A review by ginalucia
Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Goddess of the River is a brilliant retelling of an Indian epic and one I very much enjoyed, with a few thoughts. 

Note: As I said with Kaikeyi, my opinion and feelings about this book come from my Western perspective. I know very little about ancient Indian epics, so take that into consideration.

Vaishnavi Patel has a brilliant way of mixing the divine with humanity by showing the world from different perspectives. Particularly when it comes to our main character Ganga, seeing how her mind shifts depending on her situation is done so subtly, you see her character evolve even as a divine being. 

Just like Kaikeyi, it’s beautifully written, if a little slower. As an impatient reader, I didn’t feel the impact of this at all. Instead, I enjoyed being able to sink into the world.

There was one thing that threw me off the story, though, and that was the shift in perspective and time jumps. They’re a little jarring, and when they first appear, the sheer number of names and new characters are hard to contend with.

The chapters with Ganga are much stronger because we’ve grown with her. We know her. The other chapters are less so. 

Having said this, I’m keeping this book at 4 stars. The shifts and jumps did throw me for a loop and took some time to get used to, but the writing and story are done so well that I can’t bring it down further.

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