When I started reading Mad Sisters of Esi, I was interested in the sisters and the world in which they lived. I enjoyed the narrative style and voice and was keen to see where the story would lead. By the time I got about 1/3 through, though, my attention started to wane. As more plot points and new characters came in, I began to find the plot confusing and convoluted. I dragged myself to the end, but by that point I had lost any connection with and interest in the characters that I'd felt at the start of the story. I've seen a lot of positive reviews of this book around, though, so I would say it's mostly a case of it just not being a good fit for me. I am giving it 3 stars. It wasn't quite my cup of tea, but it was an interesting premise and a story that will likely appeal to fantasy fans who don't mind things a little surreal and dreamlike.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! The prose is beautiful, and the story unique, but the emotion was never there. I was never motivated to pick this book up.

You ought to be mad to fell in love with this book.

Tashan Mehta weaves a beautiful, but peculiar family saga into a cloth made from whales, skies and academic papers. It starts with two sisters, but reaches far beyond it, mixing the study of indigenous cultures (bloodlines?) with fantastic tale about magic and higher instances. It's strange, but between weirdness and variegation it finds the way to your heart.

I certainly adored every inch of it.

I did not realize this was not written in a typical writing style. It uses a type of poetic verse it seems, and it is as others have described, like a fever dream. Unfortunately that is not a book my brain is going to enjoy reading, as the writing style in a book is important for my enjoyment, and I found myself grasping for more understanding of what was happening and feeling frustrated. I know this book is amazing, it just is not for me and I am not the reader for it, but LOOK AT THE COVER. The story itself is also unique. I loved the concept of people living in a whale?!



Thank you for the opportunity to sample this eARC. I am leaving this honest feedback voluntarily.

MASTERPIECE.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the ARC.

This is an amazing book. I knew well before I finished it, that it would become an all-time favorite.

The writing is impeccably, uncannily perfect. Elements of weird fiction, fever dreams, cosmic awareness/inexplicability, deep family ties of blood and fictive kin, and environmental legacy combine to create this amazing narrative. The characters are deep and significant. The author’s ability to describe landscapes and make them palatable even though much of it is open to interpretation, illuminates.

The science fiction stands out as well. New ideas and concepts are well thought out, very clear and concise, but also open to many interpretations and revelations upon reflection. I think you could read this book many times and discover unique insights every single time.

Grief and pain as a part of any life and learning to cope is explored from beginning to end and is very philosophic.

I was introduced to this author in a collection of short stories entitled “Magical Women” and believed I had found my next favorite author. I was fortunate enough for this book to show up as an ARC for me. It proved my theory correct. I am adding this to my favorites shelf.

3.75 stars!

A story within a story, a story of sisters. This is not really what I was hoping for it to be but it still has some really great parts and it will definitely find it's audience.

The whale of babel is a mystery to the outside world but to Myung and Laleh its endless worlds and infinite doors are just home. That is until Myung leaves the whale and ventures out into the world to meet others and find out more about their mysterious creator, leaving her sister behind. I understand the Piranesi comparison but really I think this book is more suited for fans of The Spear Cuts Through Water with the mythology and layered storytelling. I admire the clear thought that was put into the world and the winding plot of this book and the writing is just beautiful. Stories about sisters don't always hit for me but both Myung and Laleh and Wisa and Magali were really hard-hitting. I like the academic papers as a world-building mechanism so much that one of my main issues is that there are only a few and almost exclusively at the beginning. I was hoping it would continue throughout but they peter out pretty quick. I do also think this was significantly longer than it needed to be and the writing gets a little tedious at points in a way that I think really detracts from how amazing this premise is.

I'm glad books like this are being written because some of my favorites are unashamedly out-of-the-box and fantastical. I just think this could have been a much tighter and more impactful story if it was about 100 pages shorter.

Thank you to Tashan Mehta and DAW for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

This book truly reads like a fever dream. Fluid, poetic, and deeply immersive. Unfolding in such a mesmerizing rhythm, with imagery that will live rent free in my mind forever. There’s a quiet sadness woven throughout the book I was not expecting. But it’s also balanced by resilience, self discovery, and an otherworldly magic.

At its core, this is a story about perception, madness, and the invisible threads that bind us. The characters feel so rich and real. Each carrying their own fears, hopes, and secrets. This book doesn’t explain everything at times, but I think that’s part of the magic. You find yourself sitting with the mysteries sometimes, rather than having them spelled out. Some stories are meant to be unraveled slowly, and this is one of them.

There’s also something powerful in the way the author captures memory and connection. The writing has a way of making you pause, often times to reread a sentence. Not because it’s difficult, but because it resonates so deeply. I found myself highlighting dozens and dozens of passages. This isn’t just a book you read, it’s a book you feel. And when you reach the final page, you’re left with the quiet certainty that it will stay with you for awhile.

I cannot thank NetGalley and DAW enough for an ARC! What a joy it has been to read this.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wickedly creative and viciously enchanting, this story breaks the bounds of time and space.

Though I loved the first half of the book, my favourite part was without a doubt the story of Magali and Wisa - this is so beautifully written, I found myself trapped in the madness of Esi.

This story broke my heart in the best way, and it not being fully healed by the last pages, I know this book has well and truly left its mark on me.

I cannot recommend this book to everyone at anytime, as it is a story that needs to find you when you are ready for it. When you are ready to dive headfirst into the madness, to open space in your brain for these many worlds, then you should read this absurdly wonderful novel.

Read if: You like fever dream books but need them to make some kind of sense in the end or you want to disappear into a million different worlds.

I admit I was a little worried for the first 50ish pages of this book. The story seemed to be expanding exponentially with every chapter and I was instantly attached to the characters so was afraid we would leave them behind. In the rest of the book, I don't think it ever lost this sense of scale but it quickly switched to a smaller narrative about 2 sisters not related by blood, but by choice.

I think this book made it impossible not to care about it's characters. You could feel the love between them as you read, and it made you love them as well. The conversations and relationships between them felt so real. I'm not sure that Esi is a place I would want to live, but it's a place I fell in love with during this book. The descriptions of the locations in this book were so vivid and fantastical and a part of the book that I really loved.

There were probably a lot of themes in this that went way over my head but the strongest theme to me was grief. It's about remembering the ones you loved so they never leave you but also clinging on so tightly to them that you devote yourself and everyone around you to that grief.

The ending of this book was sad but not because anything necessarily bad happened to the characters. It simply evoked familiar feelings of leaving home, leaving loved ones behind, not because you don't love them, but simply because you have grown and need space to grow more. It's about accepting that things change, time moves forward, and no matter how tightly you hold on to the things or people you love, eventually they will change too.

This was a book full of love, madness, joy, and grief and I loved every second of it.

My favourite quote from this book 'I believe that when we read we are searching for a smooth and polished mirror so that we may better see our reflections...but I believe it is not just mirrors that we seek-it is magic mirrors. We don't only want reflections of ourselves; we want to know if there is the possibility of change in our future, whether there is more to this reality than we can touch and smell, more to ourselves'

Thank you to Netgalley, DAW Books and Tashan Mehta for the ARC. Review posted on Goodreads and rating posted on storygraph

A beautifully written story, strong female characters and the theme of sisterhood, Set in a fantasy landscape, I struggled to engage with the leads and it didn’t grab me. Lots of positive reviews from others so definitely a good work. Thanks to the author. Thank you to # NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

As I had hoped, this book was a bit like a fever dream and poignant. In fact, I am not sure how to talk about this book, not without flattening it or spoiling.
There is a lot going on, but not like a classic epic fantasy. It's more personnal, intricate, grander and smaller. A tale about universes and people, especially two sisters. Well, two pair of sisters, in a way. Their love is hard and shifting, but strong and lasting. This is primarily a story about sisterly love, but not only. It comes in different shades, like the pains. It is also a story about madness, told in a very touching way.

Did you guess that it has a very dreamy quality? Not a lack of logic but a stretch in logic? I loved it. But readers who want order and logic in the classical sense won't like this book. Not everything is explained, because the characters don't know everything. The universe(s) we are described don't work on the logic we are used to, and that's exactly the beauty of this story. There is a distinct sense of mystery and onirism, a bit like what I felt with "The spear cuts through water", "The Starless Sea" or "Rakesfall". It's very much the kind of story that, if done well, transports me. It clicks into place with a full universe and atmosphere.

"Mad sisters of Esi" isn't a straightfoward story. It's intermingled, with movement troughout time and space, throughout relationships and isles. Melancoly is present, from the start and growing as we near the end. Nature isn't a separate things, it's a world in itself, inside which the characters evolve and converse.

If I needed a bit of time to settle in, the story sank it's grip into me quickly. It's beautifully written, the kind of book that needs concentration but not in a tiring way. Full of mythic like symbolism, love and pain.

Very good experience, I am glad the book will be available for more people to discover and lose themselves between the pages.

I enjoyed this! but was not in love.

The prose and writing is both the best and worst part in ways for me. It is so poetically written, beautiful world building, language and themes. However it feels like the plot and character development were neglected instead focusing on the philosophical writing style it centered most around. the plot was slow and kind of uninteresting, and convenient. There was a lot that was unexplained which was frustrating. The characters were likable but didn’t hold much depth but I did love the theme of sisterhood and her portrayal of that in this book.

Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta is a beautifully complex, emotionally resonant novel that blends elements of speculative fiction, fantasy, and literary storytelling. Set in a world of shifting realities and ancient magic, the novel follows Myung and Laleh, two women whose fates are deeply entwined with the mysterious "whale of babel." At the heart of the narrative is the enigmatic concept of the "mad sisters of Esi," a mythical figure whose curse affects the women of Esi. As the plot unfolds, the boundaries between reality and madness blur, forcing the characters to confront their deepest fears and desires.

The writing in Mad Sisters of Esi is deeply poetic and evocative. Mehta’s prose is lush, filled with rich metaphors, vivid imagery, and a dreamlike quality that immerses you in a world where language itself seems to bend and warp. The novel is layered, with multiple perspectives, research papers, and diary entries woven into the fabric of the story. This unconventional narrative structure can be disorienting at times, but it ultimately serves to heighten the sense of mystery and uncertainty that defines the book. While some readers may find the narrative shifts challenging or overwhelming, others will appreciate the immersive depth they add to the world-building.

One of the standout aspects of the book is its exploration of sisterhood, madness, and identity. Myung and Laleh’s relationship is the emotional core of the novel, and their bond, fraught with tension, love, and unresolved grief, feels both universal and intensely personal. The novel delves into how women navigate the expectations placed upon them, how love can be both a source of salvation and destruction, and how madness—whether literal or metaphorical—shapes the course of their lives. The theme of sisterly love and the complicated, often destructive, ways it manifests is poignant and heartbreaking, giving the story an emotional weight that lingers long after the final page.

The fantastical elements are intricate and rich, but they do not always provide easy answers. The novel’s abstract nature, with its shifting landscapes and mythical creatures, means that much is left unexplained, and it’s easy to get lost in the metaphysical elements of the plot. The surreal quality of the world Mehta creates can be both mesmerizing and frustrating. While the book invites deep reflection and analysis, it also leaves much open to interpretation. This will appeal to readers who enjoy ambiguity and are comfortable with books that demand more engagement, but it may be a barrier for those looking for a clearer, more straightforward narrative.

The pacing of Mad Sisters of Esi is deliberately slow, and while this allows for deep character exploration and an in-depth look at the world, it also means that the story can feel meandering at times. There are sections of the book that focus heavily on introspection and philosophical musings, which may slow down the action for readers who prefer a faster-paced narrative. However, for those who appreciate richly detailed world-building and character-driven plots, this slower pace can be part of the novel’s charm, drawing readers deeper into the story’s emotional and intellectual terrain.

The ending, in particular, stands out as both tragic and hopeful. It doesn’t offer all the answers, leaving some loose threads that will linger in the reader’s mind, but it feels earned. The emotional resolution of the story, particularly regarding the bond between Myung and Laleh, is poignant and impactful. The novel’s exploration of madness, the self, and the nature of love culminates in a way that is simultaneously heartbreaking and cathartic.

In terms of overall enjoyment, I would give Mad Sisters of Esi 4 stars. Its beautifully poetic writing, emotional depth, and complex themes will appeal to readers who appreciate high-concept fantasy and literary fiction. The novel’s abstract nature and unconventional narrative structure might not be to everyone’s taste, and its slow pacing may be a drawback for those seeking a faster-paced adventure. However, for those willing to embrace its complexity and immerse themselves in the world of Esi, it offers a deeply thought-provoking and emotionally rich reading experience that is worth the journey.

Thank you Tashan Mehta, DAW and Netgalley for this free ARC in exchange for a review.

This novel does have a bit of enjoyable whimsy to it.

Unfortunately, as the story was padded with abstract prose and lacked good characterization and direction, it didn’t hold my attention, so I didn’t finish it.