Review: Ten Incarnations of Rebellion

Ten Incarnations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The latest novel from Vaishnavi Patel shifts away from the ancient settings of the original Hindu legends which she typically adapts, in favor of a more modern but still historical (or, more accurately, alternate historical) setting that still takes inspiration from the same Hindu legends. In this new timeline, it's the 1960s going into the 1970s, and India remains a British colony decades past the point where she gained independence in real life, due in large part to the British stamping out Gandhi and other leaders of the independence movement with even greater violence. By this point in the timeline, the city we know as Mumbai has been burned down and rebuilt as British Kingston, with the colonizers pitting all the local ethnic and religious groups against each other...until such time as Kalki, Fausha, and their friends and families can slowly rise up and overthrow their oppressors. It's a slow burn, especially for a short book, but it's quickly become my new favorite of Patel's for numerous reasons.

View all my reviews