#BookReviews
Title: Soft Target
Author: Kalyan Nanda
Publisher: Notion Press
Pages: 212
Price: Rs. 249
My Rating: 3/5
Blurb:
Is God good? Or is He a manipulative villain who plays with the lives of his creations in the name of karma? As far as Mohan Mishra is concerned, God is a villain. Mohan is God's soft target, for He 'blesses' him with a strange mental problem and kills his support system when he needed it the most. The Soft Target is the story of a boy's journey into manhood, as he takes on God with his mental prowess, defeating Him at every stage, thus making God his soft target. Supported by great friends and a loving wife, Mohan fights an epic battle against the murderous society, the conniving legal system and ultimately God himself, with remarkable courage and spirit.
Review:
While reading blurb, soft target seems like an interesting book and believe me it is.
Firstly Kudos to the author for coming up with a story that revolves around a man who has such strange and rare mental problem. Mohan, the protagonist of the book is a genius - a literal genius, but suffers from mental issues. Sounds ironic but it is true (I don't want to spoil author's suspense here so please read the book to know about it :D). The story basically revolves around his life from boyhood to manhood and his struggles and his challenges with God - who apparently is the villain of the story.
What I liked about the book is the ultimate message it is trying to convey. Mohan, from whom everything has been taken, uses three tools of life to achieve great heights i.e. Hope, Knowledge, Guts. The story motivates readers to follow their dreams and always have hope. It motivates one to attain enough knowledge to reach the goal and finally, motivates one to have enough guts to see it through.
The other characters of the story, Samidha, Brij, Nikhil and Revathy. Their story is nicely gelled together with Mohan's and at times you feel you are not getting enough of them.
Another thing that I really liked about the book is the explanation of certain things, like life, hope and song - 'Hotel California'. Read it, I am sure you will like it too.
What I didn't like about the book is its predictability. To me it was highly predictable at times and ruined the fun. There were some grammatical errors but one can ignore them. Also, it is like the only book which actually has abusive language in some places. I have read books where people drop f-bomb (my upcoming novel too has it) but to have Hindi ones is rare. I believe author believed it to be integral part of story line but sorry to say I didn't find it appealing, instead I found them distracting.
Another thing I didn't like was the parallel story line. It goes one from beginning and pops up every now and then. To me it ruined the flow and could have been better. Yes, it was very important for the ultimate climax but still!
Talking about climax (and few other scenes), it is very - very depressing. I know all novels don't have to be happy ending but this one got very depressing. I made a mistake and read whole book one a weekend and it led to a bleak Sunday evening - so head's up.
My rating to the book is 3/5 primarily for the good script, unique thoughts and motivation.
I hope you enjoy the book too.
You can grab the copy here.
The review copy of this book was shared with by Cyclops Literary Services.
Love and Cheers.
The other characters of the story, Samidha, Brij, Nikhil and Revathy. Their story is nicely gelled together with Mohan's and at times you feel you are not getting enough of them.
Another thing that I really liked about the book is the explanation of certain things, like life, hope and song - 'Hotel California'. Read it, I am sure you will like it too.
What I didn't like about the book is its predictability. To me it was highly predictable at times and ruined the fun. There were some grammatical errors but one can ignore them. Also, it is like the only book which actually has abusive language in some places. I have read books where people drop f-bomb (my upcoming novel too has it) but to have Hindi ones is rare. I believe author believed it to be integral part of story line but sorry to say I didn't find it appealing, instead I found them distracting.
Another thing I didn't like was the parallel story line. It goes one from beginning and pops up every now and then. To me it ruined the flow and could have been better. Yes, it was very important for the ultimate climax but still!
Talking about climax (and few other scenes), it is very - very depressing. I know all novels don't have to be happy ending but this one got very depressing. I made a mistake and read whole book one a weekend and it led to a bleak Sunday evening - so head's up.
My rating to the book is 3/5 primarily for the good script, unique thoughts and motivation.
I hope you enjoy the book too.
You can grab the copy here.
The review copy of this book was shared with by Cyclops Literary Services.
Love and Cheers.
Nice review, Kritika...the books sounds interesting... :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Maniparna.
DeleteDo give it a try, it is interesting...
Nice balanced review....
ReplyDeleteThanks Rajeev :)
DeleteCheers