I've eagerly jumped at the chance to read any of Vaishnavi Patel's earlier works (Kaikeyi, Goddess of the River) and that was certainly the case with "Ten Incarnations of Rebellion". In her latest work, Patel takes us on a journey to a reimagined historical India, one where the British have been more successful in their colonization efforts and have taken a stronghold in Kingston, a city rebuilt in place of Bombay. This is the life that most Indian citizens know, including Kalki Divekar, a young woman who's grown up with with just her mother, and the shadow of her father presumed dead due to his involvement with the rebel forces.

Kalki has long held reservations against the imperial rule that's subjugated her country, but begins to initiate the starting efforts of rebellion between her group of friends, Yashu and Fauzia, and the women begin to slowly pull in others like them to form their own chapter of the ILM, or Indian Liberation Movement. Though small, the group utilizes their access at their respective government and corporate jobs to glean information to chip away at the efforts of the British government. The chapters that follow detail not only the group's successes, but each character's personal growth, the challenges and unavoidable losses of rebellion, all juxtaposed with snippets of Hindu mythology that mirror the protagonists' challenges.

From the first few pages, I was immediately pulled into this world that Patel crafted, and her cast of strong, fierce, and beautifully flawed female characters; the evolving and complex friendship and love between them was one of the highlights of this novel for me. I appreciated as well the focus on the many forms of rebellion and resistance - some more subtle than others - but all key in opposing an unjust and corrupt system. While set in an hypothetical historical Indian, the veering from reality is not that far and the message of colonization and civilian suppression are just as resonant today.

Very much a recommended read when "Ten Incarnations of Rebellion" is published in June 2025!

2.5 stars for me.
Set in an alternate timeline 1960's where India remains under British rule, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion tells the story of Kalki, a young woman who organizes her compatriots to secretly and subversively fight the British occupation of Bombay.
Kalki was single-minded in her anger and rebellion which felt very true for a young woman whose father had to flee when she was a young girl. I actually preferred some of the more level-headed characters and they were essential to the story (particularly because Kalki would have gotten herself arrested or killed without cooler heads prevailing).

Yet another book I wondered about reading and once again made the right choice to do so. Despite the fact it’s about liberating India, and specifically the town of Kingston (formerly Bombay before it had a chance to become Mumbai) from the British rule in a 1960s India that hadn’t regained its independence in 1947, it still felt very Nowtro. Possibly even prophetic.

The characters feel very real, especially the main character, Kalki, and I like the way Patel wove the Dashavatara, the ten avatars of Vishnu, into the story. I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending is very satisfactory. Definitely a book to be read during these troubled times.

Vaishnavi has done it again. But this one is different - with so much history packed in and so much to consider around colonialism, this book was powerful and Kalki stood out as a character long after I closed the book.

Ten Incarnations of Rebellion is a good book overall, though I wish I enjoyed it more as a result of my few caveats with it.

In a speculative history where Britain still reigns over India until the 60s, Patel reimagines the struggle for independence, competing methods and approaches towards that goal, while also including real forms of repression by the British on local populations.

While I appreciate the good intention behind the novel, however, I personally could not connect to the characters and instead feel detached from many of them despite the myriad of traumatic events and emotional moments that happen throughout. Rhe book also reads as surprisingly juvenile for its subject matter, while also being quite narrow in its scope of examination on various issues.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this book was okay at best for me. It took me so long to get through and it could never keep me hooked longer than 10 pages. There were twists near the end that grabbed my attention but those were the only parts that I was actually interested in. However, I liked the characters. Kalki was so complex and I loved how she was portrayed throughout the years. I also did like reading about how long it realistically took to win independence. Frankly, this is a book that was just not for me, but if you are someone who enjoys Indian history and rebellions, I think you would enjoy this!

3.5 stars, rounded up.

I liked the concept of this book much more than I enjoyed the final product. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a strong book - I enjoyed the main character, Kalki's growth over the course of the story and the author took pains to highlight the various oppressions that come under colonization. I appreciated the fact that the author also pointed out how India was already divided before the British came in, over religion, region, and especially caste, and how those divisions were played on to keep people fighting against one another instead of the British.

However, I did not think that conceit of linking each chapter to an avatar of Vishnu worked well. Some chapters linked together better than others (for example, Parashurama's chapter made perfect sense to me; Matsya, not so much). I think I would have preferred a more straightforward narrative following Kalki and the growth and expansion of the ILM over what felt like a forced connection to the stories of each avatar. As it was, I was distracted each chapter trying to figure out how the events of the chapter linked to that particular avatar and I think that detracted from my experience of the book as a whole.

I did appreciate the backmatter - both the author's personal connection to India's freedom struggle and the many resources that were included in the bibliography.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy.

This book grabbed my attention just by the title alone but the content within are written in a way that I found unfortunately dull. I do love the concepts and themes the story is exploring and the way Patel choose to split and start each chapter of the book but those things alone weren't able to hook or got my investment. I also found our main character and voice lacking (not necessarily in what she believes in and is fighting for but her ability to get me as a reader to care), in here Patel writing in general did not have that compelling-ness to it unlike her other books. It is by no mean a bad book, perhaps just not the one for me.

While I enjoyed the idea of this story I don't think I was the correct audience. There was just so much to cover in this story that it became a list at times and a slog to get though. I would have much rather had the main character show us and experienced those times with her then just listened to the list of actions. I did really enjoy the stong female lead, her passion and intelligence is shown and lovely. I did also enjoy the setting, an alternative and interesting take on the 1960's India. I think if I had been more informed before reading this I might have been a better reader for the contect of the stroy. That is on me.

This is an alternate history set in India. It is the 1960s and the Indian independence hasn't happened yet. A set of female friends from differing backgrounds work together to start a resistance organization which had previously been run by a previous (male) generation.

I think the author does a great job of incorporating the various cultures and their beliefs into the story. The backgrounds of the girls themselves, not being uniform, also enhances the story, as they all have different goals and experiences. The author also does a good job of showing how the narrative is altered depending upon who is in power. The ruling party can tell the story they want in order to influence outcomes. They cause the different classes to fight amongst themselves in order to distract the non-ruling classes from focusing their attentions on them.

I highly recommend this.

Ten incarnations... is an absolutely stunning book. Once again Vaishnavi Patel has does such a beautiful job of retelling Indian stories. this particular book does a wonderful job in weaving stories about colonialism and somehow still being able to point towards many conflicts in the modern world. I enjoyed that it was exceptionally well researched and spoke of India and Hinduism with real love and passion while not being afraid to shine a light on some of it's darker aspects. Vaishnavi's commitment to caste equity in her books gives me so much joy and inspires hope for an India that I hope to see eventually. Thank you for this arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine for an ARC of this wonderful book for review.

The author took inspiration from the Ten Avatars of Vishnu and wrote this story of an alternate reality as if India didn’t gain its independence back in 1947. The beginning of the story was set in the 1960s and we follow the main character and her allies for a number of years.

This non-independence for India in the 1940s made for interesting reading in a couple of ways. One, the characters who were front and center were normal young women who stepped up to fight for freedom from their oppressors. The author didn’t spare any detail on just how cruel an occupying force can be on the citizens of the country they are subjugating. Some of the scenes were brutal and heart-wrenching.

Most of the young men of the fictionalized town in the story were sent off to fight in a war that they weren’t responsible for making. They were basically the bodies needed to engage the enemy and had no choice as they were drafted.

The women of the town stepped up even more once the men were gone and waged their own war against the government occupation.
One of the things I enjoyed a lot about the story was learning more about the Ten Avatars of Vishnu. The author was very skillful in how she wove them into each of the chapters of the book. The action in the chapters were each tied to one of the incarnations and each chapter ended with a tale of a certain avatar. There were ten chapters representing the ten avatars. The tie in stories of Vishnu added so much flavor to the story. A very clever way to tell the tale. Each of them taught lessons that we can all learn from such as compassion, courage, and justice. I especially enjoyed that the main character’s name was tied so closely to one of the avatars. Again, very clever.

I admit I didn’t know much about all the avatars of Vishnu when I started reading and this book really taught me about them in a way that was easy to read and comprehend. I found myself doing research to refine what I was learning in the book. I love learning about the culture of India and find myself reading a number of fiction tales set in that region as they are interesting and enlightening.
This one gets five stars from me for the adventure, alternate history with women at the forefront and for the lessons learned about the Hindu religion.

This was ambitious in a way that covered up any missteps. I have not read anything like this before and while I think there were some holes in the plot in terms of character development I was so enthralled that I just kept going. Brilliant and beautifully paced!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Boks for an advanced copy of Ten Incarnations of Rebellion. This was my first novel by Vaishnavi Patel, and I enjoyed the idea of an alternate version of India during the 1960's. I love a novel with powerful and smart women who challenge their oppressors and finds ways to bring about independence and freedom.

This was a fascinating read. While I know very little about India’s freedom it was a unique perspective to learn about through. I loved Kalki as a character and her progression throughout all that occurred. This is a sad book however with so much loss and sacrifice. In the end you are left with some hope. The writing is beautiful and I liked the idea of the different stories being the incarnations of rebellion. Overall I enjoyed.

This is one of those books whose idea I think outstrips the execution.

The ideas are absolutely crucial for understanding the stresses and anguish of colonialism and its fallout, as it impacts the evolution of history. At heart, it looks at India's independence, and the terrible cost, the focus being on the twentieth century--a blip in India's long, fascinating history.

A strong aspect of the book is the way the author works in regional mythology, which renders emotional texture to the layers of the historical record. However, the characters tended toward the standard, and the writing, though passionate, often read as a first draft, with a lot more summation than is effective.

Still, it's very much worth adding to other books by Indian writers who write about Indian history and experience for those who read in English

I loved the idea of this book, it uses the alternate India perfectly to tell the story and had that element that I was looking for. I was engaged with the plot of the book and was everything that I wanted and enjoyed. Vaishnavi Patel wrote this well and was able to use the historical element in a unique way and was invested in what was going on.

I cried.

There was an element of "telling not showing" to the prose, but it worked for me because it felt like -storytelling-, like I was sitting in front of Vaishnavi Patel while she wove this epic. We're told the story of Kalki's life and how it parallels the Dashavatara, the ten incarnations of Vishnu. The main character is even named after the prophesied tenth incarnation; Kalki is meant to usher in the purest age of goodness, which in this story is Indian independence from British rule.

In this alternate history, India is still suffering under British imperialism in the 1960s. Young men have been drafted into a war against China, and with them gone and older generations worn down, the resistance is mostly led by young women. Kalki and her friends and conspirators have different backgrounds and perspectives, and although there is love and a shared dream between them, they also make mistakes. Rebellion is messy. It's tragic. And many do not live to see their dream realized. Even if independence is attempted through non-violence, blood is always spilled.

Mild spoiler: there is no sapphic happily ever after here, but another queer couple does survive.

Ten Incantations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel is a reimagining historical fiction of what it would be like if India was never liberated from England.

I will admit that while I am a huge fan of Indian history & storytelling and have a deep appreciation for this novel as a whole - I did have a hard time staying focused and at times I felt like I was losing interest. There are a lot of heavy themes surrounding justice, colonialism, violence, etc and sometimes I felt like I was on the outside looking in versus being completely immersed with the characters and the story.

With that being said I think lovers of historical fiction would really enjoy this, especially those who love learning about Indian. There’s a good group of characters but I never truly felt emotionally connected to them on a deep level, but perhaps someone else will read this and feel otherwise!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for suggesting & preapproving me for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback! I would love to read more from the author.

3.5 stars

2.5 stars, rounded up. This book shoves a huge amount of content in a short span of time, and I do think that's ultimately to its detriment. The book blurb says this is ten moments from Kalki's life but the focus isn't narrowly on specific moments but rather covers ten years of her work as a freedom fighter. Because of this, there are large chunks of the book that are summarizing events rather than showing you them in detail. This is really not my preferred way to hear a story because I feel very separate from the characters and so ultimately, the book does not hit as hard as it could have for me. I will say that I really enjoyed the fact that there were so many characters here and we hear a lot of different opinions about what the revolution should look like and the path of rebellion is not laid out clearly and cleanly.