a god too desperate worshipers and forcing his family to play along because he prefers to manipulate people into furthering his own agenda and his own plan (one that is very flimsy upon close inspection).
It's a disturbingly beautiful book, with the writing style so simple yet loud and incisive. It's essentially Kalki retelling his story, looking back at his time at the ashram with nostalgia and bringing us into the crux of his naivity during his childhood. It really forces you to think about how badly people want to believe in something (not necessarily just religion), and even after the "illusion" falls how there will still be people choosing to believe in the lie because it brings them comfort and is better than confronting their entire worldview falling apart.
It's a heavy book, especially in the child/domestic abuse area, so I encourage anyone who's not in the best place mentally to tread lightly. But if you're able to read the book I wholeheartedly reccomend it!
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Sexual content
Moderate: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Stalking
Minor: Cultural appropriation and Kidnapping
renniewest's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
the abuse and manipulation kalki endures is very impactful, and it’s understandable that this would affect him as an adult when he realizes what he’s been through, but the book ends leaving kalki in a perpetual state of traumatized. i wanted better closure for him, and if i’m going to be honest he disappointed me in the end. i also really wanted him to give lakshman a big fuck you in the end, so that was really disappointing.
i also don’t like the attitude with which believers are depicted in many scenes, either with pity as victims of manipulation or blind idiots. i really don’t know what this book was trying to say.
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Mental illness
taviarz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Cancer, Self harm, Suicide, and Transphobia
sknappy1's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse
Moderate: Transphobia, Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Cancer, Classism, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Violence
Minor: Animal death and Vomit
gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Though out this book I was waiting for something more engaging for me to happen. Characters came and then left so quickly that you don't have time to feel attached to them. This makes it hard later in the book to even care about the characters because they won't be relevant in two chapters time (an exaggeration of time but they did come and go quickly). I found that I had no real connection to the story as Kalki was not a very interesting character despite his circumstance.
So for this book I thought it was interesting at times, hence the 3 stars and that fact that I didn't DNF it, though by the end it does leave for more to be desired as the ending felt very unsatisfying to me.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicide, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Transphobia and Animal death
ahliahreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Suicide and Child abuse
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cancer, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Vomit
spinesinaline's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was very, very good and I loved how the story just so slightly shifted and revealed where we were headed as we got further in. Even the subtle aspects of the book, like what each section title ultimately represents, are so important to the story and our ultimate understanding of it and I loved these little nods that we discover throughout! So many of my thoughts are related to the latter half of the book so I’ll refrain from sharing too much to avoid spoilers but if anyone’s read it and wants to chat, let me know!
I was definitely not prepared for the twist, though of course we have hints of ‘what the heck is going on’, but the power of this writing comes not only from the author’s surprise in this twist but the implications of what these new discoveries will mean for Kalki’s sense of the world. Ultimately the book moves from a curious and fantastical story of a child god, to exploring more worldly concepts with Kalki as our eyes and ears.
The book is told almost primarily chronologically but there are a few moments within chapters where we’re suddenly in the present day with Kalki as he reflects back on his story. While I do like having this additional context of his current knowledge and hints of where he ends up, the present day moments were so infrequently mixed in, and usually within a flashback chapter, that it felt an odd change of the flow of the story.
The ending is where I have more issues, which of course I’ll keep vague to avoid spoilers. I was prepared to leave the book with many unanswered questions, which felt very realistic in how people’s lives progress, but the ending then hints that there are even more hideous secrets being kept. Except that after all these hints, we just get more of the same so the scene felt rather pointless, and then the book ended very abruptly.
This is still a book I’ll be thinking about long after I’ve put it down but I wish it could’ve embraced being open-ended more. I also really appreciated that the author ends with a land acknowledgment and includes many recommendations on Indigenous authors to check out.
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Car accident, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Vomit