'I looooooved Artichoke Hearts so much. Mira, our twelve year old narrator, had such a fresh and realistic outlook on life and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her. Add in a handful of fantastic characters and a wonderfully British setting, Artichoke Hearts was one of my favourite reads of 2011.
Jasmine Skies was even better.
The story picks up two years after the events of Artichoke Hearts and sees Mira travelling to Kolkata to visit her cousin Priya after the death of her Grandad Bimal.
I’m going to try and stay away from talking about the plot of this story because I don’t want to spoil either of these books and it would be impossible to talk go into it without doing so. Apologies if this reviews ends up being a bit vague as I know you’re used to the most in-depth and intellectual reviews on my bit of t’internet.
I just love how Ms Brahmachari writes. I’m trying to think of a way to articulate the way I feel about it but I’m failing miserably. If I could describe it using only one word, I would use ‘vibrant’.
Seriously, I underlined so many passages on my Kindle it became silly.
The setting of this book is immaculately imagined. I’ve never been to India but I could really relate to the experience of being overwhelmed that Mira feels when she first steps off the plane. The descriptions of the market places are absolutely magnificent. You’ve got the colours of the materials, the feel of the sweltering heat and… yes, fine, you can almost smell the… *scowls*…jasmine.
It’s obvious that Ms B has a story to tell and a message to convey but it never felt clunky or heavy-handed. Mira’s journey, both physical and emotional, is told with brilliant subtlety and restraint and it was so glorious to read. Anyone who says that YA books can’t be deep are going to get a hardcover of this book slammed across the back of their head by moi.
Luckily, Mira hasn’t changed one jot since Artichoke Hearts. She’s still compassionate, funny and as inquisitive as ever. One of my favourite things about AH was how Mira struggled with her identity as a mixed-race girl growing up in Britain, so I was ecstatic when I got about two chapters into Jasmine Skies and realised that there was going to be more of that.'
The full review is on the following link.
http://weartheoldcoat.com/2012/04/10/jasmine-skies-sita-brahmachari/
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