THE GIRL AND THE GODDESS by Nikita Gill

The Girl and the Goddess is a mixture of poetry, prose and beautiful illustrations which follow the growth and story of young Paro from childhood to womanhood. It's a coming-of-age tale that encourages women to raise up each other, to love themselves, to love one and other and to love their daughters. It's filled with encouraging self-worth and life lessons and gave me a great deal of comfort reading it.

However it's not just about feminism and love, it's also about history, religion and culture. When Paro is faced by the patriarchy, sometimes she fights back, other times she is confused and wishes to be another person, to be a man, to be somewhere else. In these moments Paro is visited by the Hindu Gods and Goddesses who tell her their stories and the tales of legend, such as the great Sanskirt epics The Mahābhārata and The Ramayana. Paro through these stories is encouraged to accept, to believe, to forgive and to love herself and those around her. She finds strength and understanding from the lessons of the Gods and Goddessss as well as her mother and nani.

The book also touches on the history of Kashmir and Partition and the legacy this has on Paro's family. It's handled in a way that doesn't unpick all the trauma so as not to weigh too heavily on the reader. Whilet still highlighting the pain and conflict felt, the damage inflicted by the British colonial powers.

This is a beautiful book of self-love and self-worth. The exploration of identity, sexuality and the conflicts that exist within ourselves is really well done. Paro's teenage conflict was something I really related to as she struggled to come to terms with her identity and bisexuality. Made even more difficult by the persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals in India and the way Paro's struggled to accept her.

Throughout the novel family relationships and friendships are central elements of the narrative. The focus on mother-daughter bonds and female friendships and the trials that come with these are something I love in novels.

Overall I fell in love with this story which was unexpected as I don't read much poetry. There was definite moments of sadness and trauma highlighted but it balanced out surprisingly well with the strong feminist themes and self-love promotion. I entirely recommend as this is definitely a 2021 favourite ✨