Chiconomical

Ravi Subramanian is one of those Indian writers who has impressed me. I have read two books by him and enjoyed both immensely. In The Bestseller She Wrote, he ventures into a slightly different territory where he explores relationships and offers a story of Love, Revenge and Deception... or so the cover states. Oh, and its also going to be a major motion picture soon. And that's where a lot of the problem lies, but we'll come back to that later.

The bestseller she wrote is the story of a best-selling Indian author, Aditya, who is also a banker and somehow manages to churn out bestsellers while excelling at his high end job. The story focuses on his life and his sometimes questionable decisions and essentially how he come out of the mess that he creates for himself. The other lead character is a budding writer, Shreya, who is ruthless when it comes to achieving her dream. Unimaginatively, we already know that Aditya will fall for Shreya and that's essentially the crux of the book. Of course, this wouldn't be a proper story of love without a love triangle and the last side of this particular triangle is made by the Aditya's wife Maya, who was actually the most realistic character in all of the book for me.

The book starts with Aditya meeting Shreya in predictably sensational circumstances. There's the initial dislike that turns into lust/love over time. For the first half of the book, Maya is always lurking in the background, being the dutiful wife and is still level headed and has her own goals. The romance between Aditya and Shreya didn't feel as passionate as it was supposed to. They have a relationship while they both know its wrong and its quite clear from the start that Shreya is simply using him for her gain. The book that she's supposedly written is always there in all their conversations. I kept reading the book, hoping something interesting would happen, but somehow the book was predictable. I did like the little nod to Blogadda and a few other tricks that writers use in the current day and age. The part where the wife finds out (big surprise) and disowns her husband is yet again, predictable. The circumstances that lead to it seem contrived and while there is an effort, I wish the writing was more crisp. With a little tweaking the twists that come at the end (yes there are a couple of them) would have had a much great impact. For a reader used to crime fiction and thrillers, the twist was extremely predictable and hence, lost its potency.

The characters are mostly stereotypical. Aditya reminded me a lot of Chetan Bhagat and I wondered multiple time if this was intentional. The book is still and quick and easy read (my friend who doesn't quite like reading also managed to finish it in two days) and I have a feeling will find a lot of love from readers who like Indian authors and romances. The revenge part that the book claims to have, never really came through for me and the redemption was a little one-dimensional. Maybe its just me, I'm not a believer in instant reversal of emotions.

All in all, the book is a quick read and is a good choice for some light reading. Personally, I expected more from Mr. Subramanian who had become one of my favorite Indian authors  with God is a Gamer, which was a great thriller. I wish there was a lot more thrill in this book and it didn't read like a movie script, but then its always good to explore uncharted waters, especially if you're a writer.

I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!