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Saturday, June 19, 2021 Payal Doshi’s Rea and the Blood of the Nectar
Harvinder Sandhu
R
ea and the Blood of the Nectar is a debut fantasy book by a South Asian woman, Payal Doshi, with South Asian pre-teen characters and set in India. Not only that, the protagonist is a 12-year-old girl! Let me say that again. A 12-year-old South Asian girl is the heroine of a fantasy book. As a pre-teen myself, I, like many other South Asian children growing up in colonized nations read a lot of British writers when in middle grade. Books by Enid Blyton with her many genres were a staple in my home as they were in Payal Doshi’s home. All the books had smart children solving mysteries, catching bad guys and in general the characters in the books were leading wonderfully exciting lives in Britain. And they were all Caucasians. No ethnic minorities here. Here is the synopsis of Rea and the Blood of the Nectar: ‘It all begins on the night Rea turns twelve. After a big fight with her twin brother Rohan on their birthday, Rea’s life in the small village of Darjeeling, India, gets turned on its head. It’s four in the morning and Rohan is nowhere to be found.
It hasn’t even been a day and Amma acts like Rohan’s gone forever. Her grandmother, too, is behaving strangely. Unwilling to give up on her brother, Rea and her friend Leela meet Mishti Daadi, a wrinkly old fortune-teller whose powers of divination set them off on a thrilling and secret quest. In the shade of night, they portal into an otherworldly realm and travel to Astranthia, a land full of magic and whimsy. There with the help of Xeranther, an Astranthian barrow boy, and Flula, a pari, Rea battles serpent-lilies and blood-sucking banshees, encounters a butterfly-faced woman and blue lizard-men, and learns that Rohan has been captured. Rea also discovers that she is a princess with magic. Only she has no idea how to use it. Struggling with the truth her Amma has kept hidden from her, Rea must solve clues
that lead to Rohan, find a way to rescue him and save Astranthia from a potentially deadly fate. But the clock is ticking. Can she rescue Rohan, save Astranthia, and live to see it all?’ The above synopsis says it all. This book is fast paced, it’s a thrilling and exciting adventure rife with evil creatures, a ruthless villain, and unforgettable f r i e n d s h i p s . The author also shared that readers who enjoyed Chronicles of Narnia would relate to the fantasy world she created in her book. “I grew up not seeing myself on the covers of books, and I wanted that, a brown girl on the cover of a book,” shares Payal, continuing, “I might be extremely biased, but the book
is a wonderful way for Indian kids to see themselves as the protagonists of a book as well as for kids from all parts of the world to get a glimpse into Indian culture while solving a fun, thrilling, and secret fantasy mystery.” Payal Doshi shares how when she first started to write the book, the characters had English names and it was set in a western country. Her creative writing teacher asked her why she did not set the book in India since she herself is Indian from India. “At first all I thought of was why didn’t my teacher tell me if my story idea is good and comment on my writing. Later I realised yes, why did I not give the characters Indian names and set the story in India,” states Payal, adding laughingly, “I think I was ‘whitewashed’ with all the white books I read growing up”! Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is the first of a trilogy with the writer promising more adventures and drama to come. Published by Mango and Marigold Press, Rea and the Blood of the Nectar is available at Red Balloon Bookshop, Chapters, Barnes and Noble and other independent bookstores.
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