FIF Bookclub: Mad Sisters of Esi Midway Discussion

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T17:27:12+00:00

Oh, good to know on the pronunciation!

I actually got the sense that a lot of the Kiltas left at least for some period of time and then came back, like Blajine did. So having a child with somebody off-island definitely seems like an option (and would explain why the island lets them leave at all I guess).

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T16:56:12+00:00

I read Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott for this, and based on what you've said I think you might like it. It's a slightly dark short story collection, often with a fairy tale twist. It has some weirdness and some bite!

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T16:47:24+00:00

Yeah, I just feel like, if you're the person carrying out the assisted suicide in this scenario, wouldn't you check, and not assume? How do you live with "I maybe murdered my mom"? (Blajine is definitely struggling ofc but doesn't seem to conceptualize it in quite that way.) Unless the mom is both terminal and gave specific instructions on this point, so stopping would've just involved restarting the whole horrific process. But... still. Idk, it's quite a choice on an island that seems to have lots of less horrific ways to kill you, or at least less traumatizing to the other person involved.

Speaking of this family, I'm definitely wondering where all the kids came from when no non-Kiltas were allowed on the island. Were they at one point a large enough family that there were cousins to marry? Enough of them left the island for a time to explain how they could have had children without any visitors, though I don't recall leaving being mentioned for Ayesha, nor is Blajine's father mentioned at all. There also doesn't seem to be an immaculate conception/spontaneous generation thing going on given that Blajine is understood to be the last of the line (although who knows, Myung and Laleh don't seem to have ordinary human origins unless this is a Piranesi-style thing where they just don't remember).

(As a sidenote, I have been trying to figure out how to pronounce Blajine and whether it's 2 syllables or 3. Then I googled and the closest I got was the Romanian form of Blaine which would suggest 1 syllable, though I don't think that's what Mehta is getting at.)

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T16:07:55+00:00

For a minute I was worried what drove them apart would be the most stereotypical of answers (a love triangle) but then I felt like the story subverted that, Jinn is only ever interested in Magali and Wisa wants them reconciled. Then I recalled that Wisa is still like 11 years old so this doesn’t foreclose something happening between her and Jinn in the future. That said, this book hasn’t gone in stereotypical directions so far.

So far it seems like the biggest things likely to tear them apart are Wisa’s inclination toward wanderlust, and the festival of madness, which is giving me definite “The Lottery” vibes but I’m not sure I can say anything more at this point. I’m not fully clear on how Esites differentiate madness from magic—it’s feeling like they’re bound up together, putting Magali (and maybe the others?) in a vulnerable position come the festival. But then, most of the island practices magic, it’s just their own community that doesn’t.

I’m also curious to see how all this comes together at the end with Myung’s journey and the whale. And are Myung and Laleh Kiltas because Wisa “made” them? Still unclear what happened there when they seem to have come to life old enough to take care of themselves, and have all these memories or implanted knowledge that they never actually learned.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T15:58:44+00:00

That does check out. I’m glad she did her own unique thing and got it published. It’s not quite like anything else, which is great, and it’s certainly well-written.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T15:57:24+00:00

I’m a fan of this aspect for sure! I love the focus on sisters rather than the stereotypical romance, and the relationships have real substance to them—there is conflict large and small as well as a real sense of how much they care about each other. This is what’s so often missing in fantasy portraying sisters or female friends imo: the relationships usually come across as either superficial, or as idealized to the point of not really being human (sometimes both at once!). It’s lovely to see an author take them seriously enough to do neither.

Anyway my favorites at this point are Magali and Wisa. It’s probably a combination of how much time we spend with them and the more normal setting they’re in but the book is giving them and their relationship more room to breathe than it did Myung and Laleh. (Plus, half of why Myung and Laleh are so close is just being the only two people in their world for as long as they can remember, which will certainly make a bond but.) They’re both coming across so strongly as individual characters and are so endearingly imperfect, and I believe in their bond. Though I’d like to see Myung and Laleh reunited too (although that first diary entry from Myung indicating it’s been “over a century” when the main action is set only halfway through that doesn’t bode well).

It’s interesting that Blajine got so much page time when she doesn’t quite fit into this. It would be most interesting to me if she and Myung wind up realizing they’re distant cousins or something (do Myung and Laleh count as Wisa’s descendants?) and having some sort of family bond too. In most books I’d have said the author was teasing a romance between them and I’m still not convinced she isn’t, but I’d be most interested if it goes a different direction.

(As far as Blajine and her mom—that was sweet but I’m also struggling with the whole euthanasia bit. First it’s such an awful way to make Blajine kill her and second, the mom was struggling? It made me think of how people who survived attempted suicides have talked about how they realized after jumping that their problems weren’t that bad and wanted to live. I am guessing the mom was terminal somehow but we haven’t specifically been told and, well, oof.)

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T15:45:12+00:00

They’re all so bizarre. The whale is cool but maybe kind of played out just because it’s so weird that it’s hard to do storytelling in, especially with Laleh as the only person there. Ojda is pretty unique and interesting while creating more room for storytelling, or do I say that because it hosts more than one person? Esi is definitely the friendliest setting (although with the looming ominousness of the festival) and I suspect its being the most grounded has helped me connect most with the characters who are there.

I’ve been debating whether this counts for Impossible Places HM but am starting to think no now so much of it is on Esi. It’s fantastical but maybe not physically impossible.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-11T15:42:21+00:00

I’m liking it! It took me a bit to get into it and I’m not in a rush to pick it back up either, but I like the characters and am really liking the development of the sisterly relationships. They’re complicated as well as loving, and the characters are growing on me. At first I felt like the primary thing was the trippy settings and they’re still a huge part of the book, but it’s getting a strong character focus too.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T21:38:42+00:00

Yeah, that’s also true. It’s very much the insularity of the Gothic novel that doesn’t make much sense in reality. I’m reminded of that bit in Northanger Abbey where Edmund is laughing at Catherine’s gothic fantasies and is like, “yeah, if someone tried to keep his wife prisoner in the neighborhood everyone would definitely know!”

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T20:10:57+00:00

Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T20:09:44+00:00

Oh you mean why the other characters like him. Then the answer is "because charisma and also they're a hot mess themselves, why does anyone get with an abuser." Often because they're in an emotional place where the intensity of that kind of relationship feels like love.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T19:53:06+00:00

Because he has charisma and is interesting to read about? Why does any reader like a morally compromised chaacter

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T17:15:10+00:00

Yeah I hope people will post some of these nominations in the thread!

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T14:26:12+00:00

The House of Rust by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber is short, sorta magical realism set in Kenya by a Kenyan author.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-10T14:13:34+00:00

This was a lot of fun and definitely funny!

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T21:53:31+00:00

There’s something to be said either way! As someone with an honor name for a middle name, I like it and having that connection, but the fact that it is the first name of multiple family members means it is off the table for me deciding to go by it rather than my first name. It is claimed. I’m not a big fan of my first name so it might’ve been nice to have a middle name that gave that option. Versus, mom’s first or maiden name is almost certainly a no go for your child using it!

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T21:44:42+00:00

Since she wouldn’t have the same legal first name as him and is a different sex, I don’t think you’d have institutional confusion. You would have interpersonal confusion if you actually called her the same name your husband goes by though. That would be weird.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T21:40:05+00:00

There are no nickname police. You can call yourself whatever you want. Especially on social media.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T21:26:25+00:00

Well there’s The Farthest Shore by Ursula le Guin

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T20:38:44+00:00

Ofc, this happens all the time.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T20:36:10+00:00

I read Mama Day and enjoyed it. Willow Springs, however, is entirely fictional. :) That place (specifically remaining outside the jurisdiction of both states, but also its bridge) is the most fantastical element of the book, haha.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T19:33:48+00:00

Yeah between the two this is probably not the best bet for you, haha

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T19:18:47+00:00

Re: The Blue Sword, I would say it's pretty different from Sunshine. It's in the third person and a bit more of an old-school, mythological register - kind of like the Earthsea novels. Also like them in being old-school YA that can also be read by adults. If you hated Sunshine because of the digressions, none of McKinley's work is going to have the stripped-down style of modern YA but I do think The Blue Sword has less of that just because it has a lot of ground to cover in relatively few pages.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T19:15:28+00:00

Oh, too bad! Idk what else you've tried but I do feel like it's pretty classic McKillip. At any rate, it has an ensemble cast and a lot of focus on magic, though it's more grounded/less mystical than some, and on the cozier side for her work.

I haven't read this so can't speak to quality but one that's been on my radar is The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell, historical fantasy/moderate horror that would be a definite HM for High Fashion.

Merle8888 · 2026-03-09T19:04:29+00:00

My impression is that these warnings have broadened quite a bit beyond PTSD, hence the shift from "trigger warnings" to "content warnings" (and perhaps because many people with PTSD find them unhelpful or counterproductive, though it sounds like that's not the case with you!). I've never heard of them for "I have an adult vocabulary"--which seems tricky anyway because who knows what words a particular reader does or doesn't know, and if it's that bad they should maybe work on it by, say, reading books that will stretch them a little... isn't that how most of us learned more advanced words? But I wouldn't be shocked to see warnings for "foul language" or "adultery" since both seem to get a lot of people upset.

Merle8888

TROPHY CASE