A review by sophiesometimesreads
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I did not know the original story of the Ramayana going into this and my current knowledge (so far) only comes from what I learnt with this book, so I am rating this on face value and cannot give any opinion on how much justice this does the original myth. I am also not Hindu, so I cannot comment on the quality of this representation. I can see a bit of a mixed bag of opinions regarding the faithfulness to the original myth and it's depiction of Hinduism in the reviews, which the author seemed to have predicted in her Q&A and Author's Note at the back of the book, though noting the author herself is Hindu.

This is very much a character-driven story and follows the life of Kaikeyi from her childhood through to adulthood. I had moments where I was more connected to Kaikeyi and moments where I wasn't, but overall I enjoyed reading her story.

I wonder if maybe the pushing on the misogyny being Gods' word at the start of the start of the novel was a little heavy-handed and may not sit well some people, particularly those who practice the faith, and we could've had a bit more clarity on this not being the actual opinion of the gods than one line later on. However, as I said, I am not Hindu so cannot comment too deeply on this, it was just something I noted when reading.

Overall, I enjoyed this and I am motivated to read more into the story of Ramayana in the future to see how this compares and delve deeper into the world of Hindu mythology.
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