A review by starrysteph
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-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

The Jasmine Throne is a lush, slow-moving epic fantasy with gorgeous writing & worldbuilding. It was sometimes halted by uneven pacing and narration, but overall I was captivated.

We’re following a disgraced imprisoned princess dreaming of vengeance, and a maidservant with a dangerous secret. They’re bound together in the Hirana, a temple only reached by a hazardous climb and the place where magical children once burned to death. They both desperately seek a change to the empire - Priya’s people have been brutally colonized and Malini’s brother is a religious zealot - and find their futures entwined. 

There’s a lot impressively woven into this story. 

→ Power and its demands; consequences; costs. 

→ Vulnerability when wielded by a woman - is it triumph, weakness, or savviness?

→ Questions about freedom and leadership: does freedom from colonization demand violence? What are necessary descreations? What is justice? What complicates leadership?

→ The dangerous corruption of religion, with the intent to harm others but conversely to retreat from the world and all responsibility, leaving things up to fate.

→ Men and their (inherent) violence.

→ The land fighting back - and so much nature imagery and magic. 

So yeah - lots of juiciness. 

But this story suffered a bit, both from its pacing and its unnecessary one-off points of view. I didn’t need to hear from a bystander firsthand, then hear a rehash of the events in the next chapter. It would have been interesting if these alternating narrations were perhaps used as a tool to see how those in power can distort the truth, but nothing clever was done with them. 

I would have preferred to stick with our main narrators - and just let them be limited when they are limited. I’m okay (and intrigued) when I don’t hold all the cards as a reader and don’t fully understand each event or act of violence.

Finally, I didn’t find either Priya or Malina to be morally grey. I thought Priya was quite the opposite, and we were told Malini had a “monstrous side” but didn’t actually see that happen. Maybe that’s coming later. And I didn’t love the character who really was framed as morally grey, because it felt a bit like a demonization of the resistance / of oppressed peoples rising up. 

I am looking forward to the next book, and I really hope to see the trilogy through. 

** Also a note that this story does have a magical cure plotline. ** 

CW: death, child death, murder, fire, violence, confinement, misogyny, war, religious bigotry, body horror, colonization, drugging, abuse, grief, genocide, addiction, classism, terminal illness, pregnancy, homophobia, xenophobia, suicide attempt, ableism, magical cure

Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!