A review by dharma_s
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

2.0

Okay, so this was interesting. Kaikeyi has always interested me whenever I read the Ramayana. The Ramayana was a story that I have read over and over again, and have heard over and over again. She was portrayed as an almost evil person who only thought about herself. To an extent in this book she only thought about herself, and that was in keeping with the original story. But Patel really took Kaikeyi and fleshed her out; her childhood, fears, friends, foes, etc. I enjoyed that, and that was the reason I wanted to pick up the book. This might just be me, but Kaikeyi was a little too different from the Ramayana Kaikeyi than I expected. Though in the Ramayana she only really plays a big role in banishing Rama, and doesn't really come up after that, she had a certain feel to her that this Kaikeyi didn't have it at all. This Kaikeyi was a completely different person and I couldn't see her in the original Ramayana.

Now the actual writing didn't do it for me. The first part of the book enticed me and I was thoroughly following the story. But in the second half, I was skimming. I really tried not to, but everything kind of unraveled for me there. It was boring honestly. I had high hopes for this book, and to some extent those were met, but there were far too many things that I disliked to fully enjoy it.