Thank you so much to NetGalley and DAW for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wickedly creative and viciously enchanting, this story breaks the bounds of time and space.

Though I loved the first half of the book, my favourite part was without a doubt the story of Magali and Wisa - this is so beautifully written, I found myself trapped in the madness of Esi.

This story broke my heart in the best way, and it not being fully healed by the last pages, I know this book has well and truly left its mark on me.

I cannot recommend this book to everyone at anytime, as it is a story that needs to find you when you are ready for it. When you are ready to dive headfirst into the madness, to open space in your brain for these many worlds, then you should read this absurdly wonderful novel.

Read if: You like fever dream books but need them to make some kind of sense in the end or you want to disappear into a million different worlds.

I admit I was a little worried for the first 50ish pages of this book. The story seemed to be expanding exponentially with every chapter and I was instantly attached to the characters so was afraid we would leave them behind. In the rest of the book, I don't think it ever lost this sense of scale but it quickly switched to a smaller narrative about 2 sisters not related by blood, but by choice.

I think this book made it impossible not to care about it's characters. You could feel the love between them as you read, and it made you love them as well. The conversations and relationships between them felt so real. I'm not sure that Esi is a place I would want to live, but it's a place I fell in love with during this book. The descriptions of the locations in this book were so vivid and fantastical and a part of the book that I really loved.

There were probably a lot of themes in this that went way over my head but the strongest theme to me was grief. It's about remembering the ones you loved so they never leave you but also clinging on so tightly to them that you devote yourself and everyone around you to that grief.

The ending of this book was sad but not because anything necessarily bad happened to the characters. It simply evoked familiar feelings of leaving home, leaving loved ones behind, not because you don't love them, but simply because you have grown and need space to grow more. It's about accepting that things change, time moves forward, and no matter how tightly you hold on to the things or people you love, eventually they will change too.

This was a book full of love, madness, joy, and grief and I loved every second of it.

My favourite quote from this book 'I believe that when we read we are searching for a smooth and polished mirror so that we may better see our reflections...but I believe it is not just mirrors that we seek-it is magic mirrors. We don't only want reflections of ourselves; we want to know if there is the possibility of change in our future, whether there is more to this reality than we can touch and smell, more to ourselves'

Thank you to Netgalley, DAW Books and Tashan Mehta for the ARC. Review posted on Goodreads and rating posted on storygraph

As I had hoped, this book was a bit like a fever dream and poignant. In fact, I am not sure how to talk about this book, not without flattening it or spoiling.
There is a lot going on, but not like a classic epic fantasy. It's more personnal, intricate, grander and smaller. A tale about universes and people, especially two sisters. Well, two pair of sisters, in a way. Their love is hard and shifting, but strong and lasting. This is primarily a story about sisterly love, but not only. It comes in different shades, like the pains. It is also a story about madness, told in a very touching way.

Did you guess that it has a very dreamy quality? Not a lack of logic but a stretch in logic? I loved it. But readers who want order and logic in the classical sense won't like this book. Not everything is explained, because the characters don't know everything. The universe(s) we are described don't work on the logic we are used to, and that's exactly the beauty of this story. There is a distinct sense of mystery and onirism, a bit like what I felt with "The spear cuts through water", "The Starless Sea" or "Rakesfall". It's very much the kind of story that, if done well, transports me. It clicks into place with a full universe and atmosphere.

"Mad sisters of Esi" isn't a straightfoward story. It's intermingled, with movement troughout time and space, throughout relationships and isles. Melancoly is present, from the start and growing as we near the end. Nature isn't a separate things, it's a world in itself, inside which the characters evolve and converse.

If I needed a bit of time to settle in, the story sank it's grip into me quickly. It's beautifully written, the kind of book that needs concentration but not in a tiring way. Full of mythic like symbolism, love and pain.

Very good experience, I am glad the book will be available for more people to discover and lose themselves between the pages.

This book truly reads like a fever dream. Fluid, poetic, and deeply immersive. Unfolding in such a mesmerizing rhythm, with imagery that will live rent free in my mind forever. There’s a quiet sadness woven throughout the book I was not expecting. But it’s also balanced by resilience, self discovery, and an otherworldly magic.

At its core, this is a story about perception, madness, and the invisible threads that bind us. The characters feel so rich and real. Each carrying their own fears, hopes, and secrets. This book doesn’t explain everything at times, but I think that’s part of the magic. You find yourself sitting with the mysteries sometimes, rather than having them spelled out. Some stories are meant to be unraveled slowly, and this is one of them.

There’s also something powerful in the way the author captures memory and connection. The writing has a way of making you pause, often times to reread a sentence. Not because it’s difficult, but because it resonates so deeply. I found myself highlighting dozens and dozens of passages. This isn’t just a book you read, it’s a book you feel. And when you reach the final page, you’re left with the quiet certainty that it will stay with you for awhile.

I cannot thank NetGalley and DAW enough for an ARC! What a joy it has been to read this.

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.

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.

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.

This is one of the few cases where I wholely understand and subscribe to the comparison to another well-known novel: "Mad Sisters of Esi" by Tashan Mehta is indeed a fitting recommendation for anyone who enjoyed "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke, I think. And yet it is very much its own thing that doesn't need to borrow graces or glories from others.

I will keep my review as vague, contentwise, as possible so as not to spoil the magic for anyone.

The world, or rather worlds of the story are as mysterious and enchanting as the characters themselves - because you could say there are (at least) three: the world of the Whale, the world of the Library, and the World of the Black Sea. They overlap and intertwine and sometimes seem to be contained in one another, but in the end I'd say they are quite separate things. And in each world you encounter characters that you, as a reader, can explore these worlds with. But the world-building has another aspect that I found extremely interesting: This book not only contains the central storyline and stories told in that story - it also contains, lets say, clippings from scientific and philosophical texts about the world(s) of the book that relate to the parts of the story preceding them, but also refer and recur to each other, excerpts from diaries and stories from a fairytale collection published in one of the worlds. This may sound complicated, but actually adds layers and depth to the world-building as well as the characters.

Without telling too much, I think I can say that the central motif of this novel is love - but not the romantic variety. It's about the kind of platonic love that makes people family as much as (if not more than) blood. The love that allows you to be yourself in front of others, knowing that they will love you no less without expecting things of you in return. Even if that means following you into what others think madness.
It's a story of sisters, by love, not blood, who are willing to part from each other for the other's sake but also ready to tear apart the universe to get to each other just to hold them again. And it's also a story about the magic of imagination, of magical worlds and creatures that can be dreamed into existence, sentient islands, and barriers of time that get flimsy and permeable at times.

"Mad Sisters of Esi" is to come out on August 5th, 2025 - and I highly recommend to keep an eye out for it to anyone who likes their fantastical reads a bit more experimental, unusual, and maybe just a hint surreal.

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!

Review copy provided by the publisher.

I like books that don't follow a standard hero's journey or quest narrative, and wow, is this in that category. This one has--and this by itself should tell you a large part of whether you want to read it--a gigantic whale of space--in space? but also comprising space? and multiple worlds inside the whale, that part is certain. Doors into unfolding different worlds, all inside the whale.

The whale used to be something else, but *what* else is a spoiler.

So there is more worldmaking than worldhopping here, and the titular sisters--there are two pairs of candidates for the title--are trying to figure out what madness means in their context. It is not a book that is trying to make a commentary on mental health in our own context, or if it is, it's being very roundabout and obscure about it. But there is a lot about how cultures construe madness, sanity, fitting in and not.

And there are indeed sisterhoods, very strong sororal relationships. And also space whale. Which you might like, and if so, step right up, here it is.

Thanks to DAW for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I was hooked by the whale world, and reeled in by in-world academic articles with footnotes. But the real highlights were the gorgeous imagery all throughout the book and the love and longing of the characters. The shifting perspectives, the power of creation and story, the family and friendships - so much love and beauty, even when it's bittersweet. Highly recommend for fans of more literary, slow and reflective fantasy.

Life feels like it's been absolutely off the charts lately. Some of that is, of course, because of what's going on globally in politics. But on the other side, is that I've simply been rather unwell since the middle of May. So even though I got the arc for this book from NetGalley many months ago, it's come down to the wire when it comes to actually reading it and getting out my review. But maybe that was actually for the best? Somehow it feels like it was exactly the right time to read this absolutely incredible story by Tashan Mehta.

Mad Sisters of Esi starts by talking about how time and stories are circular rather than linear, and I think that both within the world of the novel and in real life, that this is true. While I do think that the sometimes mundane nature of modern life in a globally connected place space and time may feel linear, it's my view that time is certainly far more circular than most of us have the power to contemplate.

But the fact that we often perceive our time as incredibly linear is what I think lends this story some of its power. We travel through the black sea alongside all of the numerous characters that take shape within the narrative. We are also looking for our sister. We are also looking for the whale of babel. And while we go on that journey together with these characters, much like the characters, time loops around over and over again. We jump forward and backward and sideways in both directions. The reading experience is incredible and I'm not sure that I was expecting to feel this level of catharsis by the time I reached the end.

I love stories that play with character perspective and time in interesting ways, and Mad Sisters of Esi does those things. The author has crafted a situation actually where there isn't even really an end. Because even for us, with the time that we process as linear, death isn't just an end—for some people, it's not an end at all—it's also a beginning.

What an absolutely wonderful novel. I highly recommend it. I am in absolute awe.

Jung said, "The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach."

I could not stop thinking about this Jung quote as I read Tashan Mehta's masterpiece, Mad Sisters of Esi. Have you ever felt that you contained a universe inside you--that your ideas, feelings, and love were so enormous they were an actual universe bursting to be born-- while you simultaneously acknowledging that you are a small fleck of vulnerable tenderness in the vastness of the universe that contains you? No, just me? What about ruminating on the dichotomy of our identities being both individual and the collective concurrently? That we are both our own selves and also, ultimately, part of us only exists in the framework of our connections to our sisters, our parents, our lovers, our homes...

This book is not actually a poem, but it reads like a dream. Both Mehta's prose and her execution of the narrative is expertly constructed. I recommend reading this slowly, leisurely, rolling every sentence around in your mouth, savouring the perplexity and mystery that Mehta slowly unravels. There is a passage in this book about dreams where it as described as feeling "constantly on the cusp of something, just out of reach" and that is how it feels to be plopped down in the passages of the belly of the Whale of Babel, understanding that it is something profound and important but not quite understanding what is happening. The plot follows dream logic, where nothing is quite rooted in linear time or the laws of reality, not in the contents of story itself, nor in the telling. . The dream turns into a myth, which turns into memory, which turns into fairytales, which turn into madness, which turns into universes.

It is hard to talk about the plot of this story without spoilers, but I can promise that it all comes together beautifully. I fell deeply in love with each character and ached with love for my own sisters (not just the ones related by blood, but the ones who choose to belong to each other, even when paths diverge).

I recommend this book to folks who enjoyed Piranesi and the Night Circus! Thank you with my whole heart to Tashan Mehta and DAW for this ARC, I'm ready to read every single thing Tashan Mehta every writes.

Wow, this was absolutely stunning. Mad Sisters of Esi is high fantasy, and it’s mystical and lyrical and magical and ethereal. It's also like very few other modern books I’ve read (it gives me ancient mythology vibes though, tellings of how the world and its people came to be, interspersed with research that supports this), and honestly, it’s a work of art.

The story follows sisters, Myung and Laleh who inhabit the Whale of Babel, a universe in itself that floats through the black sea. Laleh is content to explore the many chambers of their universe, but Myung feels there is more out there, so she leaves the whale to find the people she dreams of. In doing so, she comes across the island of Ojda where we learn about another pairing of sisters, an island shrouded in madness once a century, and eventually, the secrets of the whale.

It is, as others have described, an absolute fever dream, but the most glorious, gorgeous fever dream you’ve ever experienced. You’re carried by the descriptions and the prose through a fathomless universe. Tashan’s imagination truly has no bounds and I was so happy to be along for the ride.

This isn’t exactly a disclaimer as I would have given the same review had anyone written this, but to give more context to the review, the author is my best friend’s best friend; she actually gets a very prominent mention in the acknowledgements. Knowing this and knowing them does give this so much additional depth to me, especially given the nature and subject of the novel - sisterhood, but not through blood. You can feel the bond and the love and the beauty and the intricate nature of these relationships that's not linear but is so real.

The pace is not fast, as you’d imagine it would be when a girl is trying to find her sister who has escaped from their whale universe, but it doesn’t drag. Instead your attention is demanded at every turn of the page by snippets of articles and research that build a wider world than the perspectives we’ve been given, while the chapters from the women’s perspectives are so rich and complex, but like floating through a dream.

"The space they are in is limitless and has boundaries, a feeling that is indescribable except to say that the edges of this space are mirrors-the space ripples endlessly through it, but you cannot."

There are times where, thanks to what is happening in the book, the reader joins the collective "we", you feel totally immersed in the narrative and part of something bigger than yourself.

"We pause here.
We sit down. We rest. We've spent lifetimes in this story-it is not so easy to leave.
Stay.
Breathe.
There is no rush."

I'm not going to forget this book any time soon; now I just need to get my hands on a physical copy as the stunning words inside are matched only by the gorgeous cover!

I highlighted so many passages for both their pure beauty and the simple truths hidden among the words. I'll leave you with a couple more to help convince you to read this book:

"Esi is opening up. It is a pomegranate, tearing to reveal millions of ruby worlds within it."

"Sister is a careful word. That's what we say in the family. It is a special relationship. You have to love and hate each other. Want to drown them but also burn the world if it threatens them...You have to be slightly mad to love like that."

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for a review copy of this book.

No words will suffice in explaining how much I love this book. It requires savoring; the universe is vast, the lore is deep, and the emotions are complicated. The writing flows beautifully and the structure of the story sucks you in. There are many lines and concepts that make you pause because they're simple and powerful.

It's a story not only about living with our choices, but also the choices of those who came before us, for better or for worse. Because of Mehta's masterful storytelling, I know Mad Sisters of Esi will stick with me for a long time. Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I loved this magical, wonderful book. Especially as a sister...it tugged at my heartstrings and made me think about what a family is, how we search for love. The worldbuilding was incredible!

My expectations for this book were non-existent, but that's definitely not the only reason why it proved to be such a delightful read. Bittersweet and magical to the core, it explores the topics of sisterhood, family (found and biological both), stereotypes and even a person's purpose in life, at the same time unleashing a torrent of complex fictional concepts and otherworldly descriptions.

While I don't want to spoil too much about the plot, as I firmly believe this is one of those books best read without knowing too much, I'll say there is a thoughtful cadence to it, so it probably won't work for those looking for fast-paced action-packed adventure. It starts out slow and confusing and continues slow and vaguely less confusing, with readers exposed to various POVs, including among other things snippets of in-universe research and articles. Somehow it doesn't end up being annoying, but rather contributes to the immersion.

It's also perhaps not the best read for those who want all their questions answered and every little detail explained, since here some of it is just of the "mystery of cosmos" variety and you're free to fill in the gaps as you wish. But if you are in the mood for a convoluted, enchanting tale that plays out in the most inexplicable corners of an imaginary universe, this is your stop.

I tend to be stingy with my 5-star reviews and this book earned it. It almost made me cry. The love the two pairs of sisters (Myung and Laleh) and (Magali and Wisa) have is so vast. At times the story was so heartbreaking, I felt like I wasn't just a reader, but a listener leaning my ear against the door as these stories are told. I felt drawn in and I had genuine compassion for the loneliness and empathy for the otherness. Also, the way Tashan describes space as a black sea and planets are just islands, brava! I loved this analogy, and it honestly made the book easier to understand.

We start the book in the belly of a whale, a cosmic whale that contains it's own world. There are two sisters, Laleh and Myung. Laleh is practical and Myung yearns for something more. They don't truly know anything of life outside the whale, other than they were created by the Great Wisa. When Myung leaves to explore the Black Sea and find the Great Wisa, the story really takes off. The narrative is told spread out amongst different POVs, journal articles, and journal entries. We mostly follow Myung as she searches for a way back to the whale and her sister. But what Myung finds is a story spanning centuries and how the love of two sisters created a universe.

I feel like I could rave about this book, but I really don't want to give away spoilers. Magali and Wisa are sisters by desire, not by blood. The found family aspect is done so well in this book. Wisa is presumably an orphan on Esi when Magali's grandfather takes her in. From there we learn about the madness of Esi and the festival of madness. Magali's community is what the book calls luddites, they don't condone the madness of Esi and cast out or even kill people who succumb to the madness. But is the madness truly bad or is it simply people who don't conform to the societal ideal of normal? I felt like Tashan really does a good job of wrapping complex topics into the narrative of the story.

If you like heartfelt science fiction and an interesting take on worldbuilding, I think you'll love this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and DAW publishing for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

Good Sci-Fi has the nifty skill of holding up a mirror to the human experience while the reader peers around the edges to the dark, unexposed places behind.

Mad Sisters is good sci-fi.

This is a twisty, mind bending tale of fables and family and what makes them. My entire time reading was spent with the disorienting sensation of clinging to the edge of the mirror. Understanding by the very tips of my fingers.

Critics of the Surrealist movement claimed that even the most bizarre artworks were still a product of being filtered through consciousness. That the thumbprint of the artist remained indelible on the surface of the canvas. Mehta tries hard here to erase these traces and the result is a beautifully rich and utterly alien universe.

Interspersed with the more character driven plot, world-building is provided by almost epistolary fictional academia. Little love letters of context to the reader in the form of journal articles and papers. If you were a fan of Susanna Clarke's 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' then you will certainly appreciate this narrative style.

Quite apart from the wonderfully weird universe they inhabit (dream, create, mold), the characters themselves are achingly human. Their frustrations, losses and triumphs feel genuine and real.

Mad Sisters is a contradiction of a novel that just *works*. If you need your mind expanded, but to also feel held, feel seen, then you should read this book.