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lefthandlou's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, and Murder
erebus53's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Indian girl study's law, marries badly, flash forward to after she is qualified, she is legal council for 3 widows and then murder! whodunit?
This is a historical fiction mystery and so it has a few inserts of some fairly antiquated practices. Falling foul of tradition, Perveen is captured by her husband's family and forcibly detained during her monthly "unclean time". This could be hard to read for some people, as it also deals with women who suffered and died in similar situations before such practices of traditional Zoroastrian culture were challenged and fazed out in the face of modern medical science. The rest of the story has a backdrop of the attitudes toward marriage, arranged marriages and the rules and attitudes toward marriage and its annulment in India in the early 20th century.
Perveen is a subversively anachronistic character. She meddles and fights for the rights of women, and when she finds three widows in religious seclusion from men, have signed away their inheritance to a charity, Miss Mistry smells a rat. Presuming that someone is manipulating the women, Perveen Mistry undertakes to use her privileged position as a woman trained in law, to meet with these women who will not speak to a man outside of their family, and inform them of their Legal Rights.
Soon after the women start questioning things, their caretaker is bloodily murdered, and the meddling Perveen is not prepared to back away and let the police violate these women's religious seclusion.
Oddly, this story was quite fun, if dire in places. It was informative and seems well researched. It gives a nuanced view of how the 1920s in India differed from UK and USA in the 1920s. One of Perveen's friends is expelled from her school for being overly intimate with another girl.. oops. Seems a bit of an aside, but I guess it's better than not dealing with the topic at all.
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Child death, Blood, Mental illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical content, Infertility, Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, and Violence
faduma's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Moderate: Torture, Death, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Confinement, Sexual violence, Violence, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Racial slurs and Racism
heather667's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Incest, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Grief
Minor: Lesbophobia, Rape, Suicide, and Homophobia
singalana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Blood, Colonisation, Sexual content, Death, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Infertility
bessadams's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Confinement, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Murder, Terminal illness, Infidelity, Infertility, Blood, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse
skudiklier'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? No
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Murder, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Sexism, Bullying, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Grief, Violence, Death, Sexual content, Child death, Classism, Child abuse, Infertility, and Ableism
Minor: Pregnancy, Medical content, Fatphobia, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Racism, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Body shaming, and Colonisation
zarap's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Physical abuse and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Child abuse
bootsmom3's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Islamophobia, and Suicidal thoughts
honeycomb_system's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The main character, Perveen Mistry, is based on the first female lawyer in India. We really enjoyed watching her use the law to fight for justice where only she can: within a Muslim household’s zenana. We also enjoyed watching her grow as she becomes more competent, takes on new challenges, and learns to work around the constraints society places on her. The characters in the story kept us hooked – for the most part.
Sadly there were some sections where the book started to drag and it felt like we were slogging through the doldrums. We enjoyed the rest of the book so much that it thoroughly aggravates us that Massey chose to include the chapters set in 1917.
But we still loved the book enough to read it four out of five stars and buy the sequel.Perveen, her father Jamshadji, and her friend Alice are all characters we definitely want to spend more time with. We also love the vivid pictures Massey paints of life in Bombay with the wide variety of cultures and their clashes with British colonialism. She uses just the right salting of languages like Hindi to add authentic detail without confusing readers who don’t know these terms – Especially important in an audiobook when we didn’t know how to spell the non-English words in order to look them up.
Soneela Nankani does an excellent job of narrating. She gives slightly different accents to characters from different cultures and has a pleasant voice. She never seems to stumble over non-English words.while some reviewers found it difficult to keep track of who is who, we had no trouble tracking who was speaking. While we appreciate the energy Nankani brings to the narration, after a while we noticed that she seems to give every sentence an astonished feeling, which does become annoying. We noticed that Audible switches narrators with the sequel. We usually hate it when they do this, but perhaps Sneha Mathan’s narration will not suffer from the constant astonishment problem.
A Word to the Wise (Content Warnings)
Major: Domestic violence; sexism, misogyny, and colonialism/racism appropriate to the period; toxic family dynamics; manipulation/gaslighting; religious abuse.
Moderate: Assault, alcoholism, kidnapping, child abuse, violence, homophobia, heteronormativity.
Minor: Brief mention of blood, incest.
TL;DR
We already consider the Asian Readathon a success because we found a new series to love. The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey is a book anyone who loves a good cozy legal mystery with a plucky heroine should try. we are already looking forward to book two!
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Racism, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Violence, and Homophobia
Minor: Blood