Goddess of the River

Goddess of the River is inspired by a classic Indian work - that I have never read and have no familiarity with.

That being said, I absolutely loved the way this story was presented. There were brief moments where I was confused about a couple characters or had a hard time keeping a couple fresh in my memory, but all the core characters were distinct and memorable.

I really enjoyed the perspective of the primary narrator, Ganga. Her arc was very well done, and I loved her view on all the events occurring around her. I appreciate the relationship progression that is undergone through this book between Ganga and Shiva. I've never read a novel taking place in India by an Indian author, so this was a very enriching experience. I never show more struggled to keep up with the plot or the various hierarchical systems/deities, so I commend the author for how culturally accessible this book was for this Latina reader. Taken as a fictional retelling, this is a very interesting story that makes me want to see what the whole, original story of the Mahabharata is.

The themes of family, duty, personal responsibility, and respect were very interesting. The writing style flowed beautifully, so the events were easy to envision in my mind. I highly recommend this novel, particularly for its feminine focus during a male dominated era of history. This was an excellent recommendation that I got from Pagebound. show less

I am torn about this one. On the one hand, I find the first person narrative of Ganga quite intriguing and effective, her inner changes and growth throughout the narrative well depicted and interesting. On the other, it suffers from any real sense of forward momentum or, really, much in the way of personal stakes once the first 25% or so of the novel is over.
Similarly, in the other half of the narrative, the third person narrative of the demigod Bhishma, I on the one hand greatly enjoy the way Patel portrays his inner conflicts, his torn loyalty and his tortured but stalwart morality. On the other hand, the backdrop of the mortal world he lives in is simultaneously too shallowly sketched for me to care much about anyone else in the show more story and yet too expansive for me to easily keep track of, with a constant barrage of character names, many of whom get very few scenes to actually make an impression on me. I realise this is something Patel is saddled with from the source material (and in fact seems to have done an admirable job of condensing), but it still keeps me from ever feeling wholly immersed in the narrative.
All in all, I was very interested in the two protagonists and liked rooting for them, especially in the inherently doomed-feeling case of Bhishma, but (some great individual scenes aside) the plot they acted within never truly made me similarly invested. By and large, then, I found this novel to be in some ways very good and in others rather bland. Thankfully, the good elements are, to my mind, more prominent in the reading experience, and while the plot failed to captivate me, it always felt like it was moving forward (Bhishma's side of the narrative providing the momentum once Ganga's no longer does). I would be definitely be interested in trying another novel by Patel some day. show less

Goddess of the River was such a great read! It was engaging from start to finish, with a strong, immersive narrative voice that really pulled me in. I especially loved Ganga’s growth throughout the story— her journey felt natural, powerful, and emotionally satisfying.

The way the plot unfolded was suspenseful and kept me turning pages. As someone who loves fantasy and mythology retellings, this book absolutely hit the mark for me.

This book left me with a loss of words.
Normally when I dislike a book, I have something to work with on why I dislike it. Be it characters being annoying, too much focus on detail etc, but this here didn't give me anything. It was blander than bland, blander than a bad mayonnaise substitute.

For being a supposedly "retelling", the whole thing reads like a dialogue heavy summary / cliff notes, and the dialogues aren't really good either.
I have to admit that I have a problem with retellings, 99% percent of the time they are lazy and uninspiring, even if the author tries to put a new or different spin on it. Yet, this one is really the worst I read in this genre so far. Normally I complain that especially new authors try to write trilogies show more with not much to say but here I have to ask, why try to squeeze such an epic as the Mahābhārata into 400 (large-ish print) pages? Why not try to write a bit more detailed to give more justice to the original work?
Then on the other hand, I am not sure that Ms Patel has it in her to write more interesting, so maybe it is good that there are no more volumes.
Which brings me to my main gripe, of why this book was so bland:
None of the characters were written in a way that I was able to connect with them, they were just blah.
The dialogues were boring and often a vessel of telling what happened in between the scenes.
The setting was ... not there. The only reason you might have known that it is supposed to play in India is that a sari is mentioned, other than that, Ms Patel is not able to make you feel and see the world, there is no description of nature, of the buildings, of the clothes or people in general.
There is no excitement, no point where one as a reader can feel that this story really meant a lot to Ms Patel as she claimed it did in her author notes.
As I said, worse than mayonnaise, not impressed.

(And as a side note, I had concerns right from the beginning because the Illumicrate edition had pink sprayed edges and so far all books with pink edges were dull and a flop.) show less

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: May 21, 2024

Another wonderful book by Vaishnavi Patel. I know very little to nothing of Indian mythology but I love learning about it through her books. Her writing style really pulls me in and she has such beautiful descriptions. If you like mythology retellings I definitely recommend picking this up!