I had to sit with this one for a bit before reviewing it. Ultimately, this was a viscerally beautiful albeit challenging read. I loved the exploration of sense of self and how we are shaped by those around us and those long gone. Along with the existential desire to create rather than devour, Das delivers a punishing tale of how we can overcome the evils that have been done to us and transform into something more than our past selves. I've seen some worrying critiques of this book that I'm going to rant about next, so feel free to 'i ain't reading all that. happy for you though. or sorry that happened.'

In reading other reviews on this book, I was shocked and saddened to see some people claiming this was somehow a proponent of certain, unforgivable acts

Cyrah's rape or the kidnapping of the baul girl

. I worry sometimes that we've come to a place of media literacy where writing about certain, horrific things without a character explicitly stating in bold face, THIS IS WRONG, is then somehow assumed to be supported or forgiven by the author. The survivor of this story is not only able to give their abuser the reckoning they deserve, overcomes their trauma and becomes more than just a victim. They quite literally have the true metamorphosis, and are ultimately THE protagonist of this story. The HERO of this story.

The same goes for

Izrail's kidnapping and ultimate killing of the baul girl

. In an exploration of the moral ambiguity inside all of us, this plotline AGAIN is in no way forgiving this character. They themselves talk about how they fell into the same patterns as their father and how ashamed they were. In the cycle of intergenerational trauma, sometimes people become the very thing that hurt them in the first place. The character's acknowledgment of it and eventual change (over several centuries lol) is meant to provide a little hope that perhaps somehow, even after doing horrible things, we can break that cycle.

Overall, I worry about this black and white way of thinking of all characters must be Good or Bad and anyone who isn't the pinnacle of humanity must be properly punished by the narrative to prove that it's not an endorsement. I hate when authors slam me over the head with what they want to say, and you should too. I also think people should be open to reading uncomfortable things, and not immediately writing something off without fully digesting it in its entirety.

TLDR: the puriteens are at it again