The Jasmine Throne

Content Warning: This section discusses anti-LGBTQ bias, colonial and sexist violence and discrimination, physical and emotional abuse, murder, nonconsensual drugging and addiction, and the killing of children.

“You can’t save them all, she reminded herself. You’re no one. This is all you can do. This, and no more.”

Early in the novel, Suri establishes Priya’s desire to help combat poverty, disease, and oppression and her powerlessness against these larger forces. She is resigned and guilty over her inability to do more, and the repetition of the word “you” in this passage highlights how she defines herself and her capabilities. This serves as a foundation for her later choice to risk the dangers of the deathless waters to gain power. She is determined to do more for her people and will grab at any opportunity to do so, even risking her personal safety.

“She couldn’t be the person she’d been reared to be. But maybe, just maybe, she could allow herself to want a little more than what she had. Just a little.”

Priya is constantly in flux, caught between who she was trained to be and who she has become. While she knows that she can’t reclaim the life of power and violence she had as a temple child, she does allow herself to dream of enough to improve her circumstances and those of the children she feels responsible for, like Rukh. The repetition of the word “maybe” highlights her hesitance and tentative hopefulness.

“She wrapped her anger at Chandra around herself like new skin; as if she were a snake, sloughing off one body and making another.”

The imagery of a snake shedding its skin is representative of rebirth and adaptation. Stripped of the luxuries and power she once held as a princess,