A review by wardenred
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

There is no meaning in the universe: no fate, no high blood, no rights of kings over land. Everything is emptiness. The world only has meaning when we give it meaning.

Oh, look, it’s only 2025 and I’m finally done with the 2021 Sapphic Trifecta! :D What can I say in my defense? So many books, so little time. Anyway, I’m really glad I’ve got to this one at last, because wow, such a genuinely engrossing read This is one of those rare instances when I, normally a very character-oriented reader, got enchanted by the worldbuilding first and foremost and remained under its spell till the last page. The politics! The social structures! The magic! The body horror sickness that turns people into plants! All of it is just so fascinating, and I vastly appreciate how so much information has been conveyed without info dumps. In fact, the author takes the polar opposite approach that I adore, just letting the characters live in their world and interact with the concepts familiar to them without overthinking or overexplaining. This made for a confusing few chapters at the beginning, but it only took some reading on to organically get answers to all my questions.

As for the characters, I really liked both Priya and Malini. Probably more than liked Malini, to be honest—she’s been growing on me with each her appearance. I really admired her for being so strong while objectively being at her weakest, and for using her weakness as a weapon and a tool. She’s manipulative in the best way, she makes it clear she knows what she wants even before she discloses to the reader what it even is, and she’s got a heart underneath the layers upon layers of masks and plots. In other words, she’s complex and lovely and I’m anxious to know what she does next in the series. With Priya, I wish she had a bit more of an agenda throughout the story. She does get there eventually, and when she does, it’s absolutely glorious, but in the first half of the book she follows the narrative more than she creates it. I wouldn’t call it a flaw of either the character or the storytelling, though—it totally makes sense for her to be like that, and she's got plenty of traits and opinions that keep her interesting. The rest of the cast is also full of compelling personalities painted in varying shades of grey, especially when it comes to other female characters like Bhumika or Pramila. 

One complaint I have about this book is the number of POVs. It kind of reminded me of The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo in that regard. At least in case of The Jasmine Throne, the intention between all those POVs is pretty clear: to inspect and explore the topics of colonialism and tyranny from various angles, to show all the different ways of looking at it, etc. Unfortunately, this intent was a little too obvious. Some of those characters, in their own chapters, felt more like mouthpieces for the stances they represented. They felt a lot more alive and complex when seen through Malini’s or Priya’s eyes. I also have doubts about the author’s choice to reveal certain plot-relevant information that intimately concerned the MCs’ arcs through those side characters’ POV chapters. Just to give one example, I believe Priya’s reunion with Ashok would have been a lot more impactful if the latter didn’t get his own POV earlier.
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