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Friday, September 25, 2015

I Don’t Wear Sunscreen by Kavipriya Moorthy : A Review



BOOK TITLE: I Don’t Wear Sunscreen
ISBN: 978-9352061662
AUTHOR: Kavipriya Moorthy
GENRE: Fiction / Chic Lit
NUMBER OF PAGES: 87
FORMAT: Digital / epub
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK:
          The author sent me a digital copy in exchange for an honest review. I thank her for it J
SUMMARY:
          For Laksha, life is a gift wrapped in red ribbon. But that’s all shattered when she falls for the misogamist Prabhu. His ambivalence and vacillation always keeps her at bay, turning her into a neurotic. She gets betrayed by the most credible, loses her job, feels devastated and dejected as incidents crowd upon her corrupting her naiveté.
          Enigmas unfold revealing every glitch. Who will clear her blurred skies? What invigorates her career and life? Will she ever forgive her beloved? And how will Laksha survive?
          The story also revolves around her rapport with Pallavi, a childhood friend and the relationship she has with her silver-tongued mom. Focusing on how experiences change perception of little things, this contemporary tale gives a better meaning to friendships, relationships, solitude, pain, compassion and success.
          More often than not, Life drags you down to the adversities and thrusts outward to shine. It is your grit that truly matters when you reach rock bottom, and left with no choice other than to pick yourself up and leap forward, however arduous it may be!
REVIEW:
          I Don’t Wear Sunscreen – chick lit, and every bit as quirky as the title itself. It would make you want to read the whole thing to even know why it was named this way.
          The book is short – only 87 pages in the digital copy I was sent and I finished it within a night. The first impression about the book is its cover page. The theme – sunset, a woman (in a silhouette) looking reflectively at it over a water body – reflects the mood of the book – slightly dark with some amount of betrayal and loss, and a woman surmounting it and reflecting on life. This goes to say each person can interpret the cover in their own way, according to which part of the book appealed to their tastes.
          Now to the story itself – it starts in July of 2009. Laksha the central character has an inseparable best friend in Pallavi. The girls do almost everything together and have been friends since their childhood. Then as time progresses, they each choose different streams of education and go their separate ways. Laksha goes on to Mumbai while Pallavi goes to Coimbatore and pursues her engineering to get a job and save her family from impending poverty.
          Laksha and Pallavi’s friendships are nicely written, with the right amount of closeness, ego, silly fights and of course the twinge of jealousy. Laksha feels possessive and jealous of Pallavi’s friendship with a man she met but quickly shrugs it off as Pallavi declares that she does not place any man in a higher place than her friendship. Little moments like these are what makes the usual reader feel connected to the story as is. But the friendship does come to a chasm. 
          Time plays a huge role in their separation as the frequency of calls reduces from ‘once daily’ to ‘once a week’ and then stops after a point of time. Laksha feels good in Mumbai with a good job that comes from the recommendation of her good friend Sai. Alone in the big city, Laksha finds a friend in Sai, and slowly begins to fall in love with him. She begins to enjoy life in the city and is in a happy phase.
          But one day, Laksha comes home from Mumbai and encounters a strange and horrifying experience in the train that leaves her traumatised. Her parents and everyone around her are naturally worried sick but Laksha finds her way home, only to be a victim of Post Traumatised Stress. During this time, she learns many shocking truths about the events in her life and experiences the bitter taste of betrayal. What happened in the train journey and how and why it affected Laksha so much forms the second half of the story.
          The writing is from the heart – raw, direct and sometimes seemingly born out of emotions rather than the critical storyteller’s impartial words. But a seasoned reader cannot help but feel that a few more expressive phrases could have lent the story some more interesting moments. Save for a few really good dialogues, the words are read as a whole and not as individual memorable conversations. More of this would have made this a 'quote book' people usually remember words from - thereby the story too. The book has a lot of unused scope for it. There are places where the characters could have been given a bit more depth from a perspective to make them stand in the reader's mind. I really enjoyed reading about Laksha as a flawed but perseverant heroine - protagonist.

The trials faced by Laksha and how her parents react to that are explained brilliantly. The twist at the end – and the big, hyped title reveal give the sudden jolt to the reader numbed by all the revelations of twisted betrayal in Laksha’s life. The language could do with some polishing and a little more careful editing could have avoided the typos and phrasing errors. These do not however hamper the overall reading experience because the reader manages to skim through them as a part of the story.
          The idea of starting the story with a shocking prologue (Jan 1st, 2014) and suddenly going almost five years behind makes the reader almost forget how the story started. Only almost near the end will the reader remember the incident at the prologue. The book is written at a slow pace initially and rushes towards the end with many details coming hard and fast. This makes you read some parts again and again to understand the various implications.
          I finished this story in a few hours and I really did like it as a whole. The review points out the finer points of the story and the complete reading experience that is the book. The characters are realistic, not larger than life and prone to human weaknesses. The words follow a similar path. Overall, a commendable debut attempt by the author with huge room for improvement. Looking forward to her second book!
WHAT I LIKED:
          The story, the character of Laksha’s mother, the dilemma of Pallavi (all through the story) are well written
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
          The big reveal almost slips by unnoticed – epilogue has to be read a few times to be understood fully. The enormity hits you only on slow reading.
VERDICT:
          Go for it if you like your chic lit novels with a brooding theme in some places. This is not a feel good romance.
RATING: 4/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kavipriya Moorthy is a Chennai based business analyst and a freelance content writer. A thorough ambivert and a pampered southpaw, she possesses a flair for carving creative ideas. She runs a blog that talks about professional ethics: http://yoursprofessionally.com, and scribbles her prancing thoughts at https://preethinakshatra.wordpress.com. She is also a guest writer on various blogs, e-magazines and has contributed to an anthology
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Digital / Paperback
PRICE: Rs. 199 for Paperback


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