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nuts246's review
5.0
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I live stories where authors collaborate without any planning or discussion. Written during the Lockdown, it was a different take on loneliness. And went towards a surprise end.
I live stories where authors collaborate without any planning or discussion. Written during the Lockdown, it was a different take on loneliness. And went towards a surprise end.
monikasatote's review
3.0
The COVID pandemic has impacted all of our lives in many ways. Needless to say, the negative impact is evident. The lives are lost. The jobs are gone. The businesses collapsed, and so did some dreams. The mental health of the people is declining, and so many other things. On the positive side, we have been seeing people following passions, running small businesses to build their business empire someday, some people got viral on the internet, and their lives are not the same anymore. The most important thing, I feel, is people got time for themselves, to reflect on their past, their mistakes, their present, their needs, their thoughts and that changed many things. Unfortunately, not everyone was lucky to be in that position. The overall impact of Covid is significant.
Last year, around this time, Harpercollins started a crowdsourced novel. The first chapter is written by Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee and all the other chapters are written by other people who are either published authors or aspiring ones. Such a cool idea.
So, this book is about Manorama who lives in Mumbai with her husband Vinod and two kids. One morning, she wakes up only to find out her husband, kids, and maid vanished from the house. She looks outside the window, the city feels extremely silent, the same city that never sleeps. She tries calling her mother and some close people but gets no response. After some time, a stranger calls her. Through this call, they realise that both of them are the last ones and all other people have disappeared? What would have happened to them? Why are these people the last ones?
The idea of crowdsourced novels is super cool, and honestly, this felt like one story. Nowhere I could find a hint that each story is written by a different author except that it was mentioned in each story, lol. My curiosity and excitement were at their peak in the first half. I really appreciate the first few chapters. Chitra gave this book a great start that somehow made amazing initial chapters. Another thing I must mention is no matter what, no writer let the Manorama go out of her character. It felt natural, the things were flowing.
But as I decided to read ahead, I suddenly felt like reading some random stuff. When I say random, it is not about the new characters or weird stuff. The characters were still there, but the twists and turns were not impressive. I wanted to like this book so I was trying to understand the hidden messages, symbolism through the story but I was disappointed. As a story, it is okay. But it could have been better in the last chapters. It wasn’t worth my curiosity. I like the message but not this book as a book. I don't know how to explain, so that's all from me :)
Last year, around this time, Harpercollins started a crowdsourced novel. The first chapter is written by Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee and all the other chapters are written by other people who are either published authors or aspiring ones. Such a cool idea.
So, this book is about Manorama who lives in Mumbai with her husband Vinod and two kids. One morning, she wakes up only to find out her husband, kids, and maid vanished from the house. She looks outside the window, the city feels extremely silent, the same city that never sleeps. She tries calling her mother and some close people but gets no response. After some time, a stranger calls her. Through this call, they realise that both of them are the last ones and all other people have disappeared? What would have happened to them? Why are these people the last ones?
The idea of crowdsourced novels is super cool, and honestly, this felt like one story. Nowhere I could find a hint that each story is written by a different author except that it was mentioned in each story, lol. My curiosity and excitement were at their peak in the first half. I really appreciate the first few chapters. Chitra gave this book a great start that somehow made amazing initial chapters. Another thing I must mention is no matter what, no writer let the Manorama go out of her character. It felt natural, the things were flowing.
But as I decided to read ahead, I suddenly felt like reading some random stuff. When I say random, it is not about the new characters or weird stuff. The characters were still there, but the twists and turns were not impressive. I wanted to like this book so I was trying to understand the hidden messages, symbolism through the story but I was disappointed. As a story, it is okay. But it could have been better in the last chapters. It wasn’t worth my curiosity. I like the message but not this book as a book. I don't know how to explain, so that's all from me :)
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