Scan barcode
A review by comrademena
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
4.0
4/5
this was such a fun, interesting read. it took a while for me to get into it, mostly because the chapters from the pov of other characters than priya and malini kept throwing me off, but i think in the end that wound up being a very good choice.
what i liked:
the characters were fleshed out very well; while at first it took me a while to get a grasp on some of the mains (cough cough rao) by the time all of the major players in this book have met up you get a very good grasp of their backgrounds, motivations, and typical behaviors. it was very interesting seeing how all of them come to terms with their situations and what they have to do to get what they want, as well as the various moral compromises each of them make. priya's character arc was impeccably done and she was easily my favorite, although bhumika is a close second. i LOVED how unrepentantly vicious malini was; her reclamation of the monstrosity the empire assigns to every woman was very fun to read.
the worldbuilding in this story was PHENOMENAL. we got enough information that i could clearly understand the different settings and politics of this book and it was delivered naturally enough that none of it felt like exposition dumping. in particular, the depiction of the different religions and how they're used as tools of politics was fascinating and felt very true to life. i REALLY liked the exploration of predetermined fate vs taking control of your own future; it was easily the strongest theme in the book. in particular rao and malini's different perspectives on aditya's inaction was fascinating and i look forward to seeing their dynamic in the next book now that malini has claimed (is manipulating?) her fate.
what i didnt like:
something about the way the different plots were sequenced made it feel like i was reading multiple books in one? if i hadn't seen my progress i would have thought for sure that the book was about to end right when. it wasn't that the pacing was bad or that it was a dense read, but it was hard to place where you were within the overall story, which took me out of the book a bit. i did however really like where the book actually ended, even if chandra's epilogue was completely unnecessary.
i also didn't really like the development of priya and malini's relationship, it felt very rushed. in particular, the waterfall scene felt an unbelievable escalation of their relationship from how they'd been before it, which could best be described as "semireluctant allies who trust each other but don't necessarily care about each other." based off of the way the book developed for the first 70% i would have expected them to admit that they care about each other, a good deal of pining, and maybe one kiss.
lastly, the approach this book takes to what kinds of rebellion are considered okay is...something. ashok and his rebels aren't good people, but their brand of violent resistance against imperialists isn't wrong at all. saying that their rebellion is morally wrong since they kill people - imperialist sympathizers and those who are complacent with the oppression of the ahiranyi, mind you - detracted from the otherwise interesting politics of this novel. of course ashok himself was absolutely not a good person - the man was awful to his sister and wanted to see ahiranya returned to its former glory as head of an oppressive empire - but conflating violent, justified resistance against oppressors with assumed ethnic superiority is a terrible position to take.
overall this was a very good read and i'll definitely be tuning in for the rest of the trilogy.
this was such a fun, interesting read. it took a while for me to get into it, mostly because the chapters from the pov of other characters than priya and malini kept throwing me off, but i think in the end that wound up being a very good choice.
what i liked:
the characters were fleshed out very well; while at first it took me a while to get a grasp on some of the mains (cough cough rao) by the time all of the major players in this book have met up you get a very good grasp of their backgrounds, motivations, and typical behaviors. it was very interesting seeing how all of them come to terms with their situations and what they have to do to get what they want, as well as the various moral compromises each of them make. priya's character arc was impeccably done and she was easily my favorite, although bhumika is a close second. i LOVED how unrepentantly vicious malini was; her reclamation of the monstrosity the empire assigns to every woman was very fun to read.
the worldbuilding in this story was PHENOMENAL. we got enough information that i could clearly understand the different settings and politics of this book and it was delivered naturally enough that none of it felt like exposition dumping. in particular, the depiction of the different religions and how they're used as tools of politics was fascinating and felt very true to life. i REALLY liked the exploration of predetermined fate vs taking control of your own future; it was easily the strongest theme in the book. in particular rao and malini's different perspectives on aditya's inaction was fascinating and i look forward to seeing their dynamic in the next book now that malini has claimed (is manipulating?) her fate.
what i didnt like:
something about the way the different plots were sequenced made it feel like i was reading multiple books in one? if i hadn't seen my progress i would have thought for sure that the book was about to end right when
Spoiler
bhumika and her retinue set off to find priya after surviving the seige on her mahali also didn't really like the development of priya and malini's relationship, it felt very rushed. in particular, the waterfall scene felt an unbelievable escalation of their relationship from how they'd been before it, which could best be described as "semireluctant allies who trust each other but don't necessarily care about each other." based off of the way the book developed for the first 70% i would have expected them to admit that they care about each other, a good deal of pining, and maybe one kiss
Spoiler
(i really liked the goodbye kiss when they meet up with rao's troops)lastly, the approach this book takes to what kinds of rebellion are considered okay is...something. ashok and his rebels aren't good people, but their brand of violent resistance against imperialists isn't wrong at all. saying that their rebellion is morally wrong since they kill people - imperialist sympathizers and those who are complacent with the oppression of the ahiranyi, mind you - detracted from the otherwise interesting politics of this novel. of course ashok himself was absolutely not a good person - the man was awful to his sister and wanted to see ahiranya returned to its former glory as head of an oppressive empire - but conflating violent, justified resistance against oppressors with assumed ethnic superiority is a terrible position to take.
overall this was a very good read and i'll definitely be tuning in for the rest of the trilogy.