I would like to thank the author and HarperCollins India for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – HarperCollins India

Published – Out Now

Price – £7.24 paperback

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 generations: the truth about the mad sisters of Esi.

Fables, dreams and myths come together in this masterful work of fantasy by acclaimed author Tashan Mehta, sweeping across three landscapes, and featuring a museum of collective memory and a festival of madness. At its core, it asks: In the devastating chaos of this world, where all is in flux and the truth ever-changing, what will you choose to hold on to?

Fantasy often gets obsessed with worldbuilding. Making a place feel lived in, real and with its own depth. In many cases I lean towards the theory that fantasy often uses templates readers recognise to do this the easy way. The concept of the fantastical can often be replaced for the time period of x with added magic system of y. Fantasy can also push the boundaries of reality and then the reader needs to stretch their minds too. A compelling example of this latter approach is Tashan Mehta’s fascinating Mad Sisters of Esi where reality, magic and dreams all come together to create something rather remarkable as a reading experience.

In a far-off black sea, there is the whale of babel floating in the black sea of reality. Inside the whale of multiple worlds within many chambers. Curating them are the sisters Myung and Laleh. For Laleh this is enough, but Mylung never feels entirely at home and one day leaves the whale. Laleh eventually goes in search and discovers the Island of Ojba where a Museum of Memories exist alongside the ghosts of entire generations of one family. Laleh finds there a long-hidden secret with echoes of her own story that link to the whale’s creator Great Wisa and the ghost’s matriarch Mad Magali. A tale that led to the ancient stories and warning of the Mad Sisters of Esi.

This by the summary alone you can tell is not going to be your traditional fantasy story. This story ice skates at speed on a collection of diary entries, academic papers, stories within stories and weaves between the past and present. Terms get used that are familiar to our ears but have different meanings here from ‘mad’, drifter, ‘alchemist’ and as the first world we encounter is but one part of a whale prepare to really test your own boundaries of the fantastical. This works by submerging yourself into the story forget what standard fantasy is and let the storytellers throughout guide you. As the story builds you will pick up on the language and concepts from this book’s version of reality. There is no other to worry about. This means the story constantly surprises and challenges and while that can be difficult at first (hence that ice-skating metaphor) I think as you commit to the story it flows more and more so you too know why Drifters are both loved and feared by characters and why madness is such an unnerving concept.

The framing is really impressive and alongside snippets of history and diaries that add reference points and interpretations of the main story the core are these two groups of sisters separated by generations. With Mylung and Laleh it’s a tale of one who wants more and the other happy where they are. With Laleh’s disappearance its then up to Mylung to work out where she has gone. But the bigger story is Mad Magali and Great Wisa. How is the Whale’s creator mixed up with a woman who appears to have built a strange museum and by magic bounded all her descendants to haunt one island? We meet these two as children. Wisa brought to Magali’s home by a kindly grandfather, and we see a relationship of highs and lows. Magalis’s slow acceptance of Wisda a strange young child who lies about her past and is fascinated with well everything. All of this of a background of an island that fears the regular ‘festival of madness’ every hundred years that is unknown to the inhabitants but can lead to death and destruction. Mehta creates a fascinating central mystery with a slow countdown clock which builds up wonders (and dangers), ancients secrets and these two young women having to decide where their futures go.

Magic here is less magic system and more a flowing source linked to the island of Esi’s ancient history and has powerful ramifications for the children of Esi. Mehta creates a series of small clues from caverns with gold patterns to ancient myths and ruins that over the course of Megali and Wisa’s childhood they gain an understanding of also helps cement their relationship. A sibling rivalry of love, annoyance and hidden devotion to one another. We bounce through side character’s lives too to gain an understanding of why this concept of madness is feared and when we learn what it is then the wider tale itself becomes even clearer. This is intricate story-0telling whereas we gain more information the wider tale changes shape into something I was not expecting but it has beautiful looping approach that with its final chapters makes you really appreciate how Mehta built the whole novel. Here moving away from your community and family to follow your own dreams is a key plotline to consider as the story unwinds.

The other factor is the emotional humanity of these characters.  This is not pure literary invention this is about relationships. As well as our group of sisters there is young love, parental concern and wider community that can be both incredibly fearful and supportive. Importantly this keeps the story flowing with an emotional fuel that while we see the fantastical in every scene the character’s fates are what we care most about. Will these relationships survive; what does this mean for the ghosts in the future, and will reconciliation ever be possible? Mysteries just as compelling as the essence of reality itself.

Reading Mad Sisters of Esi is the kind of book that offers a little challenge but if you accept the rules are not as you know them then the rewards are great. The kind of novel that reminds us that fantasy isn’t bound by the rules of our universe and provided there is always an internal consistency of its own can deliver stories of wonder and humanity that do that key thing all stories should do make you feel and think. I think when you finish reading it you’ll never forget it. Strongly recommended!