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A review by alisarae
An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao
5.0
Yes, girl!
This author, also author of Girls Burn Brighter which I have to read now, presents a powerhouse of awesome stories about Partition-era women on the Indian subcontinent. I don’t know if I have ever read such a cohesive collection of short stories that pack punch after consistent punch the entire book.
Here is what I mean by cohesion: each story can be read as a standalone and in any order. However, if you read them in order, there is always a character from the previous story that appears in the story after. So a thread weaves everything together.
Also, the stories are all about determined women carving and cobbling and conniving their way to a better life. Like, not necessarily a good life, but a better one. I am totally here for the revenge stories, the girl biding her time until the perfect moment arrives, the girl manipulating things into being the perfect moment, the girl doing far more than everyone including the reader gives her credit for. So here for that.
The other thing that stood out to me was a technical one. I would read what I thought was a perfect line to end the story on, and then the author gave us one more paragraph that was the actual perfect ending. Nearly every time. This is the one-two punch, folks.
This author, also author of Girls Burn Brighter which I have to read now, presents a powerhouse of awesome stories about Partition-era women on the Indian subcontinent. I don’t know if I have ever read such a cohesive collection of short stories that pack punch after consistent punch the entire book.
Here is what I mean by cohesion: each story can be read as a standalone and in any order. However, if you read them in order, there is always a character from the previous story that appears in the story after. So a thread weaves everything together.
Also, the stories are all about determined women carving and cobbling and conniving their way to a better life. Like, not necessarily a good life, but a better one. I am totally here for the revenge stories, the girl biding her time until the perfect moment arrives, the girl manipulating things into being the perfect moment, the girl doing far more than everyone including the reader gives her credit for. So here for that.
The other thing that stood out to me was a technical one. I would read what I thought was a perfect line to end the story on, and then the author gave us one more paragraph that was the actual perfect ending. Nearly every time. This is the one-two punch, folks.