“The Scarlet Throne” by Amy Leow

This book pulls off a rather difficult trick. The main character is very clearly the villain in the overall story; she does a lot of truly horrible things; and yet the author manages to let me maintain empathy for her.

The book takes its premise from the living goddesses of Nepal. These are young girls who are believed to be the avatars of goddesses, and are worshipped as such, for a time. Generally their term of office (as it were) ends around puberty, and a new girl is chosen.

The protagonist (as it were) of this book is Binsa, who was selected as the vessel for the goddess Rashmatun as a young child, and has remained in the position much longer than is typical. This is because of a secret she holds very close: she has never experienced the presence of Rashmatun. Indeed, she is reasonably certain the goddess does not exist. Instead, she has a demon, who is willing to lend her power, for a price.

Binsa is willing to pay that price (which escalates as the story continues) because she is determined to maintain her position, and not go back to the streets. And when she finds out that the priests are nudging things along towards choosing her replacement, she gets desperate and begins crossing lines. Then more lines. Then with all she’s done, what’s one more line?

It’s unusual to have a villain protagonist actually willing to be an straight-up villain. No one ever thinks of themselves as one, but usually in books marketed as “villain protagonist” it’s more morally grey at worst. Not here. Binsa does terrible things, by choice, knowing exactly what she’s doing. She’s conflicted about them, and feels guilty, but does them anyway.

And a thing that was almost refreshing - she’s not that good at it. She’s not an evil genius, she’s desperate and scared. She’s able to make it work because she has a demon willing to lend her power in proportion to what she’s prepared to pay, and she’s prepared to pay a lot, but everyone else has agency and plans of their own.

Not a perfect book. It was rather messy, in fact, which actually felt appropriate because Binsa herself is a mess. But it was very good, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.