A review by thebookcoyote
Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

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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