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A review by boezaaah
The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
1.0
"Strange how something that only affected me was decided by you"
The Star-Touched Queen is a novel centred around Princess Mayavati who has lived as an outcast in the royal court of Bharata thanks to her horoscope. Her horoscope promises death and destruction and ultimately leads her to live a life among the Harem wives and the mistrust they hold towards her. Maya is thrown into a realm of which she believed to be no more than ancient folklore, and it is here that she finds freedom within herself.
I was not fond of this book. I didn't find the story to be gripping, the characters weren't as memorable as I would have liked them to be (not to say I didn't like them, because I did) and the writing was too flowery. The diversity and the character development that was woven throughout the story were the best aspects. This book was loosely based on the Hades and Persephone myth but with added Indian culture, although I can't comment on the accuracy.
When I started reading this, I thought that maybe it just had a slow beginning. As I progressed I think I realised that it didn't, but instead was just the way it was written. I had a hard time concentrating on the book and found myself becoming increasingly bored as it went on. This was no doubt a result of getting extremely distracted by the excessive descriptions of literally everything. At times I found myself forgetting about what the author was actually describing in the first place.
I LOVED the way Maya's character grew throughout the story. She really found herself at the end of the story and proved to be just as powerful as Amar told her she could be. They had a really great relationship and neither saw themselves as more important than the other. They were equals and I loved it. Also Kamala (the demon, undead, flesh eating horse) was one of the greatest characters I've ever read.
One thing I really didn't understand was the insane time jump in this book. I know that this was my fault entirely for getting distracted whilst reading, but it completely threw me off for the second half of the book and resulted in me becoming very bored and very confused.
I really wanted to enjoy this more. It just wasn't for me. I'll no doubt be forgetting everything by this time next year, unfortunately. I really didn't enjoy it. But I can see how people really would and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a short attention span and isn't bothered by excessively flowery writing.
The Star-Touched Queen is a novel centred around Princess Mayavati who has lived as an outcast in the royal court of Bharata thanks to her horoscope. Her horoscope promises death and destruction and ultimately leads her to live a life among the Harem wives and the mistrust they hold towards her. Maya is thrown into a realm of which she believed to be no more than ancient folklore, and it is here that she finds freedom within herself.
I was not fond of this book. I didn't find the story to be gripping, the characters weren't as memorable as I would have liked them to be (not to say I didn't like them, because I did) and the writing was too flowery. The diversity and the character development that was woven throughout the story were the best aspects. This book was loosely based on the Hades and Persephone myth but with added Indian culture, although I can't comment on the accuracy.
When I started reading this, I thought that maybe it just had a slow beginning. As I progressed I think I realised that it didn't, but instead was just the way it was written. I had a hard time concentrating on the book and found myself becoming increasingly bored as it went on. This was no doubt a result of getting extremely distracted by the excessive descriptions of literally everything. At times I found myself forgetting about what the author was actually describing in the first place.
One thing I really didn't understand was the insane time jump in this book. I know that this was my fault entirely for getting distracted whilst reading, but it completely threw me off for the second half of the book and resulted in me becoming very bored and very confused.
I really wanted to enjoy this more. It just wasn't for me. I'll no doubt be forgetting everything by this time next year, unfortunately. I really didn't enjoy it. But I can see how people really would and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a short attention span and isn't bothered by excessively flowery writing.