A review by beckahh_i
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know enough about the Ramayana to speak on the accuracy of this retelling, but I did enjoy it. I'm not typically super engaged with retellings, but this was interesting enough to keep my attention. Kaikeyi doesn't seem to be either a hero or villain in this book. From my understanding, she is portrayed as much less of the wicked stepmother in this than the original story, and yet it was still difficult to witness her choices and how that impacted the story. It was easy to root for her in the happy parts of the book, and then to both feel sympathy for the consequences of her actions and see how she definitely contributed to the problems. Again, having known almost nothing of Indian culture or epics, I can't speak to the accuracy of this, but I enjoyed learning more about it!