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

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.

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.