A review by cclift1114
Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I really enjoyed Kaikeyi and so very much looked forward to this book. Once again, Patel’s writing was incredibly well done and her use of descriptive language made the story come to life. I especially enjoyed the first third of the book in which the focus was on Ganga. Unfortunately, it was in the final 2/3 that I had the hardest time. As someone who is not familiar with the epic upon which this novel is based, once the perspective changed to that of Bhishma, I was completely lost for several chapters. There were so many characters introduced in such a short span of time without any explanation of who they were, and this also happened right after a time jump from the Ganga chapters, so that I had no idea of how they were related to her storyline. This would obviously not be an issue for people that are familiar with the original tale, but for anyone else, it is overwhelming and very difficult to follow and made me far less motivated to continue the book. I didn’t know who these characters were, I couldn’t relate to them because they weren’t very well developed, and it was only after another eight chapters or so before things started to become more clear as to all of the political motivations for these characters. I can appreciate that Patel was trying to whittle down an incredibly lengthy epic into something more manageable for her readers, but it did mean that those of us new to it would be left behind without these things being made more clear. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the themes of duty, righteousness, and justice, and how they were treated in this book.