A review by laurareads87
Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

adventurous emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

Having previously really enjoyed the author’s debut novel Kaikeyi, a feminist interpretation of Ramayana, I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Goddess of the River, which is based on the Mahabharata. 

I love a lot about Goddess of the River: the first-person perspective of Ganga, goddess of the river, is very well developed; she spends some time in a human form and this changes her dramatically in ways that come across in small details, and while she reflects on the way these experiences have humanized her in some ways, she very much reads as a river and a deity. Like Kaikeyi, complex relationships, including between family members, are a core theme of this text, and Patel writes them so well. I found more complexity in the secondary characters in this book, which I appreciate, and I feel like Patel tackles significant themes – in her own words, the novel “asks questions about dharma, justice, the responsibilities of the powerful, and the greater good,” as the Mahabharata does – without feeling heavy-handed or moralizing. 

Content warnings: murder, violence, death, blood, injury detail, violence toward non-human animals, deaths of children, sexism, misogyny, classism, casteism, ableism, war, grief, sexual assault. The author provides a fairly detailed content warnings note at the beginning of the book. 

Thank you NetGalley & Redhook Books for an ARC to review. 
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