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576 pages. I would be more generous with the rating if it weren't 576 pages.

(also lol, what a surprise. Most of the fans aren't South Asians well-versed in their history or tradition).

I feel bad when I read or watch anything that's been hyped all over the internet because I know some level of disappointment is inevitable. This is an attention economy and people need hype to pay their bills. But I feel worse for myself every time I think I've dodged the hype pitfall but realize I've wasted a whole day reading something that wasn't for me.

The Jasmine Throne is hyped up all over the internet by young adults as a sapphic romance between two morally complex characters. If by morally complex you mean a natural desire for power (magic and throne), I guess? I saw no real moral greyness in either Priya or Malini. I thought both of them were frankly good noble people but the story and its fans genuinely believe that a justified desire for due revenge is a big deal. But also, when you actually live in South Asia, your bar for unacceptable is automatically higher. Yeah, one character tried to be manipulative. Anyone would, in her circumstances. Plus, it didn't even work! How do you expect me to be shocked at diet manipulation that FAILED???

The story's world-building was so much more compelling than its characters that I only kept reading to understand the landscape. The most interesting character by FAR is Bhumika. I wish she had been the protagonist. Her story is clear and focused, allowing her characterization to shine. Then it's Ashok. I guess Rao is kinda decent? But his faith is so much more interesting than him. Aditya is an obvious Buddha rip-off.

The buzz around the story was about the scandalous passionate romance between the two women - except there's little to no romance because both have separate arcs of their own that keep dragging them in two different directions. The political drama is ten times more intriguing than ANY of the paltry romance. So much of their 'closeness' is fleshed out in a memsahib and maidservant dynamic - with the story obsessively focusing on that, for some well-intentioned but ultimately disastrous reason - that it's not closeness, let alone love. It's two guarded girls who are understandably wary of each other and too busy focusing on their circumstances to fan the (mostly forgotten) crush into a proper flame. The passion also didn't simmer secretly either. It just wasn't there. All we got was the characters telling us they felt deeply for each other, but nothing to show for it.

Priya is ten times more interesting when she's interacting with other temple children. The scenes with Malini are a snooze-fest. Similarly, the brief mentions of Malini's two friends revealed so much more about her than her (useless) performance around Priya. Priya and Malini are largely irrelevant as a dynamic in terms of impact on the story. I usually love stories with multiple perspectives and a big cast but this one had a very hard time making its characters memorable, maybe because it had such a massive vivid world to develop. For reference, I cry at the drop of a hat but when multiple - MULTIPLE - deaths happened, I felt nothing because they're supposed to be meaningful to Malini and Priya, and both of them have clear motives but clear motive does not a memorable personality make. Because it didn't really impact them, it didn't impact me. Also, the characters themselves weren't memorable either.

Priya and Malini are specters, more meaningful as symbols than as people. Even the story is hooked on the maidservant symbolism in Priya and the China maal Razia Sultana symbolism in Malini. So imagine my irritation when I was lured in by the promise of a sapphic romance and only got a pointlessly drawn-out 'Bella, I'm a monster!' 'No, Edward, I know you!' back-and-forth between two symbols that could have been condensed in 2 pages.

You want me to believe your two leads are compelling? Show me. I get to see Priya's power in action but all I get from Malini is everyone saying 'wow, she has lackeys everywhere!' and the only lackey I see is Priya, already renowned for being impressionable and trusting. I don't see ANY of Malini's influence or power in action because the story doesn't build her up. I don't see Chandra fear her, Aditya respect her, Rao venerate her for HER because they all have their own reasons for their relationship to her, not their recognition of her power. The story thinks it's sufficient to tell me she's influential but every time she exerts it, the person agreeing to her has a separate for acquiescing to her demand, rendering the instance ineffective.

The story has multiple missed opportunities and dropped threads, which I guess are supposed to be elaborated upon in the next book. The series aspect means this book is not good as a standalone story. There are several people Rao meets that clearly won't be useful until later but have to be shoehorned in now. With serialization, the set-up in the first book is supposed to be useful in the same book AND to the series. It's not supposed to be one or the other. With Harry Potter, the Patronus and Buckbeak in Prisoner of Azkaban are relevant to Book 3 AND later. But this book is actually 250 pages of relevant storytelling and 300 pages of build-up for the next book.

Maybe this would have been beautiful as a graphic novel. But for now, it's just 576 pages of a failed Nasuada and Murtagh/Zuko and Katara retelling.
To recap:
- The romance is WAY overblown
- The supporting characters are so much interesting than the leads (who are really not 'morally grey' at all)
- The world-building overtakes the characterization
- Serialization means you're swamped with irrelevant details that don't matter until later (by which time you've probably forgotten them)
- Priya and Malini are unformed specters

If almost all of the world is from history and religion, strong complex characterization is then supposed to be the writer's unique contribution. Because this story's weakest point is precisely the hottest part of its marketing, it's better if you read a South Asian history textbook instead.