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s4yy4d4's review
dark
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
4.5
dominiquecamargo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
dianna_reads's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
naomi_mahoney's review
This book, even though interesting, is too full of violence for me, which I can't deal with at the moment. I am curious how it continues, but not so curious that I want to feel that horrible all the time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
holdvic's review
5.0
"the only way we can rectify our mistakes is to try and undo the wrong we have done."
pbmummy's review
2.0
About a quarter of the way through I realized that I had read this story before, in a better written book. Characters were introduced and not heard from again. I wanted so much more from this book but for me it didn't deliver.
sjj169's review against another edition
3.0
Other days, I'd remind myself what Amma used to tell me-the color of our sky will be bright again so I shouldn't lose hope.
In the late 1980's Mutka's realizes that her caste in life has led her to be dedicated to Yellamma and become a temple prostitute, her Amma is sick and her father is pretty unknown. Her Amma had told her that he was a rich and powerful man but he will never claim a prostitute's daughter as his.
Mutka ends up being rescued and taken back to Bombay to live with a foster family, that includes a young girl named Tara. Tara and Mutka have a tentative friendship as Tara's mother pretty much hates having Mutka in the house and makes sure she knows her place at all times.
Then Mutka is kidnapped one night from Tara's room. Tara sees the whole thing but tells no one her secrets. Her mother had been killed in the bombings and she is 'still recuperating.'
Tara's father is devastated after his wife's death and Mutka's kidnapping so he moves Tara and himself to America to start over.
Years pass and Tara's father dies and she finds out that the whole time he was looking still for Mutka..she leaves America to return to India to hunt her after eleven years.
Okay, so this is not a bad book. It's so beautifully written that it does keep you interested. There were just some things that were not wrapped up well for me. Cuz I'm a picky bitch.
Tara-I never really liked her. I felt like she did something bad when she was younger and then after her father died she didn't have anything else to do so she then felt the guilt.
Then she goes to India and greases palms, stays and eats, uses a private investigator...all after it being said that she worked three menial jobs in the US???? How the heck did she afford that?
Secondary characters-they come and then they go. No follow up for introducing the reader to them. I need more than that.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
In the late 1980's Mutka's realizes that her caste in life has led her to be dedicated to Yellamma and become a temple prostitute, her Amma is sick and her father is pretty unknown. Her Amma had told her that he was a rich and powerful man but he will never claim a prostitute's daughter as his.
Mutka ends up being rescued and taken back to Bombay to live with a foster family, that includes a young girl named Tara. Tara and Mutka have a tentative friendship as Tara's mother pretty much hates having Mutka in the house and makes sure she knows her place at all times.
Then Mutka is kidnapped one night from Tara's room. Tara sees the whole thing but tells no one her secrets. Her mother had been killed in the bombings and she is 'still recuperating.'
Tara's father is devastated after his wife's death and Mutka's kidnapping so he moves Tara and himself to America to start over.
Years pass and Tara's father dies and she finds out that the whole time he was looking still for Mutka..she leaves America to return to India to hunt her after eleven years.
Okay, so this is not a bad book. It's so beautifully written that it does keep you interested. There were just some things that were not wrapped up well for me. Cuz I'm a picky bitch.
Tara-I never really liked her. I felt like she did something bad when she was younger and then after her father died she didn't have anything else to do so she then felt the guilt.
Then she goes to India and greases palms, stays and eats, uses a private investigator...all after it being said that she worked three menial jobs in the US???? How the heck did she afford that?
Secondary characters-they come and then they go. No follow up for introducing the reader to them. I need more than that.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
divyasudhakar's review
4.0
This was a depressing but hopeful read. I knew some of the topics touched upon tangentially - the tradition of the Devadasis, Kamathipura and what happens to the women and their children there - but reading a whole book about it was like being thrust into a very harsh light, one that exposes all the things I do not like to think about very much. Very little of this book was happy but it wasn't maudlin and the story was captivating. I binged through the book in a matter of a day. I found the story to be a little too dramatic for my taste but who am I to say that stories like this, that very much do exist, do not deserve to be told because they are too dramatic for my middle class sensibilities. All in all a great debut novel from a promising author!
zhelana's review against another edition
5.0
This book was advertised for fans of Nadia Hashimi, and boy did they nail it. It was very similar to Hashimi's writing, which is a very good thing. It was, like Hashimi, about how poorly women are treated in certain conditions. This condition was a brothel for a young girl who was born to a temple prostitute. In India, that birth guaranteed that she would spend most of her life also as a prostitute. This book is also about the love between two girls - one upper caste and one lower caste - and how that love evolved from 5 year old children to adulthood. I loved Mukta's voice, and how she managed to maintain hope and see good in small things in such awful situations.