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anovelbeauty's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Book TW: child abuse, assault, child murder, homophobia, sexism, body horror, human sacrifice, religious extremism
Note: I received an eARC of this book to provide an honest review.
The Jasmine Throne is a really solid intro to a fantasy series. The worldbuilding is /really/ well done and had me fascinated (and sometimes horrified) the entire time. Now, I will say that as a person who doesn’t tolerate body horror well, yikes! Please prepare yourself because hooo boy is there some freaky ish at various points of this book. Did I ever think I’d be afraid of flowers and petals? Nah. But here we are.
The character work was also really good, especially considering how many characters there are to balance in this multiPOV work. Bhumika is by FAR my favorite character. I love her quiet type of strength throughout the story and how she always patiently awaits the right moments to make her move. The characters you are supposed to hate are A+ hateable. The one part of the story I wasn’t as keen on was unfortunately the romance. While I liked Priya and Malini as characters and I usually love slow burn romance… it just felt like there was something lacking when they finally did get together. I think perhaps there was just so much other stuff going on that it really just felt like a side note but you could tell it was /supposed/ to feel really pivotal. And given how the arcs progress, I’m not sure how it will develop in the coming books.
That being said, everything else was really enjoyable and I thought there were quite a few clever and interesting plot moments. I am absolutely happy I read it and I am definitely interested in picking up the sequel to see what happens next! I would say this story rides the line between YA and Adult Fantasy fairly well and the worlds based off Indian cultures and mythos are really well developed. If all of this sounds interesting to you, give it a go! It’s well written and paced to keep you engaged from beginning to end.
Note: I received an eARC of this book to provide an honest review.
The Jasmine Throne is a really solid intro to a fantasy series. The worldbuilding is /really/ well done and had me fascinated (and sometimes horrified) the entire time. Now, I will say that as a person who doesn’t tolerate body horror well, yikes! Please prepare yourself because hooo boy is there some freaky ish at various points of this book. Did I ever think I’d be afraid of flowers and petals? Nah. But here we are.
The character work was also really good, especially considering how many characters there are to balance in this multiPOV work. Bhumika is by FAR my favorite character. I love her quiet type of strength throughout the story and how she always patiently awaits the right moments to make her move. The characters you are supposed to hate are A+ hateable. The one part of the story I wasn’t as keen on was unfortunately the romance. While I liked Priya and Malini as characters and I usually love slow burn romance… it just felt like there was something lacking when they finally did get together. I think perhaps there was just so much other stuff going on that it really just felt like a side note but you could tell it was /supposed/ to feel really pivotal. And given how the arcs progress, I’m not sure how it will develop in the coming books.
That being said, everything else was really enjoyable and I thought there were quite a few clever and interesting plot moments. I am absolutely happy I read it and I am definitely interested in picking up the sequel to see what happens next! I would say this story rides the line between YA and Adult Fantasy fairly well and the worlds based off Indian cultures and mythos are really well developed. If all of this sounds interesting to you, give it a go! It’s well written and paced to keep you engaged from beginning to end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Violence, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Genocide, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Body horror, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Grief
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