As Kaikeyi got older, I really enjoyed reading about her mind-opening about how she could help the women of her nation. Plus, I am a sucker for a lady in battle, historically (I was weirdly obsessed with Joan of Arc as a kid, and loved Tamora Pierce's Alanna series), so the entire 'Kaikeyi winning over Dasharath and Ayodhya through her horse/weapons prowess' really hit the spot for me. This is one of the only books I have read that goes into the art of charioteering (the Nevernight trilogy is the only other one I can think of), and I was fascinated reading about it. I loved reading about her youth, both the difficult parts of finding her own ways without a mother or the gods to guide and help her, and the sweet and fun parts, like her relationships with her brothers, especially her twin.

Kaikeyi became such a fleshed out and fully developed character in Patel's hands. When the will/plan of the gods for the human world clashes with her own, threatening her family, her status, her relationships, her life's work, she must make an impossible choice between averting war (saving her homeland and her new land) or preserving the public legacy of her years of diplomacy and advocacy (and her familial ties). And yet, Kaikeyi makes a life with what she can, forging forward with a bit of magic, a bit of manipulation, a bit of secret training with her twin brother, and a whole lot of effort to create a better world for herself and the women of her nation. We follow Kaikeyi through her youth, as she realizes that, as a woman, she has nowhere near the power and position of the men in her world, and that despite all her prayers to the gods (as urged by society and tradition), they seem to have forsaken her. Patel takes this original story as the scaffold, but turns the focus to Kaikeyi, building her characterization and the unfolding of events that explain why she urged Rama's exile.

In the original epic, the story focuses on Rama's exile to the forest at Kaikeyi's urging, and his battle with Ravana after he kidnaps Rama's wife, Sita, and his eventual crowning as king.

The titular protagonist, Kaikeyi, is, in essence, Rama's (step)mother.

Kaikeyi book review