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435 pages, Hardcover
First published August 11, 2020
My mother is a star. I am half earth, half of heavens. Cut me, and I might bleed silver. My skin is a rich brown, the exact shade of my human father’s skin, but my hair is long and thick and frosted like the moon. In my chest burns a fiery core that beats in time with the music of the spheres, their song deep and layered with dreams.
"She was nothing but the words of a story, one tale weaving imperceptibly into the next. She was the loom that wove the tapestry. She was the tapestry that joined all things."
The Written Review
August OwlCrate Unboxing Video is up! Honestly wasn't my favorite box...but some of it was nice. Click the link to check it out!
What...an absolute disappointment.![]()
She was nothing but the words of a story, one tale weaving imperceptibly into the next. She was the loom that wove the tapestry. She was the tapestry that joined all things.
Be humble, for you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.
—Siberian proverb
Dear reader,
My whole life, I’ve yearned for magic. I grew up steeped in Western fairy tales, in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, in books about witches and Narnia and faeries, and I’ve always nurtured lush fantasy realms in my imagination.
Even so, it took me until my mid-twenties to wonder why the important characters in books were always white and why readers were expected to be familiar with pixies and brownies, but not with apsaras or yakshas. Why, especially, if someone did write about my desi heritage or Hindu faith, it was inevitably serious and unhappy—and often wrong. I wanted adventures and magic, too! I wanted to see brown girls having fun.
So I decided to write the stories I never had.
Star Daughter is partly my response to Neil Gaiman’s and Charles Vess’s gorgeous illustrated novel Stardust. When I found it back in 2002, I fell in love. The journey of a human boy to find a star who’d been knocked out of the sky even inspired me to write a short story about a half-human, half-star girl. Except, as in Stardust, that story called for a quest—and quests fit much better into novels, so...
I wove Hindu mythology together with other concepts I adore, like enchanted Night Markets and fey balls. I explored Sheetal’s misunderstandings with her boyfriend, her relationships with the women in her life, and her being caught between worlds. And I dreamed up so much starry brown girl magic.
I hope the result is just as fun to read, too.
↣ consider reading this review over on my blog.
A young woman is struck to live the part of her she has kept hidden as a secret for so long.
The celestial court is sparkling and the shimmer of svarglok is hypnotic.
A supporting cast that shine individually and relationships that are complex.
The Indian culture, the Hindu mythology & the ownvoices brilliance: food, music, and world.
Overall, a definite recommendation for those who enjoy standalone with fast-paced mythology-inspired fantasy plot and lush writing that makes you want to be lost in the shine of a star.
↣ digital copy received via hov for a blog tour!