[3] Bhavye Doye writes for Open Magazine that Kumarasamy "grew up among migrants and refugees who had packed their belongings and sorrows when they were cleaved from their homelands, and embodied within themselves a subcontinent of unarticulated experiences.
"[1] In addition Half Gods, she wrote a novel, titled Meet Us by the Roaring Sea, that was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in August 2022.
[6][8][9] Half Gods was named in the "Best of 2018: Short story collections" by Scroll.in,[10] one of "6 Summer Books That Explore the Immigrant Experience" by The Village Voice,[11] and an Editor's Choice by The New York Times,[12] as well as featured on the "Lest We Forget: A Reading List" by PEN America,[13] "Four terrific fiction debuts by Asian-American women not to miss" by USA Today,[14] and "Short Story Collections That Should Be on Your Must-Read List" by Redbook.
[15] In a review for The New York Times, Tania James writes, "As Akil Kumarasamy pointed out in a 2017 interview, the Tamil equivalent of goodbye is poyittu varen, meaning “I’ll go and return."
[16] In a review for the Hindustan Times, Sonali Mujumdar writes that the novel "has its primordial roots in that tumultuous time, but the larger canvas is about exile, adopted cultures, about families and people that have crossed continents to make new lives, colliding awkwardly with each other in their chosen lands," and "Kumarasamy rips open wounds, lays them bare, washes and wipes, and secures her creations; disjointed pieces of trauma and treasures, that come together to piece an irregular whole.
"[9] In the Kenyon Review, Elinam Agbo describes the novel as "a lyrical, speculative novel set in a near future where violence is as unrelenting a reality as it is in our present moment.
"[25] In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Ilana Masad writes that the book, "is under 300 pages, and there is certainly a lot going on, but it all feels beautifully balanced — chapters threaded together nimbly, the translated manuscript and the protagonist’s life echoing each other.
"[26] Jonathan Russell Clark describes the novel in a review for the Star Tribune as "a brazenly complex, labyrinthinely structured, deeply philosophical, thematically ambitious novel, and although it may not be the breeziest read, it is also a masterpiece that more than confirms the promise of "Half Gods.