I'm so excited to welcome y'all to my blog for my stop on the blog tour for The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri! I love that I can make my comeback to book blogging with such an incredible book and during Pride month! I love nothing but morally gray Desi lesbians fighting the patriarchy and their feelings for one another! You can check out the tour launch post here! Plus, today is the release day for the book so I highly recommend that you go out and get yourself a copy!
June 8, 2021 | Orbit
Source: I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from the publisher and Caffeine Book Tours as part of my participation in their tour.
Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.
Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.
But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.
I don't entirely know how to write this review because trying to put my feelings into words seems impossible. The jasmine throne was everything that I thought it was going to be anymore. I knew that the story was about two morally gray Desi lesbian women. I knew that the setting was inspired by ancient India, but I still wasn’t prepared for how immersive the world would be. Truly, The Jasmine Throne and Tasha Suri have blown me away with just how incredible this book, these characters, and this world is.
Characters make or break a book for me. I am not the kind of reader who is fully invested in the aesthetic or the plot or the world building of a book if I do not love the characters. And the characters in The Jasmine Throne are some of my favorites. From the moment that I met Malini, I knew that she was a girl after my own heart. Priya also won my heart easily and though she was different from Malini in many ways, I loved that we got to see their strengths in different ways. For me to write about both of these incredible women without giving away spoilers but I would be shocked if readers did not leave this book wanting more from these two powerful women.
But I also appreciated that the other cast of characters in the jasmine thrown were just as well developed as a main characters. I got a really great understanding of the people around both Malini and Priya and it wasn’t hard to see why they were (or weren’t) drawn to each other. There’s nothing I love more than a large cast of characters coming together to create such an interesting atmosphere. Again, I don't know how much I can say without spoiling the story but I promise that you're all going to love (or hate) these characters.
And speaking of atmosphere: the world building in this book is masterful. This is my first book by Suri but it won’t be my last. While this is a long book, which leaves Suri a lot of room for world building, it never feels like too much information. As someone who knows a lot about Mughal Empire and other historical periods in South Asia, I was able to pick up on a lot of the inspirations. Plus, a lot of the names gave me hints as to what inspired their creation. However, I don't think that a reader needs prior knowledge of Indian history or mythology to understand the world. That aspect of The Jasmine Throne, in my opinion, is one of the strongest aspects of Suri's craft.
Characters make or break a book for me. I am not the kind of reader who is fully invested in the aesthetic or the plot or the world building of a book if I do not love the characters. And the characters in The Jasmine Throne are some of my favorites. From the moment that I met Malini, I knew that she was a girl after my own heart. Priya also won my heart easily and though she was different from Malini in many ways, I loved that we got to see their strengths in different ways. For me to write about both of these incredible women without giving away spoilers but I would be shocked if readers did not leave this book wanting more from these two powerful women.
But I also appreciated that the other cast of characters in the jasmine thrown were just as well developed as a main characters. I got a really great understanding of the people around both Malini and Priya and it wasn’t hard to see why they were (or weren’t) drawn to each other. There’s nothing I love more than a large cast of characters coming together to create such an interesting atmosphere. Again, I don't know how much I can say without spoiling the story but I promise that you're all going to love (or hate) these characters.
And speaking of atmosphere: the world building in this book is masterful. This is my first book by Suri but it won’t be my last. While this is a long book, which leaves Suri a lot of room for world building, it never feels like too much information. As someone who knows a lot about Mughal Empire and other historical periods in South Asia, I was able to pick up on a lot of the inspirations. Plus, a lot of the names gave me hints as to what inspired their creation. However, I don't think that a reader needs prior knowledge of Indian history or mythology to understand the world. That aspect of The Jasmine Throne, in my opinion, is one of the strongest aspects of Suri's craft.
I want to take a moment and talk about how emotional I got while reading this book. As much as I loved the characters and the plot, I have to say that the little bits and pieces of information Suri gave to create the world really pulled me in. The mentions of the pyre, the saris and the camphor and ghee, the prologue showed me just how much thought Suri put into creating her world. As the story progressed and more information was revealed, the happier I got. South Asia has such a rich history and it's amazing to see it in a book form. Plus, it's even more amazing that a South Asian writer can write this story.
Favorite Quotes:
"And if fate must be star-burned into us, then I don't believe we can't bend to the needs of our times and turn from our prescribed path."
"I know you don't think much of prophecies. Or portents, or fate, or anything of that sort. But one day I am going to come and find you."
"You are the feeling of falling, the title waters, the way a living thing will always turn, seeking light."
"She knew how many faces people possessed, one hidden beneath the other, good and monsters, brave and cowardly, all of them true."
Content/Trigger Warnings:
Explicit violence including immolation and self-immolation, colourism, xenophobia, gender-based violence/violence against women (this does not include sexual assault), homophobia and intern talised homophobia, suicidal ideation, self-mutilation, abusive family dynamics, child murder, body horror (plant-based, cosmic),forced drug use and depictions of addiction/withdrawal
About The Author
Tasha Suri was born in Harrow, north-west London. The daughter of Punjabi parents, she spent many childhood holidays exploring India with her family, and still fondly remembers the time she was chased around the Taj Mahal by an irate tour guide. She studied English and creative writing at Warwick University, and now lives in London where she works as a librarian. To no one's surprise, she owns a cat. A love of period Bollywood films, history and mythology led her to begin writing South Asian influenced fantasy. Tasha Suri has won the British Fantasy Society Best Newcomer Award and Starburst Brave New Words Award.
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