This was such a mind-bending fever dream! Half the time I had no idea what was going on but in a good way. I was immediately swept into the imagery of these worlds and galaxies in a whale, swimming in the great black sea of the universe. The way the islands change, the way maps are more akin to a story, it was all just so fascinating.

The two sisters, man. I love those two girls. My hear feels full and yet in pain all at once. Their relationship and the distance between them was so bitter sweet.

It was beautiful!

There were some points where things felt slow. In most cases, it was fine because it felt like it was meant to be that way. It's the kind of story you need to really sink into, to spend some time in. And that's ok, but there were some parts where I felt things felt a little too slow.

Overall, I really enjoyed this! It was so unique and unlike anything I've read before.

3.5 stars!

I'm still not sure what I just read, this is one of those books where you have to ignore logic and let your imagination run wild! Great story and characters, I can see this becoming a movie someday!

A beautifully written, genre-bending novel that explores sisterhood, memory, and identity through lyrical prose and a surreal, metaphysical world. Tashan Mehta crafts an ambitious narrative that challenges conventional storytelling while staying rooted in emotional depth. Thought-provoking and unique—best suited for readers who enjoy literary speculative fiction.

If you like your books to be lyrical, atmospheric, dream like, creative and so much more, please consider reading this one! While I'll say I was initially intrigued and loved the way this book was taking shape, I just could not stick with it after a certain point and decided to DNF at 50%. However, I don't think that should deter readers as I'm definitely glad I gave this book a shot and I may consider trying it again one day. I feel that readers are going to love this book with is creative imagery and relationships and even though I didn't finish it (for now) I can see how this book will be beloved by many.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mehta’s careful prose (yes this book has me using that word) transports you into a world of creation, nature, and a poignant relationship between two sisters. The plot is very intricate and extravagant, reading almost as vividly as the coloring used for the cover. The stand out factor in this novel for me is the love between the two sisters yet not sisters, where their connection is so strong the readers may find themselves tearing up (like I did).
Mad Sisters of Esi requites a lot of concentration to read. With so many details, vastly changing landscapes, multiple intertwined POVs, and high fantasy concepts, this book really challenged my mind. If you are looking for a book that is different from most of the fantasy reads out there, I think this book would be a highlight for you. The women in this novel will linger in your mind and it is an almost psychedelic reading experience.

I received a free copy from DAW via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Publish date August 5th.

I requested this book because I was intrigued by the striking cover. Pink whale! In Mad Sisters of Esi, Laleh and Myung wander together through an endless series of worlds on the infinite interior of a universe-whale. When Myung leaves the whale and her sister to seek the outside world, her story becomes entangled with the tale of the woman who created the whale and also lost her sister.

Mad Sisters of Esi is set in a world that felt a touch like Piranesi by way of Sinbad the Sailor. There are charlatan alchemists, a maliciously shape-shifting island, a centennial festival of madness that must never by spoken about, sailors travelling on the spacelike black sea to different world-islands. Mehta intersperses the text with snippets of fictional historical commentary and folktales, much more substantial than the usual chapter header type quotes, which give the novel the impression of a collected folder of found media.

Despite the surface-level vibrance of the worldbuilding, it progresses with a dreamlike irrationality. The worldbuilding is lush and whimsical, but everything outside of the sharply defined light of the narration feels shadowed and indistinct. Mehta is content to leave the world relatively unstructured and focus instead on the central theme of the story, the bond between sisters. While there is a minor romantic subplot, the story spends the most time on the bond between Laleh and Myung, and of the sisters Magali and Wisa before them. When separated, both pairs of sisters will break the world to find their sibling.

Dreamlike and strange, but ultimately a little unfocused. I think Mad Sisters of Esi would make a fantastic short story or novella, but it struggled to carry the weight of over four hundred pages.

This book managed to navigate massive concepts, the alchemy of infinite universes within universes and malleable threads of time, without getting lost in its daring scope.

At its heart, this is a story of sisters, and the intimate exploration of those relationships was my favourite part of the book. We learn about two pairs of sisters, Laleh and Myung in the present timeline as well as Wisa and Magali in the past. Both storylines explore these womens' lives, their relationships to one another and how their sisterhood affects their own personal identity, oscillating between codependent and isolated, clashing and longing for one another.

When I reached the end, I found myself wanting more conclusion to Wisa and Magali's story, while I felt Laleh and Myung's ending felt just right. The lyrical prose of this book certainly leaves much to think about and puzzle out even after finishing the book.

This book was so weird, intriguing, beautifully written, heartbreaking and confusing. The world was so strange and interesting. I loved the themes of family and shared stories throughout this.

A magical universe in a whale, a traveller tracking down myths and peeling away all the layers to fund the truth, and a museum you can visit by tapping you ear. This is the Mad Sisters of Esi, and it is truly magical. And mad. Completely mad. I loved it.

Mad Sisters of Esi does have a really ambitious world building and multiple story lines spread over time and place. At first it's almost a bit daunting, but everything comes together nicely in the end. Tashan Mehta manages to pull it of without a stone left unturned. Because mad, anrgy islands will do that for you. Turn stones I mean. And grow flowers. And try to push your house off a cliff.

Mad Sisters of Esi was the book I didn't know I needed right now. I dont want to write wo much about the story itself. It's better explored first hand. But Mad Sisters of Esi cover a range of topics, loss, friendship, found family and love. It's about being different. It's about searching for something more. Being curious with the world around you. It's about being brave. And scared. And loved. It's a book about sisters.

Beautifully written and entirely unique. This felt stylistically reminiscent of This is How You Lose The Time War and with similar themes as Piranesi - two outstanding fantasy’s to compare against! The pacing is slow and intricate, and really demands your full attention and presence in the story. It definitely took me a while to get settled into this world and not get too lost in the ether of it all, but I had such an enjoyable time following these characters’ different (yet also very like-minded) perspectives of their respective existences. Would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for an escape from the mainstream and some truly beautiful prose.

3.5 rounded up. Gorgeous atmosphere, beautifully crafted, just not for me. It's dreamy, floaty fantasy and strong themes of family and loneliness -- if that sounds intriguing, give this a shot!!

I wanted to love this one. Living in a whale??? UGH, super super cool. Reminds me of that Kingdom Hearts Monstro level. And the premise had me curious from the start—twisty, layered, and surreal. It’s dreamlike in a way that feels deliberate and immersive, like you’re just steeping yourself in this world. The writing is lyrical, maybe even hypnotic at times. It’s clearly a book crafted with care.

It just didn’t quite click for me. I'm not a patient reader. I get confused easily because I struggle with attention. The story drifts between timelines and perspectives, and while that fits the ethereal tone, I had trouble figuring out what was most important. The plot felt loose. The ending didn’t hit with the kind of emotional solidness I was looking for. And it was kinda sad.

The characters felt a little underdeveloped but their relationships were well-defined - that's a really interesting conundrum for me. This is more of a personal preference—I gravitate hard toward character-driven stories where emotional arcs ground the weirdness. This book was airy, saturated in concept and vibe, but I wanted more weight, more grit to hold onto.

So while it didn’t fully land for me, I still admire what the author built here. The world is strange and elegant, the writing is thoughtful, and I think readers who love surreal, poetic fantasy will really connect with it. This is less a critique and more a personal mismatch. It’s not about quality—it’s about taste. And this one just wasn’t quite mine.

This is an absolutely gorgeous, lyrical as hell novel. We get a blend of individual stories that focus on sisterhood and finding and learning more about yourself in the wider world and community, with a larger scale story of an island that regularly goes mad and is trying to figure out what stories are actually real and what they want to pass down when their own pasts are so unclear. It's about the power of stories on both an individual and cultural level, and also giant space whales and surreality and reality melting down while you're at it. This comes out this summer, and is absolutely worth your time when it does.

This is a novel that thrives on atmosphere, myth, and the slipperiness of memory. Set on a sentient island and a space traveling whale that is probably also a universe, time often bends and reality is not easily grasped. This is the beauty of this book; the prose is gorgeous and often illuminating. It's ruminative, and the themes, and particularly the imagery, linger. (The museum of collective memory?!? Yes, please.)

That said, I lost the threads of the story somewhere in the middle. The hazy, nonlinear structure is part of the charm, but it can also be frustrating.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for the ARC!

Characters 3
Setting 4
Plot 3
Themes 2
emotional impact 3
Personal enjoyment 3
Overall 3

I really wanted to like this. The first 40 percent had me HOOKED. I was invested and intrigued by the world Mehta built, its uniqueness and abstract nature that made me feel like I was reading a fever dream. I enjoyed the way sisterly relationships were portrayed in all their depth and the setting felt so ethereal. Although the premise of this book and the introduction to the plot were nothing short of fantastic, post introduction it started to go down hill.

After the 40% mark we go into a very extensive flash back lasting at least 100 pages, and by that point the emotional investment I had in the characters from the beginning was partially lost. This on top of the integration of fictional scholarly articles that I had not anticipated really threw me off. I understand how these could have made the story feel more real and detailed but the way they were written left me skimming them at best. I can see how some would enjoy their inclusion but I did not sign up to read academic articles regardless of brevity.

At times I felt like I was being beat over the head with themes, and not just one theme but many, it made the plot not as interesting or engaging since the sole focus felt directed towards getting messaging across. While generally I enjoy reading for themes, the way these were incorporated felt too direct for me on top of the extraordinarily flowery language and poetic style: the importance of memory, loneliness, family values, and being different from ones community.

I feel that if you enjoy poetic writing, and stories loaded with impactful themes you would really enjoy this, the writing reminded me much of Madeline Miller and The Song of Achilles. If the organization of the plot had been done differently I believe my review would be written very differently, I enjoyed parts, but was expecting more emotional impact.

So magical! An epic fairytale and incredibly unique world. I did struggle getting through the first two parts, there were a lot of time jumps and the world was hard to grasp! But I powered through, and once I kind of understood the world I really enjoyed the story. Thank you for the ARC!

When I started reading Mad Sisters of Esi, I was interested in the sisters and the world in which they lived. I enjoyed the narrative style and voice and was keen to see where the story would lead. By the time I got about 1/3 through, though, my attention started to wane. As more plot points and new characters came in, I began to find the plot confusing and convoluted. I dragged myself to the end, but by that point I had lost any connection with and interest in the characters that I'd felt at the start of the story. I've seen a lot of positive reviews of this book around, though, so I would say it's mostly a case of it just not being a good fit for me. I am giving it 3 stars. It wasn't quite my cup of tea, but it was an interesting premise and a story that will likely appeal to fantasy fans who don't mind things a little surreal and dreamlike.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the arc! The prose is beautiful, and the story unique, but the emotion was never there. I was never motivated to pick this book up.

You ought to be mad to fell in love with this book.

Tashan Mehta weaves a beautiful, but peculiar family saga into a cloth made from whales, skies and academic papers. It starts with two sisters, but reaches far beyond it, mixing the study of indigenous cultures (bloodlines?) with fantastic tale about magic and higher instances. It's strange, but between weirdness and variegation it finds the way to your heart.

I certainly adored every inch of it.

I did not realize this was not written in a typical writing style. It uses a type of poetic verse it seems, and it is as others have described, like a fever dream. Unfortunately that is not a book my brain is going to enjoy reading, as the writing style in a book is important for my enjoyment, and I found myself grasping for more understanding of what was happening and feeling frustrated. I know this book is amazing, it just is not for me and I am not the reader for it, but LOOK AT THE COVER. The story itself is also unique. I loved the concept of people living in a whale?!



Thank you for the opportunity to sample this eARC. I am leaving this honest feedback voluntarily.

MASTERPIECE.

Thank you NetGalley and DAW for the ARC.

This is an amazing book. I knew well before I finished it, that it would become an all-time favorite.

The writing is impeccably, uncannily perfect. Elements of weird fiction, fever dreams, cosmic awareness/inexplicability, deep family ties of blood and fictive kin, and environmental legacy combine to create this amazing narrative. The characters are deep and significant. The author’s ability to describe landscapes and make them palatable even though much of it is open to interpretation, illuminates.

The science fiction stands out as well. New ideas and concepts are well thought out, very clear and concise, but also open to many interpretations and revelations upon reflection. I think you could read this book many times and discover unique insights every single time.

Grief and pain as a part of any life and learning to cope is explored from beginning to end and is very philosophic.

I was introduced to this author in a collection of short stories entitled “Magical Women” and believed I had found my next favorite author. I was fortunate enough for this book to show up as an ARC for me. It proved my theory correct. I am adding this to my favorites shelf.