I learned so much from this book. I’ve never read one like this before and it was truly captivating. I can’t wait to read more!

This world was so gorgeous and lush I didn’t want to leave. Truly stunning writing throughout the entire story. heartbreaking at times and devastating at others this book follows a mother and son throughout their lifetimes as a goddess and a god-offspring respectively and their journey hurtling towards their separate fates and how they intertwine.

I will say around the 60% mark I got very bogged down with all the characters and their names/titles as a few characters had names that were similar. I often had to go back and forth to remind myself who was who but once you figure it out it gets easier. the pacing could’ve been a little better coordinated as we luxuriate a lot in the beginning and ‘the war’ takes place rather quickly at the end.

all in all I enjoyed this immensely even though I had no idea about the original myth of the river Ganga.

TW for child loss, child death and violence against women. please proceed with caution if any of those topics are triggering to you as they are explained in detail!

thank you to orbit/redhook and netgalley for the arc for my review!!

Just like with Kaikeyi, retelling an Indian epic — the Mahabharata in this case — must be an incredibly difficult undertaking. Yet, Vaishnavi Patel manages to do so with lots of grace and beauty. Though traditionally, the story always starts with the Pandavas and the Kauravas, her tale begins with the story of Ganga, who (if you think about it) really is the start of everything.

Moral and ethical ambiguities that lie within the Mahabharata are brought to the forefront in this book, from the perspective of Ganga. Doing so not only shines a light on the contradictions of humanity (doing what is right vs doing what is expected of you) but also lends a feminist lens to the discussion. The latter is sorely missing from Hindu mythological text, which relies strongly on male-dominated ideals at the expense of women, and makes this retelling that much more compelling.

The lyrical storytelling from the perspective of both Ganga and Bhishma was interesting. Bhishma’s constant righteousness was very tiring at times but I also appreciate that Ganga’s love for her son led her to point out the conundrums that his righteousness brought to the story time and again. I enjoyed Kaikeyi a lot, and this book is a close second in mythological retellings for me. Looking forward to seeing what — if anything — changes in the final copy!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Kaikeyi was one of my favorite books of 2022 so I was excited to dive into Goddess of the River. As always Vaishnavi Patel excels in her prose and ability to spin new life into a classic mythological retelling. Patels ability to write Gangas nonhuman perspective was remarkable, and very well my favorite part of the novel. I will say this was not a quick read for me. I flew through the first third of the book, but then began to slow down when it came to all the time jumps. This story could also benefit from a family tree or some sort of reference because there are many characters to keep track of.

Overall, a wonderful retelling that I would highly recommend to mythology lovers.

A beautiful, full story for what has otherwise been a side story in the Mahabharata. What does a goddess do when both separate from the cosmic realm and not entirely apart from humanity? I loved Ganga and I love this story.

Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel is a mesmerizing retelling of the story of Ganga, the goddess of the river, and her cursed mortal son, prince Devavrata.

Ganga, enjoys her peaceful existence as the goddess of the river. She spends her days watching over the mischievous godlings that reside along her banks.

A powerful sage curses Ganga, binding her to a moral body until she fulfills the obligations of the curse. Why, you ask?? You're gonna have to read to find out because there is more to this that is initially shown, and I don't want to ruin the story!

King Shantanu happens upon Ganga in her new human form and is drawn to her. He makes her his queen, under the condition that he can not ask her any questions. Ganga sets out in this new life, determined to fufill the curse's obligations and regain her freedom.

Together they have a son, prince Devavrata, who unknowingly inherits his mother's curse. He makes an oath that he will never claim his father’s throne, but his actions set his kingdom on the path of a brutal war.

I have to admit that when I saw the author's name, Vaishnavi Patel, I couldn't request this book fast enough. I adored her first book, Kaikeyi, and recommended it to all my book people. Sooooo, seeing she wrote a second book, I was thrilled! I'm happy to report that Goddess of the River didn't disappoint! I loved it and hope you will too, go read it!

Although separated when Devavrata was very young, mother and son are drawn together over and over throughout the years. This tragic yet beautiful tale, shows the power of destiny and the strength of the maternal bond.

Thank you #NetGalley, Redhook Books, and Vaishnavi Patel, for early access to read Goddess of the River in exchange for an honest review. I sincerely loved it and I'm looking forward to her next book!

BOY OH BOY DO I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!! let us buckle up!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK SO PLEASE PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

goddess of the river is a retelling of the epic of mahabharata from the point of view of the goddess ganga and her son bhishma. what instantly attracted me to this was the choice of characters. ganga is a very peripheral part of this epic in the sense that she only appears right at the start of the epic. she's extremely important to start the story, because it starts from her, but after that... she doesn't really have any role in what is happening. so, telling the story with her as the center was a very interesting choice and i was immediately intrigued.

i have to commend the author on trying to tackle this epic. it's like a ganzabillion words long and the author has provided a pretty decent summary of events in some 400-500 odd pages. the writing is impeccable. i have no notes there. it kept me engaged right till the end of the story. it's very binge-able and i was up till like 2am reading this when i had to wake up at 6am the next day. but, that's about the only good thing about this book. the writing. patel is a gifted writer, and i do commend that, but i have a lot of issues with how this retelling was handled.

as someone who has grown up listening to this story being told and retold in various versions by everyone around me, i know that there are many iterations of the same events, and of course, as a retelling, it makes sense that patel would choose to tweak some events to better suit the story. however, there are some things that are the very essence of this story, and to change those, is a disservice to the original.

starting right from the beginning, according to this retelling, shiva took control of ganga, as she fell on to the earth in the form of a river, against her will, because he was afraid that she would destroy all mankind. that is incorrect. it was ganga who had approached shiva and asked for assistance, which he was happy to provide. this story paints him in an unnecessarily bad light. there was absolutely no reason to do this. the story would have worked just as well if it was shown that ganga asked shiva for help. the captivity only made ganga resent shiva and nothing else. it didn't add to any other aspect of the story.

the second instance that the author changed was that when all the kings were invited to indraprastha for the coronation of yudhishtira, it was duryodhana who had fallen into the water, misled by the illusions in the palace. the author changed that to karna for seemingly no reason. also, can't it be argued that this incident, coupled with draupadi's insult of calling duryodhana the blind son of a blind father and laughing at him caused duryodhana to call for the dice game in retaliation?

it can be agreed that the dice game was the lynchpin that started the domino effect of the kurukshetra war. yudhishtir, who was addicted to gambling, fell prey to duryodhana and his uncle, shakuni's, schemes, and lost everything, pledging himself, his brothers, and his wife in the game. when draupadi was insulted in front of the entire court with the vastra-haran (disrobement) after being dragged there with her hair, she swore revenge on the kauravas, right there. and yet, in this retelling, draupadi is shown to be a meek woman whose freedom is gifted to her by the blind king, dhrithrashtra. she takes this grave insult to her person quietly, when in the original, she was a blazing inferno, and it was her, who inevitably foretold the end of the kauravas with her promise of revenge. in my opinion, this was the absolute worst thing that could've been done to any retelling of the epic. boxing draupadi into this acceptable woman is unacceptable. after this happened, i was in half a mind to dnf this book right then, but i did not, idk even why at this point.

also, maybe this is just a me thing and no one else has an issue with it, but that's not how bhishma died. he was not hit by just one arrow. arjuna created a whole bed of arrows that went through bhishma's body to kill him. bhishma had the boon of choosing his own death, and so, he refused to die till the end of the war, and he stayed there on the battlefield on his bed of arrows, watching the entire war play out. there is absolutely no mention of this boon anywhere in the story and that's so weird seeing as bhishma is one of the two central characters of the story.

these are a few specific things that i had issues with, but moving on to some general things that i didn't like ---

the author spent a good third of the book on only the beginning of the mahabharata and the birth of devavratha, who would later become bhishma. while i do understand that this is the part of the story where ganga is most prominent, and it makes sense to spend some time on it, it ate into the rest of the story and a lot of plot points were speedrun to be accommodated.

the mahabharata is an epic with the most gray characters. every single character has their flaws, which are put on display for the reader. what irked me was that the author had a great chance to explore the unrighteousness of the pandava brothers, but didn't. there were moments where duryodhana would make comments which would very much be true, but other than those throwaway remarks, the pandavas were shown in a good light when they were not always right. any time a character questioned the actions of the pandavas, they were given the same "but they're righteous" response which was annoying. i can understand that the author maybe didn't want to critique them for various reasons, but then those conversations shouldn't have been given page time. if they were there, they should have been dealt with properly.

there was a lot of jumping in between timelines which took a little time getting used to, but wasn't as big an issue as anything else i stated.


tl,dr : well written story with poor execution imo.

The story of Ganga is an epic tale. Spanning a long time. Well worth reading for fans of mythology! I did not think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It reads like an epic and can seem long in parts but the finale is worth the read!

I loved this book so much! It is a retelling of the Mahabharata, which I was not familiar with, however, I do know retellings can be difficult but Patel delivered this with such grace and beauty! Her writing style is impeccable for a story as beautiful as this one, and she executed it perfectly! It's a story of humanity, oath and obligations, duty, and love. I really enjoyed watching Gangas's growth throughout this book. 5 stars, hands down!

Thank you to NetGalley, Redhook Books, and Vaishnavi Patel for this wonderful ARC!

4.5 stars

I’ve been clamoring for more of Patel’s work since reading Kaikeyi, and her newest book certainly doesn’t disappoint. Goddess of the River is a retelling of the Mahabharata told from the dual perspectives of the river goddess Ganga and her son Devavrata. Patel’s ability to write from a nonhuman perspective was truly remarkable, and Ganga’s musings on human nature are both incisive and beautifully curious. There’s also gorgeous prose, intricately complex characters, and endless scope for analysis of morality, ethics, and justice. Throughout the story we see each character make egregious mistakes and see the echoes of those mistakes leading to conflict decades later; it’s made so clear that a decision made when one is young for what seems like the right reasons can be see in hindsight as a grave misdeed made for bad reasons.
My absolute favorite parts of this book were all from Ganga’s perspective. Just reading her origin story and her relationship to the natural world was an incredible experience thanks to Patel’s mastery of description. Her curse and her time as a human were absolutely fascinating and a great way to explore her character in the context of the mortal experience, during which she is forced to make unimaginable sacrifices over and over again before being returned to her river. My one (small) critique would be that a lot of the stories regarding human politics were less enjoyable and fell a little flat in comparison to how well-rendered the stories of the immortals were, but still a stunning read overall. Highly recommend!

Wow, what a beautiful second book! 📚😍 I loved this almost as much as Kaikeyi. I found Kaikeyi more compelling than Ganga; in some ways Ganga seemed overshadowed by Bhishma for me and I was left wanting more Ganga. All that to say though it is a lovely book that I devoured!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you Hachette Book Group for this ARC

There is a content warning for this book and review— infanticide is mentioned.

This book was so interesting in the many topics it touched on and again was a story within the story. The Goddess of the River is the story of Ganga, the river goddess and her time as a mortal due to a curse, and the growth and development she goes through as she has a mortal child. This is all within the story of the Mahabharata, and the war that leads to Arjun and Krishna debating about fighting.

It was a story about mothers and sons, about caste, infanticide, women’s subjugation and “duties” the impact snd lead up to (mens)war and the honor they supposedly strive for, while simultaneously doing cruel and immoral acts in the name of so-called honor.

I enjoyed reading this, although it would have been helpful to have a character tree to see who was related to whom when it came to the two different branches of the royal family and their in/fighting, but since this was the ARC (provided by NetGalley) I figure there might be one in the final version, but that did not impact my rating.

Ganga is a river goddess. Along her shores, she takes care of the godlings who play and cause mischief. These godlings, however, anger a human sage, and as a form of retribution, Ganga is cursed to take the form of a human woman. Ganga is wed to a king to bear his heirs, which is part of Ganga’s curse. Determined to regain her former life as a formless river goddess, Ganga will stop at nothing to fulfill her obligations. However, Ganga’s fate twists within sight of her freedom, and she’s forced to leave her newborn son in the hands of the king.
Unaware of his mother’s curse, this son bears the fallout of the curse his whole life. To please his father, he makes an oath never to claim the throne, causing a series of events leading to a deadly and dramatic war. Initially, I didn’t love this story, but I think because Vaishnavi Patel’s writing is so good, you need to sit with it for a while to appreciate it fully.

Thank you Netgalley for this eARC!

The striking cover for this book immediately captured my attention. Thanks to @netgalley and @orbitbooks_us I was able to read @vaishnawrites newest book a couple months early.
I adore retellings of old legends about the Gods and this is a reimagined telling of the Ganga goddess of the river. I went in completely blind as I don’t know that story, there is a good piece of information at the start of the book outlining where the legend comes from and citing material where you can seek out the original if you wish. I wanted to go in blind and I am so glad I did.
It did take me a second to get into the rhythm of the story but once it clicked I was hooked.
The Goddess Ganga comes down from the heavens to earth but is captured and tied to the river by Shiva. She is now bound to the earth and it’s mortals forever. When she births a half mortal child she wants him to remember his divinity and not fall for the petty pitfalls the mortals wrap themselves up in. Bound to the river she can only watch as humanity steers itself closer to death and destruction, with her son perilously close to the center of events.
This scope of themes and characters and events covered is so vast. This is definitely the kind of book that I want to reread in a bit, as much as I enjoyed it the first time around I know I would love it even more the second.
If goddess and the retelling of their stories are your kind of book, look for this one May 23, 2024
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DNF at 68%

I wanted to love this book, and I did, but just the first 1/3. After that, the book is full of time jumps that were hard to follow. At times, I felt like I was understanding where the story was going, to then be ripped back or forward to "some years before the war." And being confused all over again.

I, like many people LOVED Vaishnavi Patel's first book Kaikeyi, I rushed to request Goddess of the River, I'd been looking forward to this book since she announced it months ago. So I'm bummed this book doesn't work for me, but I must say it's beautifully written, just as her first book. And I look forward to her next! Thank you NetGalley and Redhook Books for the eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbjt for the arc! I wish I loved this, or even liked it, but overall it was just fine, and with some issues. I don’t know the original tale that this book retells, but frankly it would have been better if everyone died, and if everyone died in the war, the story would have had much more purpose than it did. The fates of these characters were all unsatisfying. Also, I don’t think I liked a single character, save Shiva.
Furthermore, the book dragged in the middle, and through much of the war. What’s keeping me from dragging the rating down further, however, is the prose, and the beginning of the book. The first 1/3 of this book was lovely. The last page was also lovely, but still, couldn’t do much except change my dislike to indifference.

Another brilliant retelling from Vaishnavi Patel. I was a huge fan of Kaikeyi so I was definitely majorly hyped for this book and I wasn't disappointed for a second. This book captivated me and held me from start to finish. I adored the portrayal of the Goddess of the River, Ganga, and her consciousness that flowed through the narratives and decades just in the way you'd imagine a river deity to do. Vaishnavi Patel has such a gift for writing about motherhood, and all the heartache and ensuring love that comes with it.

As I've said before, I'll say again. I'll read every single thing written by this author. Easily the best book I've read in 2024 so far.

Rating: 4.25 stars

What a beautiful examination of humanity, motherhood, dharma, and good vs evil.

Patel continues to cement herself as an auto-buy author for me. I absolutely loved Kaikeyi and The Goddess of the River is another beautiful retelling from a female ‘side-character’ perspective.

The writing is gorgeous and Patel’s characterization of Ganga was amazing. I loved how creatively the story was told through the perspective of the river – which should be limiting to the narrative, but here is pulled off flawlessly.

Towards the middle, I was confused keeping track of the names and the time jumps. I think having more familiarity with The Mahabharata would have helped. However, by the end I was better able to grasp the story and the main players in the conflict. It is amazing how Patel was able to condense this huge epic into one standalone novel.

I look forward to continuing to learn about The Mahabharata and cannot wait for whatever comes next from Vaishnavi Patel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for the ARC

I received an ARC from NetGalley
I am torn with how to rate this but I’ll do 3.5 rounded up to 4. I wanted to love this story but I didn’t. As someone not familiar with these stories I did find the book long with a lot of characters. I honestly couldn’t keep up with all the characters. At times I wished this was broken up into 2 books instead of one. Nonetheless the story is beautifully written. If you’re fan of retellings and/or Mahabharata, this is the book for you.
Thank you NetGalley for the e-book

Favorite Quote: I did not know when humans pray for nature, they pray for something to control.

Story Synopsis: Ganga is a happy, playful river goddess. Along her shores, she takes care of the godlings who play and cause mischief. These godlings, however, anger a human sage, and as a form of retribution, Ganga is cursed to take the form of a human woman.

Through the sage’s machinations, Ganga is wed to a king to bear his heirs, which is part of Ganga’s curse. Determined to regain her former life as a formless river goddess, Ganga will stop at nothing to fulfill her obligations. However, Ganga’s fate twists within sight of her freedom, and she’s forced to leave her newborn son in the hands of the king.

Unaware of his mother’s curse, this son bears the fallout of the curse his whole life. To please his father, he makes an oath never to claim the throne, causing a series of events leading to a deadly and dramatic war. Throughout this story, mother and son ebb and flow in one another’s life around duty, destiny, and family.

Why does this book beguile? I was thrilled to receive Goddess of the River as an advanced reader copy. I adored Kaikeyi and knew another Hindu retelling would be incredible. The writing is incredible and beautifully done.

However, I feel conflicted.

I felt a disconnect from Ganga - I didn’t relate to her the way I wanted to relate to her, but in thinking about this, I believe that’s a testament to the author’s writing. Part of the point of this novel is that the gods are different from humans. How they empathize and experience human emotions differs because they aren’t human. While Ganga spent a brief period as a human, she never fully became human.

Initially, I didn’t love this story (especially as much as Kaikeyi), but I think because Vaishnavi Patel’s writing is so good, you need to sit with it for a while to appreciate it fully.