Guan reviewed The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an …
When Malini said no
4 stars
When the kind-hearted Aditya abdicated the throne to his brother Chandra, the future of Parijatdvipa became written in fire and blood. To realise his vision for the world, emperor Chandra decrees women to be burned on pyres. His sister Malini rejects his bidding and is exiled to Hirana, an ancient cliffside temple in the southern Ahiranya. Poisoned and delirious, her fateful encounter with Priya, a maidservant keeping a tight lid on her previous life as magical temple child, causes the first ripples of revolt against Chandra's despotic reign.
In this first entry of the ongoing Burning Kingdoms trilogy, author Tasha Suri spins a relentless feminist tale of politics, magic and love. I really liked the complexities in the protagonists' relationship and the rich world-building of Parijatdvipa through quite a bit of POVs. The majority of the story alternates between Priya's and Malini's perspectives, but in-between are the stories of others …
When the kind-hearted Aditya abdicated the throne to his brother Chandra, the future of Parijatdvipa became written in fire and blood. To realise his vision for the world, emperor Chandra decrees women to be burned on pyres. His sister Malini rejects his bidding and is exiled to Hirana, an ancient cliffside temple in the southern Ahiranya. Poisoned and delirious, her fateful encounter with Priya, a maidservant keeping a tight lid on her previous life as magical temple child, causes the first ripples of revolt against Chandra's despotic reign.
In this first entry of the ongoing Burning Kingdoms trilogy, author Tasha Suri spins a relentless feminist tale of politics, magic and love. I really liked the complexities in the protagonists' relationship and the rich world-building of Parijatdvipa through quite a bit of POVs. The majority of the story alternates between Priya's and Malini's perspectives, but in-between are the stories of others - some major characters, some die the chapter they're introduced in - to flesh out the world.
The Jasmine Throne is a really solid, well-paced start for a promising series, one that will be finished this year both by publisher and by me.
