I don't know how to explain that this is an extremely problematic book especially in regards to the obvious nods to Kashmir. I quickly put this book down which is a shame because with the proper research this could have been a solid fantasy. But instead, it paints the oppressed party as the oppressors (please read up on the Kashmir conflict!!!!) and is clearly Islamophobic.

Politics and problematic rep aside I barely got through one chapter because the writing was very patchy and while I could see a younger version of myself enjoying the writing it is not enough to excuse the extremely problematic representation.

The Bookweaver's Daughter is an easy, fast paced read. The writing was at times beautiful and lyrical but sometimes a bit over dramatic.
The characters were fleshed out and their voices seemed realistic for teenagers.
The story itself felt underdeveloped. It felt like a series of events rather than a coherent plot. There were several plot conveniences which made the story underwhelming and events feel unearned.
The protagonist Reya lacked any agency and was pulled along by the whims of the plot and the wants of the character around her. She seemed to lack a sense of self and any real motivation other than what was forced upon her.
There were some rather glaring inconsistencies which should have been caught while editing. The climax was a muddle of sudden plot twists, action and inexplicable behaviour. The villians were easily defeated with very little forethought by Reya. Things just conviniently fell into place. One of well established obstacles which limited Reya's actions didn't actually hold her back or effect her when it was established it should have. It made the ending feel unearned and overly convinient.

It felt like the story wasn't ready to be published yet. There was a lot of telling and very little showing of the character relationships. Most of the development, growth of characters and their relationships was either told by the narrtor or occured off page.

While writing this book is an amazing achievement for an author so young her inexperience shows and taking more time to develop the story, the world and do more research into the history and cultures the story was based on would have Improved it.
The world itself it underdeveloped with all the world building elements simply appropriated from real world India and often poorly. The author did not consider how diverse India is and how different regions of it is, so taking things from different places and mashing them together was messy.
The cartoonishly evil villians were heavily coded as muslim and considering the current state of Kashmir, the (hopefully unintentional) islamophobic and pro-hindu retoric of the book was in poor taste and more than a little problematic.
I wouldn't recommend it but if you liked Children of Blood and Bone you might enjoy this. The plot, especially in the latter half have very similar plot beats and one of the main antagonists is very Zuko/Inan esque.

Although I received an e-ARC of The Bookweaver's Daughter in exchange for an honest review, I no longer intend to read it. Nor will I ever pick up a copy of this book once it's been published.

Many Indian, including Kashmiri, early reviewers of this debut have kindly explained their main issues with The Bookweaver's Daughter:
📌 Poor representation of Indian culture
📌 Problematic content that is offensive to the history and current climate in Kashmir

I highly recommend reading these reviews for an informed opinion:
📌 Meha from Books, Bits, & Bobs (#ownvoices): https://chaipters.design.blog/2020/08/18/bookweavers-daughter-malavika-kannan-review/
📌 Mish from Chasing Faerytales: https://chasingfaerytales.com/the-bookweavers-daughter-by-malavika-kannan-is-rather-problematic/

Being an #ownvoices reader, I can't recommend this book to anyone in my good conscious. This book is highly problematic and I wish the author has done some research about the Northern part of her own country before writing this book. Highly disappointed.

When I came across the description for Malavika Kannan’s debut, The Bookweaver’s Daughter, requesting an ARC was a no-brainer for me. Described as a YA fantasy inspired by the mythology of India, it called out to my love of the genre and my constant search for Indian representation in literature. Not only that, but the book’s synopsis said the story took place in a land called ‘Kasmira,’ which I was certain was based on Kashmir.

A personal note -- I’m Kashmiri on my Dad’s side of the family, and I had yet to read a YA novel set in or inspired by Kashmir (if I remember correctly, the only book I’ve read at all set in the region is Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children). So I went into this book excited, hoping to love it. Unfortunately, I didn’t.

I’ll start with the positives. There are some genuinely really good moments of prose here -- certain turns of phrases work really well. Also, Kannan was just 17 when she wrote this book, and she writes the voice of Reya, the 15-year-old narrator, very authentically. There are one-liners sprinkled throughout that are funny, and sound natural for a young teenager. I have no doubt that Kannan has the makings of a good writer.

Before I move onto the negatives, I think it’s worth providing a brief plot summary. It is, essentially, a very pared down version of Avatar: The Last Airbender or Children of Blood and Bone. Reya Kandhari lives in Kasmira, a fantasy Indic kingdom that was once home to powerful magi known as Yogis, but that has in the last seven years been invaded by the cruel King Jahan Zakir. Reya’s father is the Bookweaver, the only remaining Yogi in Kasmira who possesses a type of storytelling magic. Reya inherits this power suddenly, and, along with her best friend Nina, has to go on the run as Prince Devendra, Jahan’s son -- a character very obviously modelled on Zuko or Inan from the aforementioned ATLA and CBB -- hunts her down, and she becomes the symbol of the Kasmiri resistance.

The two major issues with the book can generally be divided into the writing -- the style and mechanics of the actual text -- and the actual content of the story, so I’ll take a two-pronged approach to dissecting this because, boy, do I have a lot to say.

The Writing

I mentioned that Kannan was very young when she wrote this novel, and whilst the achievement of writing and publishing a novel as a teen is a feat I applaud her for, it really does show up in the writing and structure of the book. The best way I can describe this book is that it reads like a highlights reel. There’s a reason sports fans tend to prefer watching actual games in full rather than just the after-match wrap-up, but this book unfortunately reads like the latter.

It felt like I was reading a very detailed synopsis or outline, because plot beats moved so quickly and abruptly from one to the other. There were no sequences of transition or spaces to breathe. If a character was foreshadowed in one scene, they’d suddenly be introduced the next sentence. There’s a big reveal about one character that is foreshadowed and then immediately revealed and confirmed in the same two pages. The book was a very quick read, close to novella length, and for the story this book wanted to tell, it did not work.

There were essential character and plot arcs we needed to buy into but couldn’t. Reya and Nina’s friendship is supposed to form the emotional core of the story and most of the emotional stakes of the story are entirely contingent upon it. But we never get to see any organic development between the two, no moments of interaction that show us how much they mean to each other and why. It’s clear the author believes in the power of their friendship wholeheartedly, but the way she does that is by having Reya repeatedly say how much she loves Nina, and it doesn’t really do anything to help us invest in the relationship. I focused on them because it’s the central relationship in the book, but just about every character dynamic has this issue.

The plot was paradoxical in that so many things happened but I could not tell you what was a plot twist or a surprise, I couldn’t point to any rising or falling action because there isn’t any. There were definitely moments meant to be Big Reveals or Plot Twists, but they didn’t carry any weight because nothing in the story up to that point really affected them. They just happened in completely linear fashion.

And I keep saying it, but this book really suffered from lack of “in-between” moments. Those slower, quiet moments are where the skill of authors really shine through; if used correctly, they can facilitate some really powerful moments of relationship and character development or thematic introspection. This book had none of those at all, and it felt very bare-bones and hollow as a result -- Kannan seems to have written only the “climactic” scenes, but a climax is only a climax if it’s bolstered by rises and falls. Otherwise, it’s just a disjointed list of things that happen.

The Content

I have to preface this section by saying that Malavika Kannan is an Own Voices author, so she has every right to depict and explore facets of her culture and identity as she sees fit.

That being said, as an Own Voices reader, a lot of the world-building details in this book baffled and disappointed me. Some were minor -- at one point, the characters, all of whom are very obviously based on North Indian cultures, mention drinking ‘rasam’, a dish specific to South India (India is a big ol’ country, and the cultural and linguistic differences between states and regions are enormous!). Characters say ‘naan bread’ and ‘chai tea,’ two notorious phrases which are nails-on-a-chalkboard for most Indians -- naan and chai mean bread and tea. Even non-Desis speakers have largely cottoned on to this by now! Also, there’s a language called ‘Ancient Kasmiri’ mentioned in the book which (by the way, Kashmiri is in fact a very real language) throws in a few Sanskrit phrases here and there but consists mainly of Latin which is jarring and a little bizarre in such a non-Anglicised setting.

Most of these are small details, not catastrophic by any means, but the fact that there were so many of these noticeable inaccuracies was a little irksome to read. However, none of these are even close to the issues I have with the substance of the plot.

To explain this properly, I’m going to need to give you a very, very brief and highly simplified crash-course in Indian history and geopolitics, neither of which I’m exactly an expert in myself, so strap in.

Kashmir: A (very) brief history

Basically, India was historically a series of Princely States (another reason for the myriad of cultural differences I mentioned earlier). The Indian subcontinent was conquered and ruled by various empires and dynasties throughout the years, and then came the British Raj and the creation of “British India.” When India finally freed itself from colonial rule in 1947, Britain divided the country into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. This division is known as partition, and is one of the bloodiest and most traumatic events in the history of both nations. Several families -- my own included -- all both sides of the border have been irreversibly shaped by the generational trauma of this event to this day. The underlying conflict of Partition -- and again, this is an almost comically simplified explanation -- is that Hindu areas were meant to join India, while Muslim majority states were supposed to join Pakistan. Since there were families of numerous religions who had been living all across and on both sides of the border for generations, this upheaval caused all kinds of violence and rising religious tensions.

Kashmir was caught in a tricky place in this conflict, because whilst it’s population was a Muslim majority, it’s Raja was Hindu, and he didn’t commit to joining either India or Pakistan straight away. What ended up happening is that both Indian and Pakistan eventually ended up claiming sovereignty of the state, and it’s been disputed territory ever since. Religious tensions and violence grew increasingly worse. In 1985, outcry from those who contested India’s occupation led to the persecution of the small Hindu population in Kashmir. Known as the Kashmiri Pandits, they amassed only 5% of the population, but they had lived there for generations. Religious violence resulted in a genocide of the Kashmiri Pandits however, as several murders and attacks took place, and eventually the increasing tensions culminated in an Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, almost all of whom had to flee their ancestral homeland forever.

Remember when I said I was a Kashmiri? Let me clarify -- I’m a Kashmir Pandit, and my father’s family was one of those affected by the genocide. Most of them haven’t lived in Kashmir for generations, despite being proud of and invested in Kashmiri culture and heritage. The Exodus of the Pandits is a deeply personal and painful chapter in the family’s history, alongside, partition.

But to get the whole picture of Kashmir’s story, we have to fast forward to the present, where India has revoked Kashmir’s special status -- which granted it autonomy from India’s government -- and forced the region into a brutal lockdown. There has been land settlement, violence, and Kashmir is now the most militarised region in the world. The Indian government and supporters of this regime have consistently touted the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits as an excuse for the human rights abuses being enacted in Kashmir right now, turning a tragic and painful genocide into a political trump card.

Okay, back to the review

If you’re still with me after that crash course -- and I highly encourage you to do your own research on all of this! -- we return to The Bookweaver’s Daughter, specifically, the world-building.

Any doubts I had about Kasmira being an obvious Kashmir stand-in were quickly eviscerated by the plot. Several words, including the main character’s name and the presence of “Yogis” are directly lifted from Sanskrit, the language used in the Hindu scriptures. The magic of Bookweaving, associated with scholarship, record-keeping, scribing, all draws on the imagery traditionally ascribed to Kashmiri Pandits, whose Brahmin status means they’re also regarded as religious scholars. Meanwhile, the villains are evil conquerors with the explicitly Muslim surname “Zakir”. Their architecture is constantly described as having domes and minarets, again a hallmark of Islamic architecture, and the symbolism is about as unsubtle as it was with the Hindu imagery.

With these two sides situated in a story about a Hindu-coded group being oppressed and driven from their ancestral homeland by Muslim-coded oppressors, the metaphor could not be more obvious. But it is irresponsible writing on many levels.

As I have explained, the Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits is unreservedly a tragedy. It’s a traumatic chapter in a traumatic and ongoing story. But there is nothing cathartic or personal about an author -- who I am almost certain is not a Kashmiri Pandit -- using that history, in a way that feels grossly under-researched and riddled with inaccuracies for a story which ends up feeling dangerously loaded when given the context of Kashmir, India, and India’s Islamophobia today.

I will be the first to admit I balk at the idea of discussing Kashmiri politics outside of my immediate family because the issue is so complicated and, for us, so personal. I find it frankly offensive when the Exodus of the Pandits is constantly brought up as some kind of justification for the human rights abuses being carried out today, as if it’s a ‘gotcha!’ moment and not a source of generational trauma that has left a community burdened with the imminence of its own extinction for years.

And, by telling a very poorly fleshed out and frankly Islamophobic story, Kannan has, whether intentionally or not, engaged in that same reductive narrative and it’s profoundly uncomfortable for me to read. And make no mistake, this story reads as deeply Islamophobic. Devendra Zakir, who I mentioned earlier, had me scratching my head at first because he was the only one of the Muslim-coded Zakirs with a Sanskrit, Hindu first name. I thought it was just a lack of research or another cultural inaccuracy on the author’s part but then -- spoiler -- it turns out he’s the only one of the antagonists who’s even slightly sympathetic to the heroes. Shocker!

Again, I’m aware Kannan -- who is 19 now -- wrote this novel several years ago, when she was younger and Kashmir didn’t dominate the news cycle in the same way. I doubt she set out to engage in a narrative of reducing very real trauma to inaccurate and oversimplified political propaganda intentionally. But this needed to be researched. I don’t say “researched more” because I don’t think it was researched at all. This needed to be run by other sets of eyes, preferably Kashmiris, Kashmiri Pandits, Muslims, and people who are well-versed in Kashmiri history.

I’m all for fantasies that play fast-and-loose with their historical influences, and I fully embrace the idea of using historical events as points of imagination and inspiration for a story. But when it comes to an event like the Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, which is not only enduringly traumatic, but also something so frequently touted as a trigger and a dog-whistle in a dangerous and violent political and religious conflict right now, then it is your responsibility as an author to make damn well sure you are equipped to tell that story and handle it sensitively and intelligently. If you’d told me the concept for this story beforehand, I’d have been highly skeptical that it was one a non-Kashmiri Pandit should have been telling, and having read this book, none of my doubts were assuaged.

What saddened me on a more personal level is that despite constructing a poorly wrought plot based on the politics and trauma of Kashmir, there was no real representation of the details and delights of Kashmiri culture. Kashmiris have our own cuisine, types of dress, specific festivals -- none of them appeared amidst the rasam and the naan bread.

In Conclusion (finally)

It’s only fair to point out that reading this book wasn’t actually a terrible experience. I got through it very quickly, and while the issues in writing were glaringly obvious and kept me from truly enjoying it, they didn’t make me angry and want to DNF either. If those were the only issues, I would probably have been able to say this was a good effort from a young author with some real promise, but that was probably published much too soon.

However, intentionally or not, this book threw itself obviously and squarely in the middle of one of the most complicated and sensitive conflicts I know of. Navigating the discussion around the connection between the atrocities committed against the Kashmiri Pandits and those being carried out against Muslims in Kashmir is one which I, my family, and most experts would struggle to navigate properly. This book attempted to do so, and did so very very poorly. And in the current climate, to do so is not only irresponsible, but it is dangerous. So I apologise for the length of this review -- and I truly do wish Kannan the best -- but I felt like, as a Kashmiri Pandit, the least I could do was say something.

There’s been a lot of valid conversations happening surrounding this book and I’m not sure I want to add my voice to that. After all, people have already said what I’m thinking.

Whenever you’re writing a fictional story based on real people and real events, it’s so important to do the research first. I think you really need to know the history before writing it into a book that could cause a lot of harm.

There are (to me and others) references to the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from late 1989 to 1990 in this book. There is so much to consider about that event and I don’t think it was handled with as much as much care as it should have been. Even more so, the current situation between Kashmir and India should be taken into account. The Kashmiri people have had their rights stripped for over a year. Naming an entire country Kashmira and it’s people Kashmiri is not something I can get behind.

Furthermore, I was uncomfortable with the Muslim versus Hindu rhetoric found in this book. The Zakirs gave me the impression that they were based on Mughal leaders. I didn’t like that the ruling government was simply called the Raj when we call the British colonization of the Indian subcontinent the British Raj. The “bad” guys having very clearly Muslim names versus the “good” guys having names from Hindu epics should not be a liberty you take in your story. Yogi is a term used for a person who practices and teaches yoga that is rooted deeply in Hinduism. I could go on but I think you get the idea. People have lost their lives to this kind of rhetoric (Islamaphobia if you’re wondering) and you should be mindful of that.

I also want to touch on the idea of mixing cultures, histories, languages, and other aspects you consider when you’re world building. The author mentioned on Twitter how fantasy worlds such a Avatar, Lord of the Rings (LoTR), and Game of Thrones (GoT) have been created by mixing various myths and histories across various cultures. I absolutely think that authors of color should also be able to do this, especially with their own cultures, but it’s incredibly important they do it with care. Avatar has clear nations and tribes that take from cultures and is done is a (relatively) positive way. George RR Martin, on the other hand, has received a lot of criticism for his portrayal of the Dothraki. It’s not enough to simply take bits and pieces of different cultures (even if some if it comes from our own) and do whatever we want with them.

In the end, I think that this book could benefit from a stronger and more concise world building in a way that doesn’t cause harm to real people. We should also be diligent in learning the history of the countries and cultures that we want to write about.

Pros: The message about female friendship and the basic concept of the magic of the bookweaver.
Cons: There were quite a few. The pacing and the writing needed more work and this book proved to be a struggle to get through. There needed to be a lot more research, since the "Indian" setting failed to live up to the basic standard. There were also several problematic elements in the story, for example, naming the place Kasmira and then dealing with the delicate socio-political matters that come with it without due sensitivity and responsibility. The characters failed to come through at all. By the end of the book, I didn't really feel like I knew any of them. I don't usually say this for own voices books, but the representation here was not well done, and desperately needs sensitivity reader. Also, while the concept of the magic system was neat, it was not explained nor explored in a meaningful way, leaving the reader more confused than intrigued.
That being said, if more research was put into the book and it went through more revisions, I'm sure it's be able to shine. There were some good concepts there, but the execution was poor. If a better version of the book was to come out in the future, I'm sure I would enjoy it.

I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book is not my cup of tea. The elements of the story intrigued me, but the execution of the story sadly disappointed me.

The book's description touts it as being "a tale of magic, Indian lore, and radical female friendship", which is what drew my interest in the book. It follows Reya, the daughter of the bookweaver who has the ability to use magic through telling stories. When her father is killed by the king who wants to eradicate magic, Reya inherits her father's ability but doesn't know how to use or control it. She soon finds herself caught between a resistance group and the king who both want to use her power and must decide which path she will take.

Lamentably, the book's description oversold the actual book. I almost marked the book DNF (did not finish) at the 23% mark because I didn't care about any of the characters and the plot was a confusing whiplash of events happening to the main character. For the first half of the book, the reader didn't actually know what the bookweaver's magic was, and this made it difficult to understand why everyone was so reverential of Reya and why the resistance movement so readily accepted her. The world building seemed underdeveloped, and I think there were some questionable decisions made by the author in that department. Reya often refers to things like naan bread and dhol drums, both of which are essentially like saying bread bread and drums drums. Similar to the world building, the characters themselves seemed superficial. The "radical female friendship" seemed forced by the author rather than naturally developed. Overall, I think there are bits and pieces of ideas in this book that are interesting, but it needs more editing and revisions in regards to pacing, plot, characterization, and world building. I think it could also do with some sensitivity readers in regard to its incorporations of Indian lore and depictions of a fictionalized Kashmir.

I was really looking forward to The Bookweaver's Daughter and it partially succeeded in matching my expectations.

This book was enjoyable and interesting even though the pacing was too fast and all over the place, the plot a little underdeveloped and the writing juvenile at times (the author was 17 when writing, so this can be forgiven).

It's a pure 3 stars for me, due to everything mentioned above.

Now, I've seen some reviews explaining problematic aspects of the book but *I* personally haven't noticed any while reading. It's not my culture/country so that's probably why. But their concerns deserve to be heard.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I don’t want to beat around the bush about this. Whenever I take up an #ownvoices South Asian YA book, I always go in with so much expectation and hope. And recently I’ve been very happy that desi YA is getting specific – characters’ nationalities, communities, the languages they speak are not glossed over. And when I heard about The Bookweaver’s Daughter, I was very excited to read it, because it was marketed as a tale about oppression and resistance, it seemed to be a fantasy based in Kashmir, and it was an ownvoices book written by a young debut author. Which is why it pains me to write this review – to tell you that The Bookweaver’s Daughter is incredibly problematic, features harmful rep about Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, and shows a blatant lack of research.

The book treats South Asia as a monolith, despite being set in a very specific space – Kasmira is based on Kashmir, but let’s come to that later. For example, Reya, the MC of the book, comes from a family of Bookweavers, who are supposed to be descendants of Yogis. Now Yogis are a very distinctly Hindu concept, but Reya’s family name is Kandhari, which is an Afghani surname. They drink rasam, which is a South Indian and Tamil dish. The ancient Kashmiri language – which is supposed to be the language of the mages – is made of Latin words, and sound like Harry Potter spells.

These might seem nitpicky, but they are all over the book. You know how I am constantly annoyed at chai tea, because it’s essentially a repeat of the same word? Well, there’s tabla drums, dhol drums, naan bread, aharya mountains – they are all phrases that make no sense because the second word is the translation of the first. I essentially gave up when Reya described her own skin tone as “the color of deep chai”

But honestly these seem trivial to the actual problems of the book. The Bookweaver’s Daughter has a rather harmful rep with regards to Hindu-Muslim relations in India. Reya is rebelling against the Zakirs – a every obviously Muslim name – who have invaded Kashmir. There’s no sense of where they are from, but it’s established that they are invaders, they are ruthless, and the King Jahan – another Muslim name – have driven away the mages, the descendants of Yogis – as I mentioned before, because of the association with the Yogis, they are obviously supposed to stand in for Hindus. (One of the Zakirs is named Gilani, which interestingly the surname of a controversial former prime minister of Pakistan)

The Bookweaver’s Daughter is set in a fictionalized version of Kashmir, called Kasmira. If you know anything about Kashmir, you know that it is a highly militarized place. Ever since the partition between India and Pakistan, Kashmir has been caught in a tug of war between these two countries. The problem with the Zakirs driving away the mages, is that the situation is very close to a historical event. There was a major exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s- Hindus who originate from Kashmir – and they were threatened and persecuted by Islam extremists and militants. (Pandits are also historically associated with knowledge, education and scriptures, so the comparison to mages and bookweavers is very uncanny) It’s a rather terrible event, however it has also been used as a common propaganda against Muslims in contemporary India , as the fascist government has weaponized this history to perpetuate Islamaphobhia.

Yes, this book is ownvoices. But ownvoices is not as straightforward as you think. This is why it’s so important to do extensive research even if it’s your own culture and country, and this is why sensitivity readers are vital. I am appalled by the blatant ignorance that I saw in this book, and today I want you to please educate yourself with what’s happening in South Asia, what’s happening in India and Pakistan, and what’s happening in Kashmir.

This book was not very well written and needs to go through thorough editing and revision to eliminate all the problematic details and also make the plot clear enough for a reader to understand.

AS an #ownvoicesreviewer I am very disappointed to not have liked this book and the amercanisation of the Indian culture in this book.

There's a lot that I hated about this book. From its treatment of Kashmiris to the weird way in which it's written for a white audience, to the choppy writing snap rushed scenes, and the overdramatic sentences that made me uncomfortable.

Based on early reviews I've seen, I will not be reading and reviewing this book because of the problematic aspects that were outlined in Mish's review: https://chasingfaerytales.com/the-bookweavers-daughter-by-malavika-kannan-is-rather-problematic/

I have decided to edit the review based on my experience while reading the book and realizing that my concerns about the book were legit.
The Bookweaver's Daughter is the first book I have read by an Indian-American author based in Indian folklore and I was very excited to read the book. Mainly because it would be a book which had something that reminded me of my culture and upbringing on every page, Since its a fantasy book I expected it to have some discrepancy than reality but for the most part, the book felt like I was reading it from a white person's point of view. Whether it was the names, historic relevance, food or clothes, they at times felt like props. I hoped the book would be a lot more relatable and close to home than the other American based books that I have read.
The book follows, fourteen-year-old Reya Kandhari as she struggles to survive an ongoing war as a new ruler takes over her beloved homeland. Reya, who belongs to the fabled line of Bookweavers, is forced to live as a peasant hiding her identity to keep her father safe. But when the only thing she wants to protect is taken from her, Reya finds herself right in the middle of the rebellion.
Reya Kandhari is a strong character who knows her strengths and also her weaknesses. Her character arc from not trusting herself to be able to lean on others was the best part of the book. Malavika writing style was the second best part. There are several scenes where I could feel myself racing through the pages because I was feeling every bit of what the MC was feeling and I couldn't stop reading. I immediately needed to know what was going to happen next.
I also really enjoyed some of the other characters like Nina, and Devendra (OH MY GOD). I haven't loved and hated a character as much as Devendra while reading a book. I would have loved to see some more of the deep friendship Reya and Nina share, than hearing about it from Reya. I would specifically like to mention that I enjoyed Malavika's writing and the book would have been felt better if the Indian folklore was left out of it.
Even though the book is based in fantasy and the world-building about a bookweaver was pretty interesting, it lacked cultural references and influence on the characters. Not just that, but given how the book talks about a place called Kashmira which is a huge kingdom taken over by a new ruler, reflects poorly in the current situation. over here (at home).
Talking about cultural references feeling like props, words like naan bread, chai tea, interchanging saris for words like silks and dresses as well as character often eating mangoes irrespective of the season, or tripping while wearing sari gave a very shallow representation of the reality. Other than these few mentions, the book pretty much followed other American books. As for based on folklore, India has a very diverse history which changes from state to state, it is hard to pin point folklore in the country as it is, but by only mentioning yogis it does not make the book based in Indian folklore.
Overall, I want to know if something happened to Devendra and I would be interested in Malavika's future writings if they are well researched.

Let me get this straight. The prologue and the first few chapters made me think that this is going to be my new favourite book. Oh boy, was I wrong about that.

I am going to be splitting this into two sections, things I liked and thing’s I didn’t.

->Things I Liked About The Book

-STRONG FEMALE PROTAGONISTS. Reya and Nina’s friendship is something I truly enjoyed and adored.
-Reya being sassy and savage: “Please. I said. You are just a kid with daddy issues” was one of the quotes I laughed so much at.
-The opening lines: “This book is for everyone who felt like their favourite books weren’t woven for them. To all the girls who looked for a heroine in their bathroom mirrors. For a twelve-year-old writer who thought she wasn’t magical. This one is for you.”

->Things I Didn’t Like About The Book

-The representation. Yes, the REPRESENTATION. I am very aware that this book is an #OwnVoices book, but I was very disappointed by the representation.
It is stated that the rulers of the kingdom of Kashmira is the Zakir Dynasty, but the prince is named “Devendra Zakir”. The problem with this is that ‘Devendra’ is a Sanskrit name whereas ‘Zakir’ is a Persian/Muslim surname. Like what?
-Many cultures from all over the Indian Subcontinent are mashed up and it just doesn’t make sense.
India is a country of many cultures and most of them are unique in their own way and don’t co-relate to each other.
-Lack of research.
I feel that if the author had done even a little bit of research, the book would have been a lot better. She clearly did not take the recent events into consideration. In the book, it was stated that the yogis/mages, who are clearly inspired by Hindu mythology, were well respected before the Zakir dynasty invaded Kashmira and started killing/exiling all of them. This seems very similar to the Kashmiri Pandits Exodus of 1989, where the Hindu pandits were forced out of the state. If you didn’t know, The conditions between the Hindu and Muslim community at the moment aren’t best because of the fascist regime in the country. The 1989 Exodus was stated as one of the reasons for the annexation of Kashmir, I understand that she is a diaspora author but a little bit of googling would have easily avoided all this because writing something which can be potentially inspired from a real-life event which is a sensitive topic for millions of people is very ignorant in my opinion.
-The book could definitely use a bit of editing because the constant changing of tenses and voices made the writing seem a bit off.
-Small things like the usage of random Latin and “naan bread”.
-The plot was very predictable which lead to basically no suspense.

I give this book 2.5 Stars

I literally could not. I didn't want to post my review anywhere online at first because it is still an ownvoices debut by a teen but this book is so awful. It was riddled with plotholes, not to mention an overused plot and poorly put together writing and dialogue.

The worldbuilding was confusing and info-dumpy, none of the characters felt very three dimensional. Honestly all of this info dump and all the "foreign" sounding words could have gone in a glossary. Oh and really? You had to say naan bread? (This is one specific example, there's a lot). The author then proceeded to subtweet my friend after we joked about the mention of naan bread, which is not a good look.

Yes, the author may be diaspora but I am too and it is very annoying to see the clear lack of research. If you're going to write about your heritage, Google some current events. Especially if your fantasy world is supposed to represent Kashmir.

Overall, not a good book, clear lack of research.

2.5 stars

Oh, had this book potential! The idea is solid, the characters could have been very interesting, but it was all underdeveloped. I feel like this book could have benefited by having at least 100 more pages. But given that is a debut novel, I expect more, better books from the author because the talent is there, it just need to be nurtured.

Malakiva Kannan is a very talented writer. It’s impressive to have published a book at the age of eighteen. Her words flow beautifully, and her writing is very professional.

The Bookweaver’s Daughter starts with an intriguing tale that pulled me further in. Her world was reminiscent of Kipling’s The Jungle Book with fascinating descriptions of a world like India. Her characters weren’t as well developed as I had hoped, but they were still written well enough that each contained their own personalities and differences.

All of the legends and tales woven into the narrative gave the storyworld depth and life. Kannan’s writing still reflects her youthfulness, but I think over time, she will come to be a very talented and very popular author.

Overall, I think that The Bookweaver’s Daughter is an excellent book filled with a unique storyworld, and a wonderful start to a long career.

NOTE: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes only. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Bookweaver’s Daughter is a delightful tale of reclaiming lost legacies and carving one’s own path, peppered with fiery female characters, undying loyalty and ofcourse, lots of magic and witchiness!

The plot is fast-paced and tightly packed with action. In 250 pages, Malavika Kannan has managed to chart Reya’s awe-inspiring journey from just-another peasant girl picking mangoes for a slave lord to a phenomenally powerful mage fighting to keep her father’s legacy of bookweaving alive by fighting off narrow-minded tyrants clamping down on magic. While the story is simple and without any major twists and turns, gorgeous prose and powerful characters bring it to life making it a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The prose of this book is a joy to behold. Malavika’s writing is gorgeous and descriptive, without being too flowery. The natural beauty of the kingdom of Kasmira is brought alive with vivid imagery. I loved the subtle nuances of culture infused in the writing, from Reya’s beautiful saris to the grand mahal of the ruling king. I have lost count of the number of quotes I highlighted on my kindle.

The characters of Reya and Nina are extremely relatable and easy to root for. Their friendship and undying loyalty for each other made me wonder why we read so less of strong female friendships in literature. While there wasn’t enough depth to differentiate the two characters much from each other, I still genuinely appreciate that both of them received equal ‘limelight’ and Nina’s character did not come across as just a sidekick to Reya.

Although The Bookweaver’s Daughter has some wonderful elements, I really wish it was slightly longer, with more time taken to flesh out the characters and solidify the world-building. The whirlwind pace of the book made it difficult for me to really know the characters in and out and get invested in them. With Malavika’s gorgeous writing, I would have gladly read a 500-page long book with an intricately carved out magic system, a more detailed history of bookweavers and their powers and more layered characters.

This is the worst book I have ever read. Not only is the writing and the plot structure really bad, the way it just mishmashes so many of Indian subcultures and doesn't think of the political connotations of its storyline is a very bad look to have. The way the words from different languages are written serves to exoticise the cultures for those with orientalist attitudes.
Also, an Indian author using the words "naan bread", I don't even know what to say about that.

I'll be writing a longer review detailing every single one of my grievances soon.