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A review by thenovelbook
That Thing about Bollywood by Supriya Kelkar
2.0
This middle-grade book is a jumbo-sized metaphor to teach younger readers about the benefits of expressing their feelings instead of bottling them up.
Sonali has always loved her Bollywood movie nights with family, but she herself couldn't be further from the singing, dancing, overacting, emotional expression of the movies. Tension and fighting between her parents has wounded her so deeply over the years that she thinks the only way to cope is not to feel. Then her family starts to split up for real.
In a fantastical, magical twist, suddenly Sonali's world is turned into a Bollywood extravaganza, where everyone has their own soundtrack and everyone sings or dances their feelings at the drop of a hat. Including Sonali herself. She's horrified at the way her feelings are starting to escape her. The longer it goes on, the more Bollywood her life becomes. Will she ever get out of this absurdity? The only hope is if she can learn to genuinely speak her feelings to the people around her.
The message is a truly worthy one, and I really liked the discussion that Sonali finally has with her best friend Zara about how friends aren't mind readers and that they have to tell each other what they're feeling.
But the device of a magically-Bollywood-infused world goes on rather too long and could have been more effective in a somewhat shorter book. Also, different readers may have different reactions to the supposedly inevitable split-up of Sonali's family, which to me was the most regrettable part of the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this advance review copy.
Sonali has always loved her Bollywood movie nights with family, but she herself couldn't be further from the singing, dancing, overacting, emotional expression of the movies. Tension and fighting between her parents has wounded her so deeply over the years that she thinks the only way to cope is not to feel. Then her family starts to split up for real.
In a fantastical, magical twist, suddenly Sonali's world is turned into a Bollywood extravaganza, where everyone has their own soundtrack and everyone sings or dances their feelings at the drop of a hat. Including Sonali herself. She's horrified at the way her feelings are starting to escape her. The longer it goes on, the more Bollywood her life becomes. Will she ever get out of this absurdity? The only hope is if she can learn to genuinely speak her feelings to the people around her.
The message is a truly worthy one, and I really liked the discussion that Sonali finally has with her best friend Zara about how friends aren't mind readers and that they have to tell each other what they're feeling.
But the device of a magically-Bollywood-infused world goes on rather too long and could have been more effective in a somewhat shorter book. Also, different readers may have different reactions to the supposedly inevitable split-up of Sonali's family, which to me was the most regrettable part of the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for this advance review copy.