I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Divining the Leaves by Shveta Thakrar Published by HarperTeen on March 4, 2025
Genres: YA Fantasy
Pages: 416
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
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My Rating:
Blurb:
From critically acclaimed author Shveta Thakrar comes a beautifully imagined contemporary fantasy about two teens, one a believer of magic who yearns to belong, the other a skeptic searching for an escape, who find themselves embroiled in a twisty world of court intrigue when they venture into a forest ruled by yakshas, mysterious woodland spirits drawn from Hindu and Buddhist folklore.
Plant-loving Ridhi Kapadia and popular Nilesh Batra were friends once.
Now, seventeen and alone, Ridhi blends natural perfumes, wears flower crowns, and wanders her local woods, listening for the leafy whispers of her beloved trees. Pleading for the yakshas to admit her into their enchanted forest kingdom, where she knows she truly belongs.
After learning his parents’ perfect marriage is a sham and getting suspended from school, a heartsick Nilesh lands at Ridhi’s doorstep—the last thing either of them wants. So when a pretty yakshini offers him the distraction of magic, the same magic he mocked Ridhi for believing in, he jumps at it.
Furious, Ridhi strikes a bargain with a noblewoman named Sulochana. In return for helping restore her reputation, Sulochana will turn Ridhi into the yakshini she yearns to be—and teach her to divine the trees’ murmurs.
But when Nilesh ends up trapped in the yakshas’ realm, Ridhi realizes the leaves might be telling a disturbing story about the forest her heart is rooted in—one that, even if the two of them band together, threatens to shred the future like so many thorns.
My Review
This book has such a beautiful cover. And I love reading books with mythology from cultures I don’t know a lot about. There was a lot of mythology and characters from those myths spread throughout the story. The descriptions of the alternate world, the yaksha’s realm, were beautiful and created such vivid and colorful scenes in my head as I read. Unfortunately, I was actually a bit bored and had to push myself through the story. There were a lot of twists and turns, but not in a good way. In a way that I didn’t quite understand exactly what was happening or why something was happening. It was hard to believe that Nilesh would go so willingly into this other world with the way his character had been described, even with the horrible things he was dealing with as his family imploded. And then how Ridhi’s brother was so upset because she forgot to make cookies for his team? Once? Wow. I think it was a younger brother, but still, that was a little over the top for me.
As I said the mythology was interesting and led to some unique scenes, but overall I was unfortunately bored and had to push myself to finish, basically skimming towards the end almost just to get finished.
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Like you, I enjoy mythology and new to me worlds. Great review!
Thanks!
Sorry this one didn’t work as well for you
I actually pushed myself through it this time.
Seems like it was a mixed read.
Beautiful descriptions and mythology and I loved all that, but the story itself was kind of all over the place.
I saw this one on Edelweiss and considered requesting it because of the beautiful cover, but the blurb sounded a bit off to me so wasn’t sure I would enjoy it. I was glad to see your review for it, now I know to not request it as I don’t think I would enjoy it. That’s a shame you were bored and the twists and turns were confusing instead of interesting. The cover is a pretty one and the mythology aspect does sound good.
Yeah, I won’t buy it for my school library. There are a lot of other really good books to spend my money on. And a lot of the reviews on Goodreads aren’t much better than mine.
Went to Goodreads to read some of the reviews and indeed a lot of people seemed to have not liked it as much as they had hoped. What a shame as it sounded and looked good.
I’m not a big YA reading. But wow, that cover is gorgeous!
Yeah, the cover got me! Too bad the inside didn’t match for me.
The cover is gorgeous. Sorry to hear this didn’t live up to expectations. It happens.
It goes back to not judging a book by its cover I guess, lol.
This cover is gorgeous. I am sorry that it didn’t live up to what you wanted out of it. That is a bummer. I am also a lover of mythology and I have never read one that focuses on this culture/ myth. I might have to give it a try… knowing there could be some pacing issues.
If you give it a try, let me know how it works for you.
That is such a pretty cover. I’m sorry this one wasn’t great.
The cover was so pretty, and they did do a beautiful job of describing the world, but the story itself just didn’t live up.
Yes, interesting to dig into Indian mythology. I think in one of the early Kate Daniels series books and again, in an Iron Druid Chronicle series book, these Raksha spirits and other Indian myths were mentioned. Too bad this one got boring.
Yeah, I had such high hopes for this one.