Book Review #04: Sita's Sister by Kavita Kané

Not so touching…

I was gifted this book a long time ago and finally got to it now. After Amish Tripathi rose in fame, he set certain expectations for mythological fiction. This one is different, though.

I experimented a new kind of reading with this book. Since Audible Plus has an audiobook version of Sita’s Sister, I ended up listening to it while reading from the book. A sort of readalong. Surprising, it helped me increase my speed in reading from the book itself. I guess I’ll be doing more of these.

The book is the tale of Ramayana told from the perspective of Urmila, Sita’s younger sister. So it starts from Sita’s childhood all the way till the end of their lifetime. The blurb mentions that it specifically the time Lakshman went with Rama and Sita on exile, but the book covers all the other events too. If you don’t know much about the epic Ramayana, then this book would be an informative read.

Personally, I’ve consumed the story of Ramayana in various formats. Children’s books, middle-grade novel, graphic novel, anime and the best one, a serialized bedtime story by my grandfather (late). So this book read like a summary of events that took place. I didn’t get any new experience from this book.

I liked the focus on the bond between the four sister, but I wish it was shown more. The book was mainly exposition and then some dialogues. This made the experience emotionally distant. I personally prefer prose which are immersive and emotionally connecting when the plot is relationship focused. Kavita Kane’s writing style isn’t for me.

I appreciate the angle of feminism in the story. How Urmila stands up to the way women were treated in those days is impressive. Unfortunately for us women, what she says still resonates to the current state of women in the world. I love the points put across, though in my opinion the way it was written was better suited for a memoir than a fiction.

Overall, it was an average experience. I expected more, but now I know that her books aren’t for me. It’s for the readers who aren’t familiar with Indian Mythology and would like to know the stories.

Rating: 1.83