I loved this second installment even more than the first! Malini and Bhumika I will protect you with my life, you've never done anything wrong in your lives and I know this and I love you...

Surprisingly enough, it was the villains that really shone in this book for me, specifically the yaksa and Chandra! The yaksa are both beautiful and terrifying - you can't help but be entranced by them even as they rip the world around you apart and show blatant disregard for anyone and anything other than themselves, and their portrayal is absolutely haunting.

As for Chandra... Chandra is equally terrifying, but in a different way, meaning that the author has been especially careful to hone in to the idea that him and Malini are eerily similar, two sides of the same coin, even. They both seek power, and they both feel like they've always had a higher destiny to fulfill, but Chandra's downfall is that he seeks his blindly, unquestioningly, never stopping to consider that faith isn't as absolute as he thinks he is. His sister certainly knows how to play the game better - but after what happened between her and Priya (and OH MY GOD THOSE CHAPTERS. HOLY FUCK), Malini's also beginning to tap into the monstrous side of herself that she loathes, that she never wants to use, but that she feels like she has to use in order to win against the yaksa and save Parijatdvipa.

I am... scared, and excited, and very eager to read the conclusion to this story!!