A review by st0bbit
The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

there’s several themes discussed in this story that i thought where done particularly well. the american dream (or tara and salim’s version of it), maintaining your sense of identity in a completely different country with widely separate culture, tara’s trauma and how it manifested in her everyday life. tara isn’t one of those lovable main characters — but the way her grief affected her, and her behaviour was understandable to me, although certainly not justified. and while the change did feel very jarring and abrupt, especially in the way she viewed mukta after — i think that’s also a part of grief, and how it seemingly overwhelms and transforms those affected by it. the descriptions of india as well is the sort of representation i wish we could see in more books about developing countries that tend to be looked down upon or even vilified by western media. focusing on the everyday moments and the bustle of life that is so important to those living there. it’s the little things, the good and bad and even the ugly, like the prevalence of masala chai drank, religious rituals, the red light districts, the persistence of caste divide that really reflect the realities of what life in india might look for a variety of different people. so i really liked reading those descriptions, or the busy traffic, the familiar sounds and scents of bustling neighbourhoods, that make india feel like home to so many people. and of course, the use of terms frequently spoken by those living in indians. they all humanised the country the story was set in, to a lovely and familiar degree.

this book also doesn’t feel consistent, in the sense that there were aspects i both liked, and didn’t like as much at other times. the language was fluid and poignant, but also abrupt and repetitive at other points. the distinction between when police was good and when they were corrupt felt unclear and again, inconsistent when it came to the brothels and the organizations. the relationships overall felt unnecessary, but made sense in the wider scheme of the story. 

but some elements in the book threw me off as well; the dialogue being one of the first things that stuck out to me. there are some lines that you knowww damn well no one would say in real life. this is especially seen in brian, with his fake-deep lines that ended up coming across as pretentious. about the relationship between him and tara…. no chemistry at all, especially with the whirlwind way it seemed to start. but perhaps that was the author’s intent, and i did enjoy reading about how tara’s trauma and grief manifested through her  feelings towards him. speaking of tara…. sometimes the ways she’s written in her pov’s feel like a shell of the way others perceive her. especially from mukta’s pov… i get that she idolised tara, but when she waxes poetic about tara’s stories, and the way she sees the world, or her bravery… it’s not reflected enough in tara’s everyday behaviour, apart from like. one rare moment in the story. so it was hard seeing what ended up drawing mukta and brian to her. if anything, mukta was the one who saw the world differently, uniquely. smaller things, like a lack of punctuation or typo perhaps missed out in the editing process, and italicised words that threw me off because they felt extra.

but overall, it was bittersweet story with closure, and does shine light on issues and backwards traditions that do still exist to this very day in such countries. while there were a number of things i did not particularly enjoy about this story, what was done well were all done really well, and i particularly enjoyed those bits!
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