Can We Be Strangers Again?

by Shrijeet Shandilya

In the electric haze of college life, three friends are bound by laughter, latenight talks, and unspoken promises. But when two of them cross the line from friendship into love, everything changes. Betrayal shatters their world, leaving one friend to pick up the pieces while navigating her own complicated feelings. As friendships fracture and love grows tangled, hearts are broken, and choices become irreversible.

Caught between the ache of lost friendship and the bittersweet pull of love, Dev must decide if he’s willing to risk everything—again. A moving tale of love, loyalty, and the bittersweet beauty of letting go.

Genres: Love, Romance, Romantic, Fiction, Friendship, Emotional, Self Help

228 pages, Paperback

Published December 17, 2024

Reviews

[Ankita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Issues with it:

1) I couldn’t really understand when exactly we were going in past and returning back to present. If we had different chapters for it, it would have been much better.

2) The book sadly shows the realistic parts of life and I hate every single second of it.

3) Dev was a little one dimensional in some way and I wish he gave himself more love than he was lending everyone around him.

4) “Love makes you dumb.” That’s literally all the characters of the book.

[Ankita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Felt like I was reading a diary of a toddler who couldn’t decide between two toys. This is the politest way I can review this book.
Rubbish. I wasted my time, energy and money on this book. The only thing that is good in this book is the cover page. Pretty colour. The inside… not at all…

[Deepa · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a waste of time and energy! I kept turning each page to see if Dev will ever grow up out of this so called love he has but no. His life and the two girls in his life- Tanishka and Avantika. One is a girlfriend who is not ready to tell the world yet and the other is a friend who loves but can’t accept the fact there is a girlfriend in the equation! All this during college days!

Fast forward to MBA and still the friend or lover or girlfriend or what thing continues. Some cigarettes, a bit of booze, some teenage love and friendship and the every year birthday of Dev- 14th October. The End!

I picked up the book for the beautiful cover and the title (thats what the 1 star is for) – but sorry I am now a stranger to this book

[Nancy Singhal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reopens old wounds, pulling you into memories you both want to forget and hold on to at the same time. It captures the longing for someone who truly listens and understands, the fear of losing people, and the heartbreak of being misunderstood or left behind. I have so much to say about it yet struggle to find the right words—it's as if the emotions are weighing on my chest, unbearable yet unspoken. All I can say is that it’s a deeply moving read.

[Depti Kangu · Rating 1 out of 5]

As someone who’s been reading books for years across various genres, I genuinely cannot recommend Can We Be Strangers Again? to anyone looking for depth or originality. The writing feels more like a teenager’s Wattpad draft, riddled with grammatical errors and cliché Instagram quotes disguised as profound lines.

The characters lacked accountability—Dev, in particular, constantly played the victim while emotionally cheating on Avantika. He never truly loved her; his actions spoke more of temptation than love. Avantika made mistakes, yes, but so did he. And the best friend? She knew she was a second option and still kept crawling back, even while being in a relationship herself. The emotional entanglements were toxic and unjustified, and the story seemed to ignore that.

This book is overhyped, underwhelming, and frustratingly inconsistent. It might appeal to new or young readers who are just beginning their journey, but for those of us who’ve experienced literature with emotional complexity and authenticity—this falls painfully flat.

[Shishira Sameera · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was effing ChatGPTed. like i can see feel the AI in the lines. and also, were the editors sleeping? so many grammar mistakes. its like no one in the entire team knows the concept of inverted commas. and why does everything happen only on people's birthdays? everyone is talking about the story. i have read better stories written by 13-year-olds on Wattpad. no plot. no good dialogue. no good writing. At least use the PRO version if you are going to use ChatGPT for the entire book. The quotes were cringey and Instagram coded. Don't ever write a book again.

[Shuhab Uddin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Totally rubbish. I just wasted my time & energy on this book. The only thing good about it is the cover.

Felt like I was reading the diary of a 14-15-year-old teenager. The main character, Dev, used to hate cigarettes and alcohol (completely shareef bacha), but now he’s addicted to cigarettes and Old Monk.

His life revolves around two girls — Tanishka (best friend) and Avantika (girlfriend). A girlfriend who isn’t ready to tell the world about their relationship, and a best friend who loves him but can’t accept it. This is all happening during college days — the 2020 COVID-19 period.

I kept turning each page to see if Dev would ever grow out of this so-called love, but no. The story fast-forwards to his MBA at IIM Goa, and it keeps jumping back and forth. You never really know when he’s in Goa and when he’s in Bangalore.

Anyways, I did enjoy his four birthdays in this book — yeah, every year’s birthday of Dev, 14th October. That’s it. The End. Khatam. Tata. Bye.

This book is unnecessarily overhyped, totally underwhelming and disappointing, and frustratingly inconsistent.

It might appeal to new or young readers who are just starting their reading journey. But for those who’ve experienced literature with emotional complexity and authenticity — this falls painfully flat.

Written very immaturely, it contains so many grammatical errors (it’s riddled with them), and the author has used cliché Instagram quotes and disguised them as profound lines.

I genuinely cannot recommend Can We Be Strangers Again? to anyone.

[Mayank Joshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always wondered whether emotional or physical cheating is more brutal. Shrijeet Shandilya’s novel digs deep into this, exploring love, heartbreak, and growth. Dev’s journey of trust, betrayal, and self-discovery is raw, emotional, and unforgettable.
A must-read!

[Ashwini Mandal · Rating 1 out of 5]

I still can't see the point the book was trying to make. The incoherent progress of story, the characters and the overuse of the phrase "lost a part of myself" all added to my frustration. Couldn't wait to be done with this book.

[Fatima · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book feels quiet, emotional, and painfully relatable. It captures the kind of heartbreak that doesn’t scream but slowly settles in your chest. The emotions feel raw and real, especially if you’ve ever experienced love that didn’t work out.

[bookish Norm#1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hey guys, never ever read this one during your work hours or on a workday—it can totally ruin your whole day. I just finished reading it today and now I’m working extra hours to catch up… totally messed myself up!
Save it for a holiday when nobody cares what you're doing— 🙏🙏🙏

[Bhavyaa ꨄ︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bittersweet read.


It explores hurt, love, hatred, loss, betrayal, and friendship, everything a student experiences during college life. The writing is simple, which is exactly why it feels real and, at times, very relatable.

I’m usually not into love-centric stories, but this one felt different. It isn’t just about love; it’s also about loss and everything that comes with modern relationships.

While reading, there were moments when I smiled, laughed (especially at the Hindi lines), and even felt genuine empathy for the characters.

What I adored the most was how lifelike the story felt. The dialogues, emotions, and challenges seemed so natural that at times it felt like I was part of the story; as if I were one of the characters.



Not dramatic, not perfect; just real, and that’s why it worked.


3.8/5 ⭐

[Sundu · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Can We Be Strangers Again"? A question to every one of those who unintentionally broke an individual heart and trust ! 😩♥️

[♡«Annesha»♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gentle, emotionally resonant tale of college-era love and heartbreak, “Can We Be Strangers Again?” by Shrijeet Shandilya delicately captures nostalgia, online connections, and the ache of parting. Rooted in pandemic-era solitude, it explores loss and longing with honest simplicity—quietly lingering in your heart long after the last page.

[Fra Me · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it’s wonderful when someone has the dream of writing and actually makes it come true. This book shows that you don’t have to be a professional author to do so. I find it written in a very authentic way. It also shows that friendship and love come with the same challenges everywhere, no matter which culture or part of the world you come from.

As a foreign reader, I found it a bit unfortunate that many of the dialogues were written in Hindi. I couldn’t understand them, and it’s a bit too tedious to use a translator all the time — although I assume the author used it to express certain things more vividly. In between I had problems to follow, is it present or past. It needs a clearer structure.

Even though the book was published through a publishing house, there are still a few errors, such as missing periods at the end of sentences, which shouldn’t really happen.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book and would love to read more from the author. Perhaps a sequel?

[Sai Bhargav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can We Be Strangers Again? is an emotional and relatable book that explores love, heartbreak, and the pain of losing someone who once meant everything. The author beautifully captures the unspoken feelings, memories, and conversations that stay with us even after a relationship ends.
What stood out to me was how real the emotions felt. The writing is simple yet powerful, making it easy to connect with the characters and their journey. This book reminds us that sometimes loving someone deeply doesn���t mean staying together forever, and moving on can be just as painful as holding on.
Overall, it’s a touching read for anyone who has loved, lost, and wondered if it’s possible to turn shared memories into silence again.

[Arzmeen Muljiani · Rating 1 out of 5]

With a heavy heart I give it a one star. When I started reading it, the chapters were quite short, some only one side of a page but that wasn't the reason for this poor rating. The beginning was a bit confusing as sometimes the central character goes into flashback mode and then again returns into the present so it was a bit difficult to follow. As the story progresses and we try to make sense of what really led to this title and try to understand the emotions, there is a lot of repetition of situations and circumstances which makes one want to skip those parts and get to the real crux of the story.
Probably if the author had cut down those repetitions the story would have been shorter and so would the book pages.
Also in some places there are Hindi dialogues used (written in English) so if a non-Hindi knowing person reads them, it would make sense as there is no translation there.
It could have been a decent first-time attempt, but I would like to appreciate the ending and the author's sincerity in writing this.

[Ishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to get so attached to this book it truly moved me. What touched me the most was how it explored not just love but the pain of losing a friendship something people don’t talk about enough That emotional struggle is captured with such honesty as it stays with you long after you finish. 🫶 So so good.

[Kausi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books feel like therapy. This is one of those kinds of books 🤍

[Charu]

Worth of reading

[Owen Lister · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of languages wasn't ideal as an English speaker but Google lens saved me there I guess. A bit repetitive at points but nice to try something I wouldn't typically read.

[Atulya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The storyline sounds like a real life story, a very common life story of everyone i assume.
A very neutral view from my side.
Even though it is an English novel it has Hindi wording in it, which will be understandable for any Indian native but for one who doesn't understand Hindi might not understand it, the message at the end was pretty.
Felt good after reading the book, me who personally didn't like reading, started liking the book reading.

[Bushra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can We Be Strangers Again? is an emotional read that captures the messy, complicated side of love and heartbreak. Shrijeet Shandilya’s writing feels honest and relatable, especially in the way it portrays young relationships — full of passion, confusion, and hard choices.

However, I personally struggled to connect with the male character. The way he developed feelings for two girls made it seem like he was emotionally cheating, and that really affected how I viewed his story. It felt unfair to both girls, and it made it harder to sympathize with him.

That’s why I think Tashika did the right thing by walking away after he chose Avantika over her. It showed strength and self-respect — a reminder that sometimes letting go is the healthiest form of love.

The book is heartfelt and touching at times, but also frustrating because of how flawed the characters are. It’s realistic in that sense — love isn’t always clean or fair — but it left me more reflective than romantic.

✨ “Some people don’t deserve to stay, but they teach you how to never settle for half-love again.”

[bookish.norm · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m fully satisfied with her writing. The characters and emotions really connected with me. the hero going through that ‘living alone’ phase felt interesting—I really loved that part. The only thing I didn’t get was the random Hindi lines without translations. I couldn’t fully connect at those parts.

But overall, I thoroughly enjoyed ❤️

[Kajal Kapur · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some books leave a lasting impression. Others, unfortunately, leave you wondering why you started them at all. This book falls firmly into the latter category.

Marketed as a NATIONAL BESTSELLER, this book attempts to explore themes of love, betrayal, and emotional conflict between friends. However, what could have been a sensitive and nostalgic story turns into a frustrating, amateurish attempt at storytelling.

The biggest issue is the writing itself. The language is broken, unpolished, and full of grammatical errors. The author tries to sound profound but ends up being confused. Sentences often read like unfinished thoughts, and instead of drawing readers in, they push them away. What’s worse, there are long patches of dialogue in Hindi (likely meant to feel authentic) that instead come off as jarring and awkward, acting more like speed bumps than enhancing the story.

The characters, including the protagonist, Dev are paper-thin. Their motivations are unclear, their actions inconsistent, and their emotional arcs barely developed. We’re told there's a love triangle and emotional fallout, but it’s never truly felt. Their conversations are forced and lack any real emotional punch. As a reader, it’s hard to connect with any of them, let alone care about what happens to them.

Dev, the protagonist, is particularly difficult to empathise with. He comes across as confused and directionless, not just in the plot, but in voice. The supporting characters are equally vague. Instead of layered, conflicted individuals, we’re left with one-dimensional outlines that never come to life.

The pacing is sluggish, the structure loose, and the transitions between scenes clumsy. There’s no real narrative grip to hold the reader’s attention. Important emotional moments are either rushed or dragged out to the point of tedium. There's a lot of telling and very little showing. And when you finally expect something meaningful, you're hit with more awkward dialogue or a poorly written monologue.

The book doesn’t evoke emotion, instead it demands it, without earning it. The story tries hard to be deep and moving but ends up feeling superficial. The emotional beats are either underwhelming or melodramatic. Even the heartbreak, which should be the most poignant part, comes across as flat and unconvincing.

In all honesty, this book reads like an underdeveloped draft that needed much more work before being published. I am especially miffed with the team at Penguin who probably slept through the edits of this book. I wonder what the marketing team was high on when they labeled the book with the 'NATIONAL BESTSELLER' tag. (I really want to know who declared this book that!)

Don't get me wrong, the story has potential with themes like lost love, broken friendships, the pain of growing up, but it is completely buried under poor execution and clunky writing.

As a reader who appreciates emotional, character-driven stories, this was a deeply disappointing experience. There is no shame in writing a debut novel, but there is a responsibility to respect the reader’s time and attention. Sadly, this book does neither.

Can We Be Strangers Again is a missed opportunity, and possibly one of the weakest books I’ve ever read. Unless you're looking for a case study in what not to do when writing contemporary romance, you’re better off skipping this one.

[Divine · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books i ever read.

Starting with the language, there were plenty of repetitions in dialogues and terms, which was very annoying to read every single time. I bet there must be atleast 10+ times he mustve used the world "whirlwind". Sometimes he just ran out of words to express, which was very obvious.

The use of Hinglish very often throughout the book made it look even worse. Maybe he would've thought that it convey the emotion without losing the essence, this might work for ppl with hindi knowledge, i feel bad for non-hindi readers at this point. Moreover, it shows the inability of the author to write in English as well as keeping its essence.


When it comes to the story, the main character, Dev is just pathetic, his story, his world, it was very pathetic to read. He doesn't even have the sense of maturity or accountability of a 17 yo.
He accuses his ex for cheating him, meanwhile hes also cheating her by having a more than just friend relationship with his friend. Fact is this was only discussed at the very end of the book, until then he was tryna cover it and convince himself as "were just friends" what kinda bullshit is that.
It was frustrating and ironic to read.

He's stupid, aggressive, double sided, irresponsible, narrow minded and pretentious.

For example, theres a lot of instance where he often forgets that he has life other than the two ppl he always hang around. His parents took loans for his studies and all he does and thinks is about these two people. I feel bad for him and his parents. This is a pure example of age doesn't define the maturity level. And despite everything he scores 91% what a surprise. He must be a superhuman or something.


Ah, there's a part where he becomes very poor at judging and ends up being ironic, he cracks a joke that his ex(Avanthika) and his ex's ex(Mihir) are twins-- in terms of drama!. But in reality, he was the one who made a the drama.

It was suffocating and cringe to read after a certain portion, i was like "when im gonna wrap this shit!!!??"

The only reason i brought this book was the title, it felt deep, relatable, and i could grasp the idea of the book already. But ended up being the worst book.

The book's build quality is good, the papers and cover were soft enough to slide through which was a relief.

I still don't understand the character of Tanishka.
At first, according to Dev's pov, she never initiated the chats, she talks freely only when shes around Avanthika, later she confesses that Dev didnt gave any attention, dev only cared about avanthika, and more bla bla, seriously? It made nk sense and very poor writing of a character.
And intentionally forced herself to committed to a toxic guy. --- we already know whats gonna come next, it was forced and typical character development.

Dev also states that IIM Goa is the place where toxicity peaks, but to be real, Dev's mind is the place where i find the toxicity peaks.

[Dezirani Sahu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot - The book delves into the themes of love, friendship, betrayal, heartbreak healing and move on. In the electric haze of college life, three friends are bound by laughter, late-night talks and unspoken promises. But when two of them cross the line from friendship into love, everything changes. Betrayal shatters their world, leaving one friend to pick up the pieces while navigating her own complicated feelings. As friendships fracture and love grows tangled, hearts are broken, and choices become irreversible. Caught between the ache of lost friendship and the bittersweet pull of love, Dev must decide if he’s willing to risk everything again.

What I liked?

I loved how this book made us realize that how life goes on so quickly and the people with whom we plan our future becomes a mere stranger in later. And stranger are nothing but the familiar faces who meet us at the crossroads of who we were and what we're meant to be. And that's the irony of life. I loved this whole realization more than anything and for this I have given it such rating. Besides this I liked the quotes of the book more than the writing.

What I didn't like?

The book is too much centered about the male protagonist Dev, it would have been better if it had been from a female perspective as well. Despite this, it lacked character development, especially of the female characters. Every emotional problems were there about the people in love but the only solution to all those emotional problems was cigarettes, I mean seriously!

And after reading it, I felt like it was a half-made story on the theme of love and friendship. It was neither completely focused on love nor on friendship. And the repeated use of Hindi language where there was probably no need for it seemed to me a lack of luster in writing.The first half of the book was a bit OK, but its second half felt like it was deliberately tampered with to make it a little longer.

Should you read it or not?

If you are in your teens, you might love it most but if you are an adult then it is not for you. Nevertheless, giving every book a chance should always be considered as our preferences. And everyone's taste is different so if you want you can give it a try.

[Fictionandme · Rating 3 out of 5]

can we be strangers again by shrijeet shandilya

genre : contemporary romance

My 💭:
[5/11/25 7.16 PM]

Fans of Durjoy Dutta, Chetan Bhagat and Ravinder Singh, please assemble! I have found the perfect book recommendation for you!

The first thing that grabbed my attention towards this book, other than @amazon feed, was the beautiful cover. There's a certain calmness and serenity exuding from it. And I knew that I had to read it asap. As a reader who thoroughly enjoys books about love and friendship and the complexity of human emotions, the blurb got me hooked. So, finally, I started reading it yesterday.

Right from the first chapter I knew this was going to be an entertaining read for me. The narrator of the story, Dev, is a personality who's 100% different from me. So reading from his pov was quite an experience. From the beginning only I got to know about this doom like situation concerning a mysterious girl called Tam. She had messaged him, asking to be strangers again. Hence, our boy is very sad and heartbroken and reminiscing about what happened between them from the start. Thus starts the flashbacks to his past from 4 years back when his love story started with his college life. And finally, we get to meet the two other important characters, Avantika and Tanishka, who, quite literally, shaped his story.

I honestly had such fun reading this story. The writing style is quite easy to read and everything was straightforward. The author portrayed the domain of college love and friendships and heartbreak and stress and study pressure in a very realistic way. At some points, I wanted to shake these characters and shove some sense into their heads 😂. But I really liked how all the characters were flawed and from a 3rd person pov, it was quite evident. There are many hindi phrases in the story which might be difficult for non-Hindi speaking readers to understand. Plus, a college boy's inner monologue was quite crass for my taste 🙊. The good thing is there's no such villain in the story, rather the craziness of human emotions drives the plot. The ending was quite neat and wrapped everything up nicely.

[Ananya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The distinction between timelines was not clear at all. One moment we are in a flashback, and suddenly we’re back in the present without any warning. I remember thinking, why did he step out onto the balcony to smoke in the middle of such a good conversation with his crush?—only to realise later that the flashback had already ended. And this wasn’t a one-time issue; it happened repeatedly throughout the book.

The book also desperately needed better editing. There were numerous spelling mistakes and even repeated paragraphs, which clearly weren’t intentional. They felt like genuine errors and made the reading experience quite distracting.

I understand that Dev is pursuing an MBA at IIM Goa in the present timeline. Mentioning it once or twice would have been enough. Instead, it was brought up in almost everything he did or thought—“In MBA…”, “I thought like an MBA student…”, “Classic MBA move…”—and the constant repetition became extremely monotonous.

The story begins with intense drama, immediately telling us about the betrayal Dev has faced. Naturally, this builds an expectation of something deeply emotional—something heartbreaking, or at least strong enough to make us resent the other characters. Ironically, by the end of the book, I found myself disliking Dev instead.

Dev as a character lacked self-preservation. He was clearly confused about which girl he wanted, yet he still chose the one he assumed he loved. Avantika isn’t a character I particularly like, but at least she was living her life. At several points, Dev came across as almost pathetic, which is not something I prefer in a main character. I did like Tanishka, though of course, that character had her own set of issues.

Overall, it felt like Dev constantly created problems where none actually existed. Turning simple situations into complicated emotional messes seemed to be his specialty.

I picked up this book because of its cover and the intriguing summary on the back. Unfortunately, what I got instead was a sloppy, soap-opera-style story I never asked for. Quite a disappointing read, honestly.

[Hailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this book expecting an emotional story about complicated relationships, but what I found instead was deeply frustrating and, at times, triggering.
Dev is portrayed as a conflicted romantic, but his behavior felt more like entitlement than love. He idealizes Avantika as a “dream girl” and then feels disappointed when she turns out to be a real human being with flaws. The moment he discovers she smokes, he thinks, “this is not how I imagined her,” which felt less like concern and more like a sexist expectation of purity. It was uncomfortable to see a woman reduced to a fantasy and then judged for not fitting into it.
What made it worse was his emotional cheating. While being in a relationship with Avantika, he continues to feel jealous over Tanishka’s boyfriend and emotionally drifts toward her instead of being honest with his partner. He justifies this by pointing out that Avantika is friends with her ex, as if that makes his own betrayal fair. This double standard felt hypocritical and immature.
The narrative spends a lot of time exploring Dev’s inner turmoil but sidelines the women affected by his choices. Avantika is kept in the dark, Tanishka becomes more of a symbol than a person, and Dev’s confusion is treated as something we’re supposed to sympathize with. That imbalance made the story feel misogynistic in pattern, even if not in intention.
What bothered me most is that this kind of behavior is framed as romantic or tragic instead of being clearly called out. A man being disappointed that a woman is human, flawed, and imperfect should not be presented as deep love.
I didn’t just dislike this book. I felt angry that I spent money on it. It reminded me too much of real-life situations where women are put on pedestals and then punished for falling off them. Instead of feeling moved, I felt irritated and disrespected as a reader.
This book might work for people who enjoy messy love stories, but for me, it normalized emotional dishonesty and male entitlement in a way I couldn’t ignore.