First thing I'd say is look for content warnings on this. As there are a few notable things that you don't generally see in books, or at least I haven't, and although they are not overly graphic, they are not pleasant, and definitely can cause distress.

With that, I want to say that I don't have any substantial knowledge of Hindu Mythology or the Mahabharata, so I can't speak on those aspects. There is a family tree, and I did find it somewhat helpful, though as the book goes on, it became less helpful, in part because I had limited previous knowledge.

How the plot is laid out reminds me of retellings of the Odyssey and other Greek myth retellings. In the sense that it is a bit disjointed in time. There are a lot of jumps in the story through shifting characters. You also see these intersecting myths or stories that kind of shift the focus at times, almost like you are jumping midway into a different myth and have to catch up on that for this story to progress. (As I don't know Hindu myths, this is an assumption based on how certain things are presented in this.) And I find the overall story and connecting of parts can feel slower because of this disjointedness. I personally don't dislike it, but it is something I kind of have to be in the mood for.

Character-wise, I gotta be honest, I don't know how much of my character rating is because I got tired of the men while reading this, and how much is because the characters were lacking. But I do know by the end I was like "ok, all these men are making stupid choices, cool" and that is really all I was left with impression-wise for many of the characters. I am sure a lot of this leans into the source material, but it also felt lacklustre at times because of it.

Edited to take out the excessive use of 'kind of' throughout this review lol 😂

This is a book that I am uncomfortable putting an overall or enjoyment rating on. So the quality stars are a mix of how the information was presented, the flow, and the audiobook quality.

So much of this book is utterly heartbreaking, not just in the content discussed but because the author does an amazing job at verbalizing her feelings in ways that transcend the page. And I want to preface this next part by saying that the food aspect of this memoir and how it ties in to what is discussed is very much related to her life and the stories she shares here. Though the choice to lean into that lens was one I think is very smart, because even if the food she mentions is something you are not familiar with, there is something about food that feels universal in a way. We all need to eat, we all have some association with food and the people in our lives, comfort, grief, etc. And I think that her choice to lean into that and how she went about it was beautiful.

I've struggled to find the right words for this book because I am intrigued by the world created here, but at the same time, it's more of a general curiosity and appreciation. And although I may read the next book, I really am not jumping to, and if I do, it will be a matter of circumstance more than a huge desire to continue on with the story.

I think a big component of this lacklustre feeling is that, although the world-building is interesting, I think the general character work wasn't adding to it. Many characters felt flat to me. The stakes of everything were kind of coexisting with the characters not working in tandem to add to the story (I hope that makes sense lol).

It's not a 'bad' read, and I don't regret my time with it. I just am not invested in it, and it fell kind of flat.