Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Independence

Grade: C+

I may have come into this book with too much excitement. I can't say that my expectations were too high because I had no reason to have especially high expectations. But I was excited to read a novel about the Partition, which I only knew the bare minimum about before watching Ms. Marvel (and I don't think Marvel properties are the best historical sources).

There were things about it that I enjoyed. Divakaruni does an excellent job of creating the world of India on the verge of independence. There are so many sensory details here; the taste of the foods, the smell of the spices, and the thickness of the air. I felt as though I was in India with these sisters.

I also appreciated the realistic depiction of sister relationships. Yes, these sisters love each other. They also get angry with each and are jealous of each other. But, at the end of the day, they would do anything for each other.

Unfortunately, two issues negatively impacted my experience of this book. The writing style just seemed to lack nuance. I found this especially irritating in the book's first part when Divakaruni relied far too much on telling and not enough on showing. Once the action picked up, the style was less irritating, but I never felt I could let the language take me away.

The second and larger issue was that I just didn't feel that the parts of this book fit together especially well. Each of the three sisters has their own story. While I could see how Priya's and Jamina's stories could be told in tandem, Deepa's story seemed completely separate from it. I can't say I found much comfort in the Priya and Jamina storyline because love triangles set my teeth on edge.

I almost wish that this book had either been broken apart and only focused on one sister at a time (possibly as a trilogy) or that this had been a much longer book that went into a deeper dive and more closely tied Deepa in with her sisters. While the sisters' stories converge in the third act, that event didn't feel as if it even belonged in this sort of book.

I'm disappointed that this book wasn't a hit for me, but I do appreciate that the Partition was addressed and I would be open to reading other novels set in this historical period.

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morethanmylupus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I always struggle with Partition stories. It's such a painful chapter in Indian history and it has left so many scars. But the stories are often nearly the same, and sometimes that takes away from their impact. I appreciated that this book was set in Bengal instead of Punjab, because that's an aspect of Partition that I haven't had a lot of exposure to. I also appreciated that while we have one Hindu-Muslim love story (beloved trope of Bollywood that it is), we also have the stories of the other sisters that lend some context and varied insight. Painful to read but essential.

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thebookcoyote's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

TW/CW: Violence, death, murder, death of a parent, sexual assault

REVIEW: Independence is the story of three sisters who try to go their different paths during the years of Indian independence and partition.

This book was beautifully written, there is no doubt about that. The author does a beautiful job of creating her setting and her characters, and of pulling everything together to make a powerful narrative. The way she combined history and the narrative was really engaging.

My biggest problem with this book was that every one of the sisters keeps making the stupidest decisions and it was incredibly frustrating to read! I couldn’t make myself really like any of them because I just wanted to scream at them over what was clearly going to be an enormous mistake. And…they almost always were.

This is a very sad, very frustrating book and while it’s very well written, it’s not a pleasant book to read.

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katiekreis14's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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cass_lit's review against another edition

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2.5

This was my first BOTM pick of 2023 and I wholeheartedly thought I would love it. I love historical fiction, especially when it teaches me something about a country’s history I wasn’t aware of. I love stories about sisters and strong women.

While the above were positives for me, the things I didn’t enjoy outweighed them. I hated one of the three sisters, one I was ambivalent on (the other I enjoyed — but it’s probably not the order you think). I knew from the synopsis that the father would die. Now I don’t typically love overly sad books, but I get why a lot of historical fiction has those events and undertones. Without spoiling anything… a similar event occurs later that I thought was just unnecessary.

I also have two thoughts on why the writing didn’t work for me personally:
1) In the beginning before the sisters separate, we’d basically get any sister’s story at any time even though the POVs were marked for a certain sister. When I was reading Priya’s POV, I didn’t need or want to know how Jimini was feeling about it.
2) Once the sisters separated, this changed — great. HOWEVER, now we’d only get an event from one sister *at all*. I’d learn about something happening to Deepa as Priya read her letter, but never got Deepa’s thoughts on what was happening to her.

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