I just finished SAVAGE BEASTS and it is an incredible telling of the Medea myth. The parallels in this new historical setting are powerful and compelling. I loved how fast the story moved and how emotional I felt about many of the characters. I felt for Meena, wanted to know Kiran and celebrated these fierce women through the whole story. Rani Selvarajah has a gift for drawing you into the current action and dialogue and then suddenly dropping a bomb of a line that is profound and true.
Many moments and words made me stop and reflect. I really loved it and highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

The Greek myth of Medea is transposed to 18th century India in Rani Selvarajah’s debut novel, Savage Beasts. It was actually the Indian setting that attracted me to it rather than the mythology aspect as I’m not very familiar with Medea – except where she has appeared as a secondary character in other novels I’ve read, such as Madeline Miller’s Circe – and I expect this book will have equal appeal to readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy mythology retellings.

The novel opens in 1757 in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata). The East India Company, under the leadership of Sir Peter Chilcott, are advancing on Bengal and war seems inevitable, but James Chilcott, Sir Peter’s nephew, has arrived in Calcutta ready to make a bargain. He is prepared to betray the company and reveal their plans, he says, but he wants something from the Nawab of Bengal in return. Although the Nawab isn’t convinced, his daughter, Meena, is captivated by the handsome young Englishman and agrees to help him. When things go wrong, James and Meena are forced to flee Bengal, leaving a scene of death and devastation in their wake.

So far, I could see the parallels with mythology – Meena in the role of Medea, daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, and James as Jason, who comes to Colchis on the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. When Meena and James leave Bengal, they encounter Meena’s aunt, Kiran, whom I quickly identified with Circe. The later parts of the myth are less familiar to me, but as far as I could tell the novel continued to follow the basic outline, with one or two nice twists towards the end.

What let this novel down for me was the writing. I hate to be too critical of an author’s first novel, but I did find some of the word choices odd or inappropriate. Characters ‘smirk’ all the time, on almost every page – that’s when they’re not ‘sneering’ or ‘scoffing’. I lost count of how many times these words were repeated. I also struggled to believe in Meena as a convincing woman of her time. It seemed unlikely that the daughter of a Nawab (a Mughal ruler of similar status to a prince) would have the freedom to hang around the docks of Bengal on her own, as Meena does in the opening chapter, and her subsequent actions feel more and more anachronistic.

I did like the basic concept of moving the Medea story to 18th century India and the idea of James/Jason as part of a colonial power coming to take what they can from Bengal/Colchis is an intriguing one. For this to work, though, there really needed to be a stronger sense of time and place, but sadly, I couldn’t think of the characters as anything other than modern people in historical costume. Despite my negativity, I stuck with the book to the end and did occasionally become drawn into the story; it’s been receiving a mixture of reviews, including plenty of four and five star ones, so evidently other readers have enjoyed it more than I did. Give it a try if it appeals – and please let me know if there are any other retellings of the Medea myth you can recommend!

Fantastic premise but I wasn’t able to connect with the story here - that a young woman would speak to a man as Meena does in the year of 1757, is laughable. The inaccuracy of the entire opening scene seriously irked me.

This one wasn’t for me.

Savage Beasts is retelling of Medea a Greek myth. As a fan of Greek mythology I was read to dig in to this book.

I liked the idea of the 1700s colonial setting and how Rani Selvarajah used the mythology and created this book with it’s own spices. The writing is fast paced and interesting, great first book from the author.

I would recommend it to read for all YA fantasy lovers.

“Savage Beasts” is a debut novel by Rani Selvarajah. This is a retelling of the Greek myth Medea but set in the late 1700s. The story begins in India, where the East India Company, led by Sir Peter Chilcott, is trying to take over all of India. Sir Peter’s nephew, James goes to Bengal, claiming to want to betray his uncle. Meena, the daughter of the Nawab, falls under James’s spell and decides to spend her life with him. Meena uses her medicinal knowledge (from her aunt Kiran) to aid her and James’s escape from Bengal and they begin a life together, eventually ending up in England, where things begin unraveling.

If you know the story of Medea, you’ll see the parallels in this story. If, like me, you need a refresher on the tale - do read the original myth. I did like how Ms. Selvarajah set the story in colonial times - that was a nice updated touch. The overarching idea, I believe, was well executed. Where this fell a little flat for me was in the actual writing - Meena’s racing heart gets mentioned a lot, along with some modern (2000s) things thrown in, opposed to it being a bit more historically accurate. But, those quibbles aside, for a debut novel, this was an engrossing read and I did wonder how the story was going to play out, especially one key part of the Medea myth. My favorite character was probably Meena’s aunt, Kiran - from her leopard to her reputation on the island.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I believe this is the authors first book, a good retelling choice for a first book. I am always a fan of a retelling and this one is a Medea retelling. A quick read with bits that add to the myth, retold in a new setting. I enjoyed it!

Savage Beast by Rani Selvarajah

This is a Medea retelling of a Greek myth
Brilliant writing style very engaging.A lovely quick read

I loved the concept of this book, and thought the overarching ideas of the retelling were quite brilliant, but I found the actual writing itself (like, on a sentence level) to be a little too bland for me. It was difficult to engage with the characters and fully immerse myself.

I loved the concept of this book, and thought the overarching ideas of the retelling were quite brilliant, but I found the actual writing itself (like, on a sentence level) to be a little too bland for me. It was difficult to engage with the characters and fully immerse myself.

I really loved reading this book and considering it is the authors first novel it is an amazing read. I found it interesting that all of the characters had something that I disliked about them but did not want to put the book down. This book is a Medea retelling but I know nothing about the original story.

My thanks to the author and publisher for this gifted copy

This was a great concept for a Medea retelling, it worked well with what was set. It took the myth and added to it, I loved that Rani Selvarajah changed the tale to India and I do think it worked well. I was invested in what was going on and loved how it took the myth and created a new tale with the same concept.

"Meena stared at the bottle. She thought it had been lost in the rush when they had had to leave Murshidabad so quickly. Like everything to do with her aunt Kiran, the bottle provoked a million questions in her mind, and a tightness in her chest."

I like the concept of transferring the story of Medea to eighteenth century India during the predatory expansion of the East India Company, and making Jason the nephew of one of the Company's directors: this embraces the colonial aspects of the Jason myth and his quest for the Golden Fleece. The setting also has the potential to exploit the civilised/barbarian dichotomy that is being explored in the original Greek myth.

However, this isn't the book to do this in any kind of informed or complicated way. The writing is quite pedestrian and Meena (Medea) is a 'not like other girls' character: she's the daughter of a nawab yet is wandering around the docks of Bengal alone and is soon chatting with the English stranger, James (Jason), in a private space where he's barely met her before he's got her hand on her waist and her heart is racing.

Meena's heart races a lot. A lot. When she's excited, scared, angry - yep, her heart races. She's also 'impressed' or 'unimpressed' a lot, sometimes on the same page. And then there are sentences like this: 'He looked at the stranger, ready to devour him like a ripe mango', or 'James's mouth flapped open and closed before he half-chuckled and sighed', and, 'Yes, I came here to make a trade. For information that I have. About what my uncle is planning. And I am here to trade it.' - um, do you think he might be here to make a trade?!

One of the things about the Medea myth is that it floats in pre-history: by pinning this version down historically, this requires a sense of the eighteenth century, not Meena saying 'excuse me?' like a Mean Girl.

Once again we have a larger-than-life iconic mythic figure brought down to the level of a mediocre young woman with no inner life who follows the waypoints of the prior myth with plodding predictability. The original Medea was a blazing, terrifying, powerful figure: Meena's just a poor little Indian rich girl who gets shafted by Britain and her British lover. We sympathise, of course we do, even if we can see the arc of her story before she does. But this feels like a case of the originary myth restraining and constraining the author's imagination rather than inspiring it more productively.

I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. The reaction of the character to events that happen to them are completely unbelievable in any context. The daughter of the nawab going down to the docks and openly challenging the dock master…… James the man she saves from the dock master then brings him to the palace to talk with her father, his reactions are to me not the reactions of a fighting man brought up in the harsher world of the 17th century. For me that ruined the whole book. I did not continue it.

I wanted to enjoy this one but I found the plot, story, and characterizations hard to follow and not really resonate the best for me at times.

An interesting retelling of Medea. Meena is the Nawab's neglected and abused daugher and she falls for James Chilcott the nephew of leader of the East India Company. They escaped Calcutta and fleed for a better life... Lots of complications and love is never simple. I like Meena and she's much more complicated and nuanced than the mythical Medea. It's a fascinating re-interpretation of the Medea story.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.