Review: Mad Sisters of Esi - Tashan Mehta

Genre: Fantasy Published: DAW, August 2025

Original publication: HarperCollins India, September 2023

My Rating: 3.75/5 stars

“So we wander down the giant corridors in search of what we didn’t know we were missing. We seek to become whole”.

I’m starting this review off bold by comping this “Piranesi meets The Spear Cuts Through Water”. You're going to have to hear me out on that one, though, because it's not as straigh-forward of a comparison as that may seem.

Ambitious, original and slightly ethereal – Mad Sisters of Esi is one of the more original fantasy releases I’ve come across recently. Maybe for that reason, it took me a while to gather my thoughts about it, and a few weeks after finishing it I’m still not convinced I’ve cemented my opinion in stone.

The Story:

Myung and Laleh are keepers of the whale of babel. They roam within its cosmic chambers, speak folktales of themselves, and pray to an enigmatic figure they know only as 'Great Wisa'. To Laleh, this is everything. For Myung, it is not enough.When Myung flees the whale, she stumbles into a new universe where shapeshifting islands and ancient maps hold sway. There, she sets off on an adventure that is both tragic and transformative, for her and Laleh. For at the heart of her quest lies a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi.

What I loved:

Whenever authors have the ambition to deliver truly original fantasy-works, I’ll be the first to cheer on their endevours. Whether that means taking inspiration from non-western mythology, exploring non-traditional story structures or featuring themes not typically explored. Mad Sisters of Esi does all of those things. In gorgeous, luscious prose it weaves a dreamlike tale that reads like a forgotten divine myth.

It explores themes of sisterhood (whether chosen or by blood), love, storytelling and the way our myths shape the world around us. Additionally it dives into the concept of madness and mad Gods. What does it truly mean to be “mad”? Is it a bad thing, or is it the ultimate shape of freedom? In doing so, it incorporates philosophical themes that will have you chewing on them long after finishing the book.

One of the most confounding but interesting aspects of the book – apart from the ethereal, dreamlike quality to it all - was the emotions it evoked. Its ranges from a hypnotic euphoria experienced by the characters exploring the wonderous landscapes of chambers of the Whale of Babel, to a deep sense of melancholia over the impermanence of things, and the cyclical nature of the story at hand. It touches a level of ambition and emotional range that’s rare in most traditional fantasy.

What I didn’t love:

That ethereal quality is simultaneously my biggest point of critique. Like a half-remembered dream, this book has a tendency to slip through your fingers as you’re reading it. As such, its hard to get a grasp of the story, or to have the story truly grasp you. Whenever I put this book down, I felt like the story escaped me, and I had to push myself over a threshold to pick it back up again. I was often lost in the meandering haze of abstractness and neither the stories, nor the characters, fully managed to capture me enough to stay grounded.

Perhaps this was the intend, considering the thematic focus on madness, impermanence and the ability of storytelling to shape reality, but for a character-focused reader like myself, it was a hurdle.

Additionally, it might be worth mentioning that there are frequent POV-shifts, changes from first- to second- to third-person narrative, and fourth-wall-breaks that may putt some people off. Any spoken dialogue is formatted in italics, rather than in quotations. This didn’t particularly bother me, but I realize it’s a dealbreaker for some readers.

Overall, this book won’t be for everybody, but those who click with it will likely love it. If any of this piqued your interest though, and you’re in the market for something non-traditional: this book might be your new favourite.

Many thanks to DAW for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.