A review by abiolajohnson
The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar

2.0

This was an odd book and not just because some of the structure - some chapters were short paragraphs but because of the narrative which h was at times unbelievable and at times disjointed. I understand that racism is real and I myself have been a victim of some micro-aggressions which have racial undertones. But a lot of what is described in the story appears rather far-fetched and exaggerated. I could be living in La-Lal land but I cannot imagine that people could be so openly cruel to someone who is of a different race. There was a scene at a dry cleaners which I thought was very contrived. I spent a great part of the book trying to figure out the set of circumstances that led to the protagonist getting killed in her own home. The author skirts around this and makes vague references to it would have served the story well if this had been better fleshed out - a story/character arc which resulted in an unexpected climax perhaps. I did enjoy the author’s inventive use of language and phrases like ‘trees swing like pendulums’ are what kept me reading the book even after I begun to find the story rather tedious.