This was so beautiful written, almost poetic. I cannot critique the story at all as I have no prior knowledge of the original story. It was such a unique story and writing style I’ve never read anything like it. It took me a bit to get through being a heavier story I felt like I could only read a chapters or two at a time.

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook for the ARC!

I love anything and everything this author does. I am disappointed that she receives so much hate from her own community for retelling any part of her religion and nation, where it makes it MORE accessible to non-indians.

Goddess of the River is a sweeping tale with lush prose that follows the River Ganga and her son. While I did not initially read the myth prior to reading the book, I enjoyed being swept up like the river's current as I read the compelling and sometimes heartbreaking narratives within this myth retelling. Patel's writing is one of investment: the beginning is a little slower, but this intentional pacing has significant payoff as the tale continues, and we get to see the various characters develop alongside one another. This book tackles a large scope, and delivers in the political schema and character relationships. Please be aware there is infanticide in the beginning of this novel. Patel is very mindful and lets readers know about this in the beginning of the novel. If this is something that might be challenging to read, skip ahead as Patel notes.

Mahabharat is a huge gigantic epic scripture with such convoluted complex subplots and philosophies woven that even retelling of a single piece of it is an immense task. Attempting to decode the thoughts behind an important character like Devavrata which eventually decide the fate of the their entire lineage is an absolute curious topic. I did not like some words/phrases that were used to convey but I guess as a modern retelling, that needs to be accepted. We have always seen more importance given to other characters nut no Ganga so this focusing on Ganga was very satisfying. The trigger warnings need to be heeded but also they need to be understood in a different world altogether as demigods, they are not simple mortals like us. It again ends with readers questioning on righteousness and interesting thought processes of different characters.

This is a retelling of the story of goddess Ganga and her son from the Indian epic - the Mahabharata. Ganga (the Ganges River), the river goddess is cursed and becomes a mortal until such time when she is released from her curse. She marries King Shantanu of Hastanipura and Devavrata (Bhishma) is their son, who takes an oath which unwittingly leads to the inevitable civil war between the Kauravas and Pandavas. This was an interesting, and at times, difficult to follow because of the number of characters and the timelines. If I wasn’t a bit familiar with the story of the Mahabharata, I think I would have been quite lost! I liked the portrayal of the relationship between Ganga and her son. I thought the author did a nice job of presenting Bhimsa’s anguish and his conflicted mindset - keep his oath and know that he would be on the losing side of righteousness or break his oath and follow the path of righteousness. I enjoyed the author’s first book Kaikeyi a tad better. I like that with her books the author is bringing stories from the Indian epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata - to readers around the world. Overall I gave this book a 3.5 rating rounded up to 4. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

(3.5/5 stars) Goddess of the River is a retelling of the Mahabharata that reimagines the story of Ganga, the goddess of the river, and her mortal son. I thought this book dragged a bit in the middle but the beginning and end of it were compelling. I deeply felt the connection between mother and son, and the philosophical themes (especially duty vs justice) will stick with me. I have not read the Mahabharata, but after Kaikeyi I trusted Patel to take me on this journey and was not disappointed.

Vaishnavi Patel's writing works SO well for mythology. I truly feel like I'm listening to someone telling me a story in the best way possible. I absolutely adored the first half of this book, and a lot of my struggles with the second half were much more my personal issues than Patel's.

I haven't heard the entirety of the myth this book was based on, but I had read another book that was a retelling of it. This myth is FULL of stories and characters, and Goddess was much more on the side of this story, which the author acknowledges. This means that in the last half/third, there are numerous characters randomly dropped into the story that are not fully fleshed out our explained. I didn't have that much trouble following them, as I had recognized some of them from other stories. But Patel's focus on Ganga and her son could make this a bit more confusing for the reader. Further, the last third gets a bit confusing with wars and battles happening that do not necessarily have a large impact on the main characters, but are important for the overall plot.

This all being said, Patel's tone and writing is so beautiful, and I was absolutely enamored with the first half. I'm going to be reading anything Patel publishes!

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Goddess of the River is a mythological retelling of the Mahabharata, following Ganga and one of her sons. Vaishnavi Patel is a fantastic writer, and I was so excited to read this after loving Kaikeyi. I loved the beginning and the introduction of how Ganga becomes mortal. As the story developed, there was more focus on the war and secondary characters than I expected. I loved the chapters told from Ganga's POV, but I felt disconnected from her son and his dealings with the war. Overall I enjoyed learning about Ganga and look forward to any future works by Vaishnavi Patel.

I received an ARC from Redhook Books | Redhook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ganga is a goddess who gets her first taste of humanity when she is cursed to live as a human for a period of time. And upon her return to goddess life, she watches and is confounded by her son's struggles with the burdens of humanity from afar with only intermittent contact. And as a period-defining great war brews, Bhishma's oaths force him to contend with his actions that have been to the service of a country, but perhaps not justice. Ganga and Bhishma both struggle with the consequences of their actions taken and not taken as the world turns to war.

This book is great! It's a retelling of the Hindu and/or Indian epic Mahabharat but from the perspectives of Ganga and her song Bhishma. While Bhishma has a pretty big role in the original, neither are the protagonists. I don't typically love retellings, but for me it is always nice to see something I grew up with reflected in the genre.

I think this works really well because Ganga's perspective is mostly of an outsider who has some personal attachments. Her perspective as a being outside of time adds a lot to viewing the story with a more critical eye, one where a war could've been prevented. Patel writes to the complexity of mothers and women in this patriarchal society super well.

Having the dual POV with Bhishma contrasts really well with the perspective of a goddess, as he is enmeshed in the human conflict and torn by duty. Super well done, and I think people new to the Mahabharat get a great flavor of the story! Highly highly recommend!!

Thank you to Netgalley, Vaishnavi Patel, and Hachette US for the advanced copy.

Just wow! Goddes off the river is amazing. This is my first read by the this author. Vaishnavi Patel’s writing is truly beautiful and took me on an emotional journey throughout the story. The different story lines flowed seamlessly together and was able to give me more insight into the story being told. I don’t have much knowledge on the Indian culture to judge the book on the accuracy of what is being told, I can only judge based on the story alone. The story is so captivating and the author had me pulled in from beginning to end. You experience the sorrow and emotions of womanhood, motherhood, and the depths of loss and strength one sometimes endures. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to be taken on a beautiful journey. 10/10

Goddess of the River is not what you might expect for an adult fantasy. While it does have action and war, and romance of a kind, it is hard to compare within the standard expectations the genre. Marketed as a "retelling" of the Hindu Mahabharata, we see many of the events that take place in that text from the imagined perspective of The River Goddess Ganges. In many ways this reminded me of Madeline Miller's Circe, putting a minor female character at the center of the story through a feminist lens. But unlike the Odyssey that I was very familiar with, I found myself doing a lot of googling to understand what the Mahabharata was about and the main episodes of the classic piece. For me this was a great opportunity to learn more about a tradition I was unfamiliar with while also appreciating the feminist take Patel presented. It really was a beautiful story of the cost of war and a philosophical interrogation of who suffers when "gods" go to war and for what end? While I was not very invested in the story of the main character's son, (the majority of which occurs in the second half of the novel, I still felt for Ganges as a mother.

Overall this was an educational and fascinating read the pulled me into the story and the culture which giving me big ideas to think about. I have now added Kailkeyi to my TBR as I definitely want to read more from this author!

Goddess of the River is beautiful, haunting, and brilliant. Vaishnavi Patel's expert retelling of the Mahabharata was incredibly touching and human -- despite the divine central to the story. An incredible tale told with deep research and a lot of care. I will follow Patel to the ends of this earth for Goddess and Kaikeyi -- and whatever comes next.

I really enjoyed this!! It was so interesting reading from the perspective of a goddess, rather than a human like a lot of fantasy books. The imagery was beautiful, and even though I’m not a mother myself the pain our main character struggled through was palpable.
My only issue was it was difficult for me to keep track of who everyone was to each other just because there was a lot of side characters you didn’t really get enough info to connect to. But I think that will be resolved in the published copy because it looked like there was going to be a bloodline table. The ending tied everything up really well and left me very happy to have read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: May 21, 2024

Another wonderful book by Vaishnavi Patel. I know very little to nothing of Indian mythology but I love learning about it through her books. Her writing style really pulls me in and she has such beautiful descriptions. If you like mythology retellings I definitely recommend picking this up!

Goddess of the River is a lush retelling of Ganga and her son Devavratra.

I haven't read much Indian myth and folklore but it has been an interest of mine and I'm so glad to have been able to read this. Patel creates such beautiful worlds and I really loved that this felt so steeped in reality while also being a fantasy book. The emotions and trials were so palpable it was hard not to be completely swept up.

Patel's storytellng abilities are fantastic, if you loved Song of Achilles this is in a similar vein of immaculate storytelling of a known myth. It is a story of curses, war, motherhood and duty. I loved it and recommend it to anyone who loves a great mythology story!

Thanks to Redhook Books, NetGalley, and Vaishnavi Patal for the opportunity to read Goddess of the River. This was a wonderful reimagining of the story of Ganga Goddess of the River and her doomed mortal son, Devarata. It is a wonderful tale of duty, destiny and the bond between mother and son.
She is cursed to become mortal and while mortal she becomes a queen. The whole time she tries to find a way to break the curse and when she finally does fate plays another cruel trick and she finds she has to leave her son behind. Initially the King allows their son to visit her once a month but soon he wants to stop that and she has to take drastic action. But in the end she realizes her son is better off with his father for awhile and so she doesn’t see him for years.
Her son makes an oath as an adult that he doesn’t want to take his father’s throne and by doing this he sets off a chain of events that leads to war. On the positive side he is reunited with his mother and their story comes full circle.
Without giving anything else away I really enjoyed this book. The story was written so beautifully and I was swept up in the beautiful imagery. It is such a wonderful story that I highly recommend it.

An ambitious sophomore book from Patel, focusing on Ganga's role in the events of the Mahabharata. It's a power play between characters and a tale of motherhood. It loses itself a little when it tries to encompass the scale of the original epic, and shines best when focusing on Ganga's interpersonal relationships.

I enjoyed Goddess of the River, but I also suspect it's one I'll enjoy more on a reread. I'm less familiar with the Mahabharata than other South Asian epics (though likely more familiar than most western readers) and think that the book becomes harder to track character-wise as the Pandavas are introduced. Patel has beautiful prose, though, and switching to an audiobook narration for the last 30% of the book was a delight. I find that I always prefer listening to epic tales.

Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel is a retelling of the Indian epic Mahabharatha, but from the perspective of Ganga, who started it all or did she?

I am a huge Mahabharatha buff. I like stories and retelling of this epic, especially from the perspective of the women who saw it all, lived it, and suffered it all. I was looking forward to reading this book, and it delivered on all counts. Ganga, though a Goddess has to live in the mortal world and hence just like a river that she is, has to go through the ebbs and flows. For the unversed, this can be a crash course of the epic.

This is specifically for the author @vaishnawrites , if she reads the review. Thank you for honoring our Indian epics in the saturated world of Greek retellings. Authors like you keep these jewels shining bright for readers like me who want to read more of Ramayana and Mahabharatha, especially from the perspective of the women. Looking forward to reading more from you. P.S. I hope you remember that I was the one who gave you your first special edition book 🫠😉

Thank you, Redhook Books/Orbit Books @redhookbooks @orbitbooks, for this book.

Having ranked Kaikeyi among my favorite myth retellings, I was beyond excited to dive into Patel's second book, Goddess of the River. With similar feminist themes and beautiful prose as her debut, Patel now turns her eye to the Mahabharata and Ganga, the goddess of the river Ganges. Having not read the Mahabharata, I can't confess if it's faithful to it, but I can say that I'm beyond impressed with how Patel brought Ganga's story to life.

From the first page to the end of Part 2, I was so absorbed in her journey and I love how her narrative feels as flowing as the river and yet as stubbornly fixed as its course. I really felt for Ganga and the choices that she had to make, and how she did the best that she could within the patriarchal constraints that her fellow gods and humans placed upon her. It was feminist in a way that never felt forced, and Patel's prose is simply a dream to read.

I think for me, though, I didn't love the addition of Bhishma's chapters. Told in a third person point of view several decades away from Ganga's narrative, they were a rather abrupt surprise halfway through the book. I think it's the blend of third person and first that was so jarring for me. I definitely appreciate what Patel was doing (it becomes very apparent at the beginning of Part 4 that Bhishma's chapters are vital to gain the true scope of the war), but it didn't quite work for this particular reader.

Even so, I'm still marking Patel as an auto-buy author! What she's doing for myth retellings is simply spectacular.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Redhook Books, and Vaishnavi Patel for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to Redhook Books & Netgalley for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review. Although I did not love this book as much as Kaikeyi - I found it a bit slower and harder to immerse myself into - it was still wonderful. Patel's writing is so ethereal and dreamlike. Definitely check this one out if you like myth re-imaginings.