Girls Burn Brighter

The story in Indravalli blooms, unique to the setting, with a persuasive love anchoring Poornima and Savitha amidst poverty and patriarchal oppression. The titled theme however, despite being drummed at the reader, begins to lose coherence after successions of misery are planted along the pages. Savitha especially has her fire dimmed, loses her wings, is swallowed in pieces. Although the scale of hardship explodes, it is in the worthwhile tackling of monstrous subjects including misogynistic violence and human trafficking.

Notes:
- There's ableism written in regarding Kishore.
- Rao chooses to detail plural instances of stump-based sexual violence.
- Mohan is afforded sympathy. He's a rapist slave owner...but what he really wants is to be a poet.
- An out of place omniscient short story is tacked on with the passing Jacob character.