IT ENDS WITH US BY COLLEEN HOOVER
“My mother went through it. I went through it. I’ll be damned if I allow my daughter to go through it. I kiss her on the forehead and make her a promise. It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us”
A book that broke my heart and then stitched it back together, I adored ‘It Ends With Us’. A story that is all too common and familiar and yet forbidden to be discussed and
addressed, this is a brave attempt by the author to bring forth an honest and unbiased picture of people who do and of people to whom these things happen. We often hear incidents like the ones discussed in this book but how many times does anyone truly understand the inner struggles of the people involved and their helplessness to get out because they don’t have the support from friends, family, and society.
“Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.”
Without revealing the plot, I will just say that Colleen Hoover takes up two major social issues and brings them to light in a new perspective. I was shocked and ashamed to admit that I was among the people who question why the victims don’t do anything. It is so easy to comment and so difficult to really be in their shoes and experience it first-hand, which I did while I read this book.
“All humans make mistakes. What determines a person’s character aren’t the mistakes we make. It’s how we take those mistakes and turn them into lessons rather than excuses.”
I laughed, cried, felt empowered, and then impressed as I followed Lily. I loved Ryle and Atlas, both handsome and charismatic men but with one major difference that set them miles apart. Lily’s relationship with both of them sets the pattern for the story and showcases two types of love, both powerful but only one is the right kind.
“In the future… if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again… fall in love with me.” He presses his lips against my forehead. “You’re still my favorite person, Lily. Always will be.”
———————KEERTI UDASI, 3 BPTH
ANXIOUS PEOPLE BY FREDRIK BACKMAN
It would be a crime to categorize this book under only one genre. If you want to laugh, read non-preachy philosophy, enjoy a dark comedy which somehow will be your lightest read, then this is the book for you.
I hope with this review, without revealing much of the premise, I can intrigue you enough to pick up this book.
The beginning itself starts with a cold open of supposedly a bank robbery, only for the robber to realize that the bank is cashless. At his wits’ end, the robber ends up taking hostage a bunch of people who came for an apartment viewing nearby.
Amongst the many hostages is Zara, a bank manager who goes for apartment viewings to combat her loneliness, a disparate couple, who renovate and sell apartments, a lesbian couple, who are expecting a baby. Estelle, a widow, who is there on behalf of her daughter and Lennart, an eccentric actor, who ends up emerging from the bathroom dressed as a rabbit.
This uncanny case of bank robbery turned into a hostage situation is to be solved by an inexperienced father-son duo, Jim and Jack, who are as confused as the reader as to what lies ahead in a situation where the hostages are free whilst the hostage- taker has gone missing from in front of their eyes!
———————FORUM DOSHI, 4 BPTH
WITH LOVE FROM LONDON BY SARAH JIO
There are some reads that leave a mark and this is one of them. If you are a lover of books, literature, and handwritten letters, this is a book you have to read. This is definitely in the list of my treasured books now. Honestly, this review probably doesn’t even do the book justice.
In this story, Valentina is faced with a looming divorce and an inheritance from her long lost mother, Eloise – a bookstore. Her inherited love of books as well as her curiosity about her mother’s life sends her to Primrose Hill, London. Her mother had set up a scavenger hunt before she passed, and through the people Val meets and the books she finds, she embarks on a journey of love, loss, hope and forgiveness.
This book is so beautifully written, thought provoking, and heart breaking as much as it is heart-warming. It is a love story within a love story – from alternating timelines to dual points of view, both blend in with each other so seamlessly that when the timelines converge at the end of the book, you are in tears.
What I absolutely adored was how the common love for books was used as the main theme behind the scavenger hunt, love stories, and the parallels between mother and daughter despite time and distance.
The supporting characters also held their own and are so charming that you can’t help but be completely taken with them. While this does have romance elements, it is so much more than that. The mother daughter bond, the fond family, the self-discovery journey are all so brilliantly executed that I felt like I was there in London myself.
———————SHEHREBANU PATANWALA, 1 BPTH
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS, BY ARUNDHATI ROY
This literary masterpiece won The Booker Prize in 1997 and is the debut novel of Indian writer and activist, Arundhati Roy. This book always has a rather polarizing effect on its readers. You either fall completely in love with it, or you end up entirely detesting it. I, of course, fall into the former category.
The book begins in the late sixities, in small town Kerala. In this town lives a family – Ammu, her brother Chacko, her aunt Baby Kochamma, and her dizygotic twins Esta and Rahel. What follows is their story- of love and loss, in the backdrop of communism, sexual abuse, sexism, caste based violence and police brutality. All of these themes remain extremely relevant today.
Even today, many lives are marred by social constructs, “the love laws” as Ms Roy calls them, that lay down “who should be loved, and how. And how much.”
This book is simply unputdownable, melancholic and hauntingly beautiful. Each sentence seems to have been carved with great care, into a thing of beauty- which flows with liquid grace alongside the easy familiarity with which Ms Roy writes about the places and the people.
I believe this book to be a timeless classic. A must read for all those who are not afraid to explore what it is to love, and to be, in the world, as it is, with all its grim realities.
I want to end with one of my favorite quotes from this book.
“And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.”
———————BILWA SAWANT, 4 BPTH
Glint 2022 