Book Review: Dava Shastri’s Last Day

Dava Shastri’s Last Day by Kirthana Ramisetti

I thank Grand Central Publishing for the ARC of Dava Shastri’s Last Day.

The expected publication date is December 31, 2021.

This is often humorous for a novel that begins with an obituary. But… the obituary is for a 70-year-old woman who isn’t dead. This would be suitable for adopting to film.

I wanted to read this ARC because the protagonist is a seventy-year-old woman. The worship of youth and the intermingling of ageism and misogyny are so blatant in our society, it’s refreshing to see a postmenopausal woman front and center in a book.

The novel is in third person from multiple perspectives, including Dava Shastri’s. All the characters come vividly to life.

I’m so glad this novel includes two queer couples… although the doctor and her wife are not well developed. Lately I’ve been labeling some novels “straight books” because they apparently only have straight characters and others “queer books” and feel like whenever I read a “straight book,” I want to compensate by reading about 5 “queer books.” Representation matters. This novel doesn’t fit in either category, since it has both.

The novel is ethnically diverse, too, even within the same family, thanks to marriages and all. It’s…