Kaikeyi

What good was learning if I did not take action?

Whew. It feels like this book took me an absolute forever. There were parts that I breezed through, but then there were also the parts where every page was a chore, even though I can’t tell I disliked anything in particular. I just… struggled to get to the point and to figure out what to focus on, I guess? I think it had everything to do with the pacing and the abundance of all those fluffy, slice-of-life scenes that did rather little to push the plot forward. I feel like this book could very easily be condensed to ~350 pages, and it still wouldn’t be fast-paced in the slightest. There was just so much meandering, and I even liked some of those parts! All the beautiful descriptions, and family moments, and Kaikeyi’s relationship with her husband and her sister wives, and the slow moving politics—big chunks of those were nice to read and certainly well-written. But the actual plot kept getting lost behind it all.

I suspect that maybe if I had more than a cursory familiarity with the original story (I know the basics, that’s that, and the last time I brushed even on those was back in college) and if I shared the author’s view on most of the characters, I would have been far more satisfied with all that meandering. It probably wouldn’t feel unlike reading a well-written fanfic about your favorite characters, the kind where vibes mean more than plot, and a whole chapter of walking through the gardens trying to learn how to communicate is precisely what you’re after because you just want to hang out with the fictional people you love and you’re all for them getting some peace. But like I’ve said, my familiarity with Ramayana is so-so, and even based on that, I didn’t really agree with the author’s approach to this retelling. Yes, Kaikeyi had her moments of moral grayness, in particular the way she readily influenced others’ opinions and feelings through her magic, but ultimately, it was this simple swap: the good guys are now bad, and the bad guys are now good. Not quite what I look for in antagonist-based retellings.

The prose is definitely great, the characterization is in-depth, and this book even scratched some of the itch left by Madeline Miller’s Circe, at least early on. But I do wish it was a tighter, more focused narrative with less repetition.

This was a compelling read. I found myself drawn to pick it up and keep going. But at the same I wasn’t all that emotionally affected by it - I think because much of the book isn’t very dramatic.

There are a lot of opportunities for conflict that are not taken up or if they are taken up are resolved quickly. I appreciated a lot of that because it made a lot of the characters feel more like the adults they’re supposed to be, and the book avoided some cliches (like cattiness amongst a man’s multiple wives). But Kaikeyi can feel a bit robotic sometimes - there’s not always enough emotion from her.

I really loved the way the story played out with Kaikeyi and Rama. Someone powerful convinced of their own righteous cause is pretty scary. But I like how Rama was not entirely villainized, there are attempts from Rama and Kaikeyi both to keep the relationship working.

The imagery of the ribbons of light was a nice way to communicate so much to Kaikeyi and the reader. I especially like how that worked with Rama and his connections.

I’m curious about the choice to make Kaikeyi ace/aro, assuming there’s not much to go on in the original tale. I’m very picky when it comes to romance, so it was fine with me that there isn’t any here. It’s nice to see that kind of rep in a story.

I would definitely read more from this author. Her pacing and storytelling worked for me, though I’d love more access to the characters.