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The Painted Ocean
When I was a little girl, my dad left me and my mum, and he never came back. And you're supposed to be gutted when that happens. But secretly I preferred it without him, cos it meant I had my mum completely to myself, without having to share her with anyone. And I sort of inherited all the affection she used to give to my dad - like he'd left it behind for me as a gift, to say sorry for deserting me
So says eleven year old Shruti of her broken home in suburban middle England. But hopes of her mother's affection are in speaking little English, and fluent in only Hindi and Punjabi, Shruti's mother is lost, and soon falls prey to family pressure to remarry. To find another husband means returning to India and leaving Shruti behind.
Meanwhile at school a new arrival, the indomitable Meena, dispenses with Shruti's bullying problems and transforms her day to day life. Desperate for companionship Shruti latches on to Meena to the point of obsession, following her through high school and on to university. But when Meena invites Shruti to join her on holiday in India, she has no idea how dangerous her obsession will turn out to be...
Gabriel Packard's THE PAINTED OCEAN has been described by Colum McCann 'as fearless tour de force. It is a rare achievement - an emotionally rich work of literature, delivered in the form of a gripping, page-turning story. The depiction of a British Indian childhood and adolescence is utterly compelling, as is the allegorical exploration of the human condition.'
So says eleven year old Shruti of her broken home in suburban middle England. But hopes of her mother's affection are in speaking little English, and fluent in only Hindi and Punjabi, Shruti's mother is lost, and soon falls prey to family pressure to remarry. To find another husband means returning to India and leaving Shruti behind.
Meanwhile at school a new arrival, the indomitable Meena, dispenses with Shruti's bullying problems and transforms her day to day life. Desperate for companionship Shruti latches on to Meena to the point of obsession, following her through high school and on to university. But when Meena invites Shruti to join her on holiday in India, she has no idea how dangerous her obsession will turn out to be...
Gabriel Packard's THE PAINTED OCEAN has been described by Colum McCann 'as fearless tour de force. It is a rare achievement - an emotionally rich work of literature, delivered in the form of a gripping, page-turning story. The depiction of a British Indian childhood and adolescence is utterly compelling, as is the allegorical exploration of the human condition.'
417 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
March 3, 2016
I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
This is a book of two halves. I loved the first half where Shruti is struggling to cope with overt racism and bullying at school and a weak and indecisive mother at home, who is a prisoner of her Asian culture. In her desperation to be loved and to belong, Shruti continually puts her trust in those who are destined to fail her. Her eternal optimism is endearing, but fatally flawed, and she is incapable of learning from her mistakes. Here, Shruti’s story is very believable and heart-rending.
The writing is informal, in the first person, and all from Shruti’s point of view. The words jumble out of her mouth, and it is as though she is standing in front of you pouring out her life in a vain attempt to be heard, understood and accepted. The emotion in her story is inescapable and very moving. You speed up your reading, as though to assure her that you are listening. At this stage you desperately want to hug her and give her what she needs.
Then she goes to university, and the second half of the book begins – suddenly it all gets very dark. Her poor decisions get her into a violent and very nasty situation. At first you feel her anguish, but as time goes on and the situation continues to deteriorate and she STILL won’t make a sensible decision, your patience starts to wear thin. The last quarter of the book is just a rather ridiculous fantasy – still well written, but with little or no link to reality.
The book is definitely worth reading – if only for the phenomenal first half. But I did feel that the second half – and particularly the ending let it down – hence my 4 rating.
This is a book of two halves. I loved the first half where Shruti is struggling to cope with overt racism and bullying at school and a weak and indecisive mother at home, who is a prisoner of her Asian culture. In her desperation to be loved and to belong, Shruti continually puts her trust in those who are destined to fail her. Her eternal optimism is endearing, but fatally flawed, and she is incapable of learning from her mistakes. Here, Shruti’s story is very believable and heart-rending.
The writing is informal, in the first person, and all from Shruti’s point of view. The words jumble out of her mouth, and it is as though she is standing in front of you pouring out her life in a vain attempt to be heard, understood and accepted. The emotion in her story is inescapable and very moving. You speed up your reading, as though to assure her that you are listening. At this stage you desperately want to hug her and give her what she needs.
Then she goes to university, and the second half of the book begins – suddenly it all gets very dark. Her poor decisions get her into a violent and very nasty situation. At first you feel her anguish, but as time goes on and the situation continues to deteriorate and she STILL won’t make a sensible decision, your patience starts to wear thin. The last quarter of the book is just a rather ridiculous fantasy – still well written, but with little or no link to reality.
The book is definitely worth reading – if only for the phenomenal first half. But I did feel that the second half – and particularly the ending let it down – hence my 4 rating.
February 6, 2016
I don't always think it's helpful to slam a debut...but damn, this book was hard work.
The voice of young Shruti is painful. I think the stream of consciousness style is supposed to reflect the turbulent and emotional thoughts of a teenager, but it feels wrong. I'm not sure the author has connected at all to the gender or age bracket of his main character. Plus, the incredible repetition of 'cos' was grating after the first few pages, never mind chapters. The plot is lost in a realm of fantasy, which would be fine if the writing and characters were worth following. For me, they weren't.
My apologies to Little, Brown Book Group and Netgalley but I had to give an honest review in exchange for this copy.
The voice of young Shruti is painful. I think the stream of consciousness style is supposed to reflect the turbulent and emotional thoughts of a teenager, but it feels wrong. I'm not sure the author has connected at all to the gender or age bracket of his main character. Plus, the incredible repetition of 'cos' was grating after the first few pages, never mind chapters. The plot is lost in a realm of fantasy, which would be fine if the writing and characters were worth following. For me, they weren't.
My apologies to Little, Brown Book Group and Netgalley but I had to give an honest review in exchange for this copy.
February 12, 2016
I really loved this fascinating novel and found it impossible to predict where it was going to go to. The story is told by Shuruti from being a child to woman. All her insecurities, obsessions, need for love and friends. The betrayals from adults she should have been able to trust when she asked for help and the bullying no-one would acknowledge. You are in her mind, know her thoughts and feelings. At times she breaks your heart and at other times you cringe and want to shout at her, "what are you doing?" But how far would you go to get your mum to choose you over Asian custom and for friendship when you have never had a friend? The choices she makes put her into an impossible situation that has disastrous consequences.
When you read this novel you simply cannot guess the outcome and that is what I loved. It was like a choice had been made as you read it, every moment was just happening. This is what fiction is all about the author can take you wherever they want. Gabriel Packard makes it memorable, you won't forget this story, it won't blend into others later. His character Shuruti is still child like even as an adult, in a lot of respects and still carries all her insecurities into her future.
The second half of the novel is very harrowing, violent and disturbing. The different ways one human can be to another to degrade them. Very sad. Brilliant end.
I wish to thank Netgalley and The Little Brown Book Group U.K for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
When you read this novel you simply cannot guess the outcome and that is what I loved. It was like a choice had been made as you read it, every moment was just happening. This is what fiction is all about the author can take you wherever they want. Gabriel Packard makes it memorable, you won't forget this story, it won't blend into others later. His character Shuruti is still child like even as an adult, in a lot of respects and still carries all her insecurities into her future.
The second half of the novel is very harrowing, violent and disturbing. The different ways one human can be to another to degrade them. Very sad. Brilliant end.
I wish to thank Netgalley and The Little Brown Book Group U.K for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
February 14, 2016
This is definitely a 'love it or hate it' book and I loved it. I found it genuinely exciting, heart touching, well written and,above all, very entertaining. A fellow member of my online book club said she found it 'far fetched' but I disagree with that point of view - I found the escalating horror of the events in the second half all too possible in the 21st century.
An unexpected treasure in a flooded sea of thrillers-by-numbers.
Many thanks to NetGalley and all others concerned for letting me review this book.
An unexpected treasure in a flooded sea of thrillers-by-numbers.
Many thanks to NetGalley and all others concerned for letting me review this book.
February 22, 2016
I absolutely devoured this novel. The first part had me wanting more. My heart went out to Shruti and I couldn't believe what was happening to her. This part would make a good television adaptation. I also enjoyed the second part although completely different this could have been difficult to read for some people but not for me. It had me reading into the early hours of the morning. This would have been a five star read except that I felt the ending was rushed and rather unbelievable hence four stars. But will definitely read more from this author.
Thank you to Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2016
This is a most extraordinary, imaginative and compelling novel. The central character, Shruti, will break your heart as she describes the provisions of her childhood, trying to cope and support her mother in a hostile world. There were points in the early stages of the novel when her despair and her childish misinterpretations made it almost too painful to read on. Throughout the novel it is her immature, clear eyed narration that carries the reader on, discovering with increasing horror how her inability to cope alone, especially at university, leads her to make some pretty terrible choices. There is a serious and significant social point to be made here about how the system let her down and left her, emotionally stunned and naive at eighteen, to cope alone in the adult world. Equally heart breaking is the contrast drawn between her life experience up to this point and that of her fellow, South Indian students.
The second half of the book, following Meena's betrayal is equally compelling, although it feels hard to believe. Despite this, the matter of fact narrative voice carries the reader on, as Shruti' s situation becomes increasingly desperate.
Her triumph and the resolution of the story is quite magnificent, showing how her intellegence and determination leads her to success and security, although sadly does not being her the friendship and live that she craves.
A uniquely compelling voice and an outstanding imaginative and original story. Highly recommended.
The second half of the book, following Meena's betrayal is equally compelling, although it feels hard to believe. Despite this, the matter of fact narrative voice carries the reader on, as Shruti' s situation becomes increasingly desperate.
Her triumph and the resolution of the story is quite magnificent, showing how her intellegence and determination leads her to success and security, although sadly does not being her the friendship and live that she craves.
A uniquely compelling voice and an outstanding imaginative and original story. Highly recommended.
December 3, 2015
When I first picked up this book I had absolutely no idea what it would be about - it's so nice to go in blind occasionally - I was pleasantly surprised.
The first section of the book was about Shruti's turbulent childhood and I actually thought I was reading a YA book. But this was soon to change drastically - murder, rape, slavery etc. soon transformed the book to something else.
Although the result was somewhat unbelievable it was enjoyable, I liked the creative writing references towards the end and understand the far off interpretation clearly from having studied literature and creative writing myself.
I would defiantly recomend this book for those looking for something away from the mainstream.
The first section of the book was about Shruti's turbulent childhood and I actually thought I was reading a YA book. But this was soon to change drastically - murder, rape, slavery etc. soon transformed the book to something else.
Although the result was somewhat unbelievable it was enjoyable, I liked the creative writing references towards the end and understand the far off interpretation clearly from having studied literature and creative writing myself.
I would defiantly recomend this book for those looking for something away from the mainstream.
February 25, 2016
I found the first half of the book quite easy to read and I was able to relate to the main character in some ways, maybe because we would be the same age and growing up as part of a single parent family I found some of the things that happened rang true.
In the second half of the book things become very dark and I don't think I was quite prepared for how horrible some of the situations would be. Well done to the author who did not shy away from exploring the darker parts of human nature.
I did have sympathy for the main character, despite her annoying vernacular, which did not mature as she grew up in years. Perhaps this was deliberate to show how she was not able to grow and mature as a person as she was not given the love and nurturing in her adolescent years.
Parts towards the end are far fetched and a little rushed, but I can overlook this as overall I found the story to be very powerful
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for this honest review.
In the second half of the book things become very dark and I don't think I was quite prepared for how horrible some of the situations would be. Well done to the author who did not shy away from exploring the darker parts of human nature.
I did have sympathy for the main character, despite her annoying vernacular, which did not mature as she grew up in years. Perhaps this was deliberate to show how she was not able to grow and mature as a person as she was not given the love and nurturing in her adolescent years.
Parts towards the end are far fetched and a little rushed, but I can overlook this as overall I found the story to be very powerful
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for this honest review.
February 29, 2016
This literary fiction novel tells the unusual story of Shruti, whose father left and whose mother doesn't speak English and is manipulated and controlled by the family elder to remarry. Shruti is bullied at school and feels a total misfit until new girl Meena arrives, giving her hope she can finally have a friend, but things do not go how Shruti hopes and Meena's influence on her life will leave indelible marks.
The first half of this novel won't stretch your imagination too much and seems plausible as Shruti struggles to stay with a parent who is at best weak willed. The dynamics of South Asian families and the sense of not belonging anywhere Shruti feels is well written.
The second part of this novel will tax your levels of plausibility but despite that I found it impossible to stop reading and was totally absorbed with finding out what happens to this unfortunate character.
Written very much in the vernacular of Shruti and solely from her point of view, this story about a girl who is starved of love and somewhere to belong stayed with me after I finished the book.
The first half of this novel won't stretch your imagination too much and seems plausible as Shruti struggles to stay with a parent who is at best weak willed. The dynamics of South Asian families and the sense of not belonging anywhere Shruti feels is well written.
The second part of this novel will tax your levels of plausibility but despite that I found it impossible to stop reading and was totally absorbed with finding out what happens to this unfortunate character.
Written very much in the vernacular of Shruti and solely from her point of view, this story about a girl who is starved of love and somewhere to belong stayed with me after I finished the book.
February 11, 2016
It's a dark read with a colloquial voice and a bittersweet ending which can be a risk for the author but I appreciate it for what it is. The island sections serve as a deeper metaphor that people don't often want to see. I enjoyed the book for its deeper meaning.
March 8, 2016
The Painted Ocean was a novel that intrigued me from the moment I read the blurb. It seemed to have a very strong voice and the different elements of the story seemed interesting. However, I was unsure of how it would all fit together so I was looking forward to reading it. Thanks to Corsair and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The plot of this novel is truly a miracle in the sense that if I tried to describe it to someone who hadn't read the book there is no way I could show how all the different storylines are linked and how it all makes sense. Starting off as seemingly a coming-of-age novel The Painted Ocean focuses on Shruti's worries about her mother and their life. The racial elements in the book which focus on Shruti's origin and her peers' response add a new level to the book, whereas her friendship with Meena turns our ideas about racial identity around and makes us reconsider the role of friendship in a teenage girl's life. Throughout the novel there are moments where time passes quickly, months, sometimes even years flying past in a few lines. And it works for The Painted Ocean although it's a risky technique. Packard's writing is a big reason as to why all the potentially bad moves work. He captures characters well, he describes settings and action well and brings it all together into a narrative that is somehow coherent. In that sense the novel reminds me of Life of Pi, where the story feels so absurd and yet makes perfect sense in and of itself.
I've mentioned Shruti's voice a few times already and I think it needs some explaining. Packard writes The Painted Ocean in what feels like a first person stream-of-consciousness. When we first meet Shruti and she's a child turning teenager the novel is littered with 'like' and 'cos' and 'whatever' and I can see how that could work on a reader's nerve, especially considering the author is a University-educated white male writing a young, Indian teenage girl. I had my hesitations about it initially but everyone who has talked to young teenagers trying to be cool and fit in recognizes this kind of speaking. Fascinating was the way in which Packard aged Shruti and the way her situation and the people around her affected how she spoke. And surprisingly, towards the end, The Painted Ocean makes a number of fascinating comments about the nature of storytelling. Throughout the whole narrative we have followed Shruti on what feels like "in the moment" narration where the end brings some doubts into it. She doesn't become unreliable but we as readers do. It is a beautiful switch, which I won't discuss too much to leave some twists and turns, and I love books that make the reader consider their own position and how they "create" a book in their own mind due to what they think is right or isn't.
Reading The Painted Ocean was a great experience although I can see how it might not be for everyone. It is the kind of book that requires some dedication but that is very rewarding in the end. I'd recommend it to fans of novels like Life of Pi which stretches the imagination a little bit.
For full review: http://universeinwords.blogspot.co.uk...
March 15, 2016
I think the people who find the protagonist's voice annoying just don't like females. Packard creates a believable character who speaks through a unique voice. There's no use in creating a first person protagonist that just sounds like a third person protagonist but with a different pronouns. Over-all an engrossing read, which seemed like a dream I couldn't wake up from. The worst thing that can happen during a book is that you don't care about the characters at all. I experienced the emotions of the characters so closely so that I felt trapped with them. Literature isn't always supposed to make the reader feel good. It's about the range of emotions that can be portrayed through art.
March 26, 2016
Whilst this story is incredibly far fetched, I actually quite enjoyed it and I think younger readers might be more forgiving with regards to the implausibility. I started off thinking I was reading s book that was going to lead to an honour killing but was surprised by the turn it took leading to a romping 'adventure' of imprisonment, slavery and abuse all taking place on a remote Indian island. There is strong language, rape, torture and gruesome death and because of this content, I feel I would have to restrict readership to my older students in the school library. Shruti suffers so much at the hands of her mother's Uncle leading to her mother giving her up to avoid shaming her family. She is bullied at school for being Asian and her only 'friend' is Meena - the other Asian girl who is trouble. Just as it seems Shruti is starting to stand on her own two feet - even if it is on a stolen passport in New Zealand, Meena storms back into her life, luring her to India on false pretences. She takes her to remote island where she and her much older boyfriend live and helps him to keep Shruti a slave. They are cut off from the world until a Filipino man returns to the island to avenge his son and nephews deaths at Steve's hands. Shruti manages to escape with bags of gold that Steve had horded and sails back to England(!!!) setting herself up making jewellery to launder the gold. Compelling and yet unbelievable. I would still probably recommend to some students who I know would not be disturbed by the content.
April 8, 2016
I really appreciated the voice of this novel though it was difficult to read at some points because you truly felt for the character. I think the author took a daring risk with the second part but I think it fit into the whole story in a deeper way. Something I would recommend, especially for those who see beyond what exactly is written on the page. This is a story of heartbreak, yes.
February 26, 2017
The book from last year I will never forget. A rape survivor, a victim of human slavery and parental neglect, who never recovers. All told in a flippant, youthful voice, to misdirect. I have memorised passages from this book and whilst I respect differences of opinion, when somebody tells me that they hated this book I like them a little less.
April 8, 2016
This book was the strangest story I have ever read! Oddly enough it kept me reading right to the end. Looking at other Amazon reviews they really are quite mixed. This is to be expected. Anyway I really enjoyed the story even though it was simply written and bizarre.
April 7, 2016
I couldn't put this book down, I read it in two sittings over two nights. It's written in quite a strong voice which takes about two or three pages to get into but then you just get sucked into the story and you don't even notice it anymore. Lots of twists in the plot. It really makes you feel for the main character, Shruti, with all her problems with her family to start with and then being kidnapped. It really makes you think about problems in the world like human trafficking and people who are just forgotten. I'd recommend this to people who liked Life of Pi and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
January 3, 2017
I had no idea what to expect, as I knew nothing about the story apart from what I heard the author read at Shakespeare and Co. a while back, which was a more humorous section that takes place a little ways into the story. His reading and the strength of the narrative voice really impressed and intrigued me, and I was immediately excited to read the rest.
I have to say I was not disappointed. The book really threw me for a loop. The plot went places I never imagined, and I found myself totally enraptured by the voice. It must have been incredibly difficult to sustain through all those pages, but I really felt inside poor Shruti's head, and I enjoyed it immensely, despite the horrors she went through.
I can see why some people would be put off by the voice, but I found it engaging and engrossing. I would recommend it, for sure.
I have to say I was not disappointed. The book really threw me for a loop. The plot went places I never imagined, and I found myself totally enraptured by the voice. It must have been incredibly difficult to sustain through all those pages, but I really felt inside poor Shruti's head, and I enjoyed it immensely, despite the horrors she went through.
I can see why some people would be put off by the voice, but I found it engaging and engrossing. I would recommend it, for sure.
December 2, 2018
I read The Painted Ocean with my book group and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a strange book but beautiful in a haunting kind of way. I don’t want to give the ending away but there are already a lot of reviews that say what happens, so it’s an island novel in which three people get trapped on a desert island and have to work to survive. It shows the drastic things they do, when they’re stuck in such extreme circumstances.
December 2, 2018
Read this with our book club. I was captivated by the characters and the immersion in a different culture (Indian/British) in part one of the book. In part two I was swept up by the adventure story, which takes place at sea and then on a desert island. It’s intense but I couldn’t put it down and read the entire book in two days, which to me is one of the signs of a good book.
March 3, 2016
Well what can I say ... This has been the most bizarre book I have had to review .
It started off promising with a young girl pulling out all stops to stay with her mum .. And ended up being something you think must be a dream .. Far fetched and just unbelievably strange .
A book that is truly Marmite. And whilst I certainly wouldn't say I hated it .. I can't unfortunately aay I loved it .
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc
It started off promising with a young girl pulling out all stops to stay with her mum .. And ended up being something you think must be a dream .. Far fetched and just unbelievably strange .
A book that is truly Marmite. And whilst I certainly wouldn't say I hated it .. I can't unfortunately aay I loved it .
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the arc
June 27, 2016
This is definitely among the worst books I have ever read. This book is so bad, I’m astonished it’s even been published. The only reason I dragged myself through the entire thing was because every chapter was some kind of fodder for this review. And I’m glad I finished it because the ending was possibly the worst bit of the whole thing, and I have a whole rant about just the last chapter.
To try and be concise and limit my ranting a little, I’m going to break this review up into some main points. There will definitely be spoilers because I don’t care a hoot about this novel and I recommend it to absolutely nobody (except perhaps budding authors who want a good confidence boost about their own writing, because if this crap can get published, there’s hope for us all).
1. Writing Style
Ughhh. Almost every single sentence in this entire book begins with a connective. I challenge you, if you ever see a physical copy, to open it anywhere and find a sentence, excluding dialogue, that doesn’t begin with ‘and’, ‘so’, ‘but’, or ‘cos’. I consciously found about seven in 100 pages before I gave up trying. Even chapters begin with connectives. Even chapters after years-long time skips start with connectives. This whole book, as a result, doesn’t, as I think the author intended, feel like the raw voice of a working class teenager, but just feels like a massive damn list. ‘And then’ was a phrase that drove me crazy. On from that, there was very little variation in sentence structure, which didn’t aid the listiness at all. There’s very little description, zero real emotion, and the ‘show don’t tell’ rule might have literally been thrown out of the window. Which might be okay if you’re a good storyteller, but Packard is not a good storyteller, and nor is his MC, Shruti.
2. Characterisation
The characters in this novel are painfully unreal. Not one of them feels like a person I could meet, not one of them makes any logical sense, and not one of them has any depth or convincing emotion or character development. I didn’t care at all about any of them. They are all stereotypes of some kind or virtually non-existent within the story. There were no nuances that didn’t feel forced and in-my-face.
Shruti, whose voice we are tortured with for the duration of the novel, feels like a middle-class man’s idea of an urban working-class teenage girl. Packard litters her voice with every grating over-done teenage-ism there is (seriously, find me one YA book where teenagers actually talk like this), and it really feels like a whole dad-trying-to-be-in-with-the-kids thing and failing hard. Really, though, she could be genderless there was so little about what life is like for her as a girl/woman in the UK, what it means to be a South-Asian woman losing her culture by being fostered by a white family, even what it means to live with having been raped. Just nothing really but throwaway comments, just to tick a box, like this is how to do emotional development! No, just no. This author cannot write emotion without naming the emotion directly.
Relationships, from familial to friendship to romantic-ish, were just awful and poorly done. We’re constantly told that Meena and Shruti were friends when they were younger, but . . . at no point do we ever see anything remotely like a friendship between them. Even kindness between them is rare. Neither of them change at all between the ages of 11/13 and 18 (including Shruti’s annoying voice). Shruti’s utter stupidity is her downfall in every single situation she’s in (but apparently, she has grades good enough to get into Durham University?). She even apparently forgets what she already knows about people (such as Steve being a murderer) because they offer her a tiny bit of kindness. I think the ending with Shruti making herself into a multi-millionaire businesswoman is meant to be a kind of hurrahforwomen! moment, but it falls flat because I just can’t believe for a moment that Shruti has the brains to run anything more than a lemonade stand.
All women/girls in this book are weak and stupid. We have Shruti’s mum who is a wet blanket and willingly lets her daughter be taken from her because her uncle wishes her to remarry. There’s not much to say about her, really. Shruti likes to point out all the ways her mother isn’t a stereotype of her race/nationality/culture, but really she simply is a stereotype. Packard doesn’t paint those non-stereotype things in anything other than Shruti’s stupid head, and gives no evidence to support her insistences.
Then we have Meena, who is the cliché of a Mean Girl with weed connections, implied intelligence, and psychotic methods of getting her way (but, in contrast to Shruti, can only get into a University in the bottom five? Howw?) who just ends up being manipulated and used by an abusive man until she dies in childbirth. Meena’s meant to be the smart one, but she’s the one who makes the stupidest decisions, really, and ultimately suffers the greatest cost. She witnesses her boyfriend beating a child to death and still somehow thinks he’ll make a great father to her unborn baby. She forewarns Shruti that the aforementioned boyfriend will also rape her, but afterwards has a go at Shruti for being a ‘whore’ and asking for it. I hope I don’t need to explain why this bit screams the opinion of a MAN more than a woman. Really, everything at all about how Packard wrote those multiple rapes, their aftermaths, and the emotional (or lack of) development proceeding them, was just awfully done. This guy has no clue how to write women at all, and certainly no idea of the damage rape does to someone’s life.
3. Ethnic Representation
All four of the main characters are South-Asian apart from Steve. Not one of them represents anything of South-Asian culture aside from a few dictionary terms of clothing or food. I learned absolutely nothing about what it means to be a South-Asian girl growing up in the UK at all. Even when half of the book was set in India, I learned nothing at all except some names of some more Indian foods. Packard’s ‘show don’t tell’ issue is gratingly obvious when it comes to representing ethnic minorities in the UK, but even more obviously lacking when his characters are actually touring their ancestral countries. Really, these characters could all have been from anywhere in the world and it wouldn’t have made any difference at all. Authenticity is not in Packard’s dictionary.
And the worst thing is, I think he’s fully aware of these shortcomings in this novel. I’ll talk more about the meta-creative-writing-workshop ending later, but this is relevant here: ‘my own story’s been, like, taken away from me again by a bunch of white people and turned into something that I don’t want it to be, and I don’t think I’ve got the power to wrestle it back under my own control, or actually I don’t want to have to fight to make people understand my own story of my own life. People should just accept it because I said it, and it’s true.’
This does bring up an important issue of cultural/ethnic/racial appropriation, and racism and how minorities are ignored by the white west. This would be a lot more valid if it wasn't actually just coming from a white man who is missing the point about why POC actually say things like this. The problem with it is that Shruti’s entire rant about the criticisms she receives for her story aren’t about any of those issues, it’s simply about people picking out actual issues with her/Packard’s shortcomings in their writing and not reading the story the way she wants it to be read (ie: sympathy for herself and hatred for her rapist while her readers are much more concerned by the family she watched get murdered and the one survivor she just left behind to potentially get murdered too). If this was an actual autobiographical account, there would be further discussion needed. But this book is ridiculous in basically everything it does, and really Packard has appropriated these cultures and voices himself to check a publishing tick-box and have a vehicle to whine about his own poor writing using the voice of someone he believes can just demand themselves heard because of who they are, which tells you everything you need to know about what Packard understands about the real lives of everyone he fails to represent in his book. Packard is a white man, and he’s written a shoddy book that poorly represents the working class, women, and not just one but two different ethnicities, a multitude of experiences outside of his own experience, and then he has the arrogance to try and make all that seem intended and clever by taking his own criticisms and making those criticisms part of his characters’ experience too. My brain hurts just thinking about it.
4. Plot and Believability
The plot of this book was just stupid, and it just seemed to escalate further and further into the nonsensical the longer it went on. A plot-summary will probably make the lack of believability easier to understand than my ranty uggghs.
11-year-old Shruti’s struggles to not get put into foster care by doing stupid thing after stupid thing (and the author’s terribly unrealistic depiction of the UK’s care system) that actually does end up with her being placed in foster care. Next, 12-year-old Meena’s smart plan to get Shruti out of foster care is to burn down her nasty-uncle’s carpet shop. (Because that’s totally logical?) When that obviously fails, we skip a few years where we learn nothing at all about Shruti’s experiences as a foster kid, and Shruti’s getting herself into Meena’s university and halls through ways the newly-created Data Protection Act would have forbidden. Then Shruti plans a trip to New Zealand, and because she wants to force Meena to not back out (as she only agreed to it while drunk), Shruti ensures that all the tickets are unchangeable and non-refundable, and doesn’t actually remind Meena about it until a day before. To help things along, she also steals Meena’s passport to get her visa and also steals her clothes (because breaking into ‘friends’’ rooms is totally normal/acceptable behaviour?), and when Meena does actually back out, Shruti jets off like identity theft is easypeasy. Second half of the book turns into a poorly-directed remake of Lord of the Flies, with none of the realistic psychological development and all of the insanity and violence of an R-rated Scary Movie. Meena (presumably with Shruti’s passport?) meets Shruti in India for a secret holiday out of the blue. They spend longer getting to the island than it takes for Shruti to become a millionaire after escaping. They meet Steve, Meena’s boyfriend, who promptly brutally murders a family, including a 13-year-old boy, while Shruti watches, apparently not bothered by it. Steve tells Shruti all about the ‘community’ he wants to create on his island and asks her if she wants to join, and because she’s stupid and has forgotten she just watched him beat a child to death, she says yes. After that, Shruti becomes a slave, is raped, beaten, starved, and abused. She gets one speech where she rants at Meena and sounds more intelligent than she has in the entire book. Meena has a baby and both die horrifically in childbirth (with still virtually no emotion from Shruti), and then Steve and Shruti argue and play a weird game of trying to outwit each other (Shruti wants gold, Steve wants to get free and resume his lordship over everyone) and eventually Shruti steals a boat and the gold (leaving grandfather of dead boy to Steve’s wrath) and sails the entire way from some Island near Shri Lanka to Southampton, despite having no boat/sea/navigation experience at all. She then sets up a stall and develops a business and launders all her stolen gold through it, so of course becomes a millionaire. She then has a good old rant about the criticisms her awful writing receives in a creative writing class when all she wants is, and I’ll quote it: ‘is for people to read my story, and to see what these characters did and maybe get involved in the plot, and then talk about how evil Steve was and how much they hate him, and how they feel sorry for the ‘Shruti character’.’
5. The Meta-Ending
I can’t imagine anyone experiencing something like what Shruti supposedly went through as ‘plot’. Plot is created, thought up, it's A-B. It screams author intervention, not the real thoughts of someone presenting their life as fiction. Also, she types up some of the stolen letters of the grandfather she ditched on the island and is angry he receives more sympathy than she did (he watched his son and grandson get murdered!!). She’s not shown to really give much thought at all to the life she abandoned him in, what might be happening now, his emotions and trauma. No guilt, shame, worry, nothing. Just jealousy his story means more to people than hers.
Shruti might have had some decent character growth through her ordeals if Packard could actually write emotion or understood at all what the trauma of being raped and witnessing brutal murders actually does to a person, but alas, nada. He’s caught up in his own inability to write, and tacks on this meta ending in a terrible attempt to make it all seem deliberate and clever. But it doesn’t feel clever, it feels as stupid and as insulting as everything else in this book.
This ending is mostly a whiney list of complaints about criticisms received in a creative writing workshop. Having been to many workshops myself, these comments were actually the only really believable parts of the book — they felt like they’d really been said. And damn, they are so true. They talk about the moral issues/illogicalness with character behaviours that are never addressed by the author/character, use of racial stereotypes, lack of believability, lack of authenticity in any kind of research as well as ethnic representation, lack of character depth or development. It feels like criticism that Packard might have received himself, especially as he comes from an MFA Creative Writing background. It’s maybe good evidence that good writing can’t really be taught after all, and that even some of the people teaching those courses have no clue what they're doing either.
The only point to this book seems to be Packard’s frustration that white people should be able to write about POC if they want to and that their stories mean as much. Which, yes, I half agree with. There are plenty of white authors who write about and in the point-of-view of POC well. But there’s the condition: you have to do it well. There are ethics to writing about people groups, races, countries and cultures, and experiences that you are not a part of, and all Packard has done is jump on the underrepresented/diversity bandwagon like a joyrider and crashed it into a metaphorical wall. His arrogance is astounding. It’s the kind of book that makes me seriously doubt the publishing industry has any idea what it’s doing anymore. It is, however, rather amusing to find out that most of the reviews quoted on the book cover are also just the good-ish bits of bad reviews.
To try and be concise and limit my ranting a little, I’m going to break this review up into some main points. There will definitely be spoilers because I don’t care a hoot about this novel and I recommend it to absolutely nobody (except perhaps budding authors who want a good confidence boost about their own writing, because if this crap can get published, there’s hope for us all).
1. Writing Style
Ughhh. Almost every single sentence in this entire book begins with a connective. I challenge you, if you ever see a physical copy, to open it anywhere and find a sentence, excluding dialogue, that doesn’t begin with ‘and’, ‘so’, ‘but’, or ‘cos’. I consciously found about seven in 100 pages before I gave up trying. Even chapters begin with connectives. Even chapters after years-long time skips start with connectives. This whole book, as a result, doesn’t, as I think the author intended, feel like the raw voice of a working class teenager, but just feels like a massive damn list. ‘And then’ was a phrase that drove me crazy. On from that, there was very little variation in sentence structure, which didn’t aid the listiness at all. There’s very little description, zero real emotion, and the ‘show don’t tell’ rule might have literally been thrown out of the window. Which might be okay if you’re a good storyteller, but Packard is not a good storyteller, and nor is his MC, Shruti.
2. Characterisation
The characters in this novel are painfully unreal. Not one of them feels like a person I could meet, not one of them makes any logical sense, and not one of them has any depth or convincing emotion or character development. I didn’t care at all about any of them. They are all stereotypes of some kind or virtually non-existent within the story. There were no nuances that didn’t feel forced and in-my-face.
Shruti, whose voice we are tortured with for the duration of the novel, feels like a middle-class man’s idea of an urban working-class teenage girl. Packard litters her voice with every grating over-done teenage-ism there is (seriously, find me one YA book where teenagers actually talk like this), and it really feels like a whole dad-trying-to-be-in-with-the-kids thing and failing hard. Really, though, she could be genderless there was so little about what life is like for her as a girl/woman in the UK, what it means to be a South-Asian woman losing her culture by being fostered by a white family, even what it means to live with having been raped. Just nothing really but throwaway comments, just to tick a box, like this is how to do emotional development! No, just no. This author cannot write emotion without naming the emotion directly.
Relationships, from familial to friendship to romantic-ish, were just awful and poorly done. We’re constantly told that Meena and Shruti were friends when they were younger, but . . . at no point do we ever see anything remotely like a friendship between them. Even kindness between them is rare. Neither of them change at all between the ages of 11/13 and 18 (including Shruti’s annoying voice). Shruti’s utter stupidity is her downfall in every single situation she’s in (but apparently, she has grades good enough to get into Durham University?). She even apparently forgets what she already knows about people (such as Steve being a murderer) because they offer her a tiny bit of kindness. I think the ending with Shruti making herself into a multi-millionaire businesswoman is meant to be a kind of hurrahforwomen! moment, but it falls flat because I just can’t believe for a moment that Shruti has the brains to run anything more than a lemonade stand.
All women/girls in this book are weak and stupid. We have Shruti’s mum who is a wet blanket and willingly lets her daughter be taken from her because her uncle wishes her to remarry. There’s not much to say about her, really. Shruti likes to point out all the ways her mother isn’t a stereotype of her race/nationality/culture, but really she simply is a stereotype. Packard doesn’t paint those non-stereotype things in anything other than Shruti’s stupid head, and gives no evidence to support her insistences.
Then we have Meena, who is the cliché of a Mean Girl with weed connections, implied intelligence, and psychotic methods of getting her way (but, in contrast to Shruti, can only get into a University in the bottom five? Howw?) who just ends up being manipulated and used by an abusive man until she dies in childbirth. Meena’s meant to be the smart one, but she’s the one who makes the stupidest decisions, really, and ultimately suffers the greatest cost. She witnesses her boyfriend beating a child to death and still somehow thinks he’ll make a great father to her unborn baby. She forewarns Shruti that the aforementioned boyfriend will also rape her, but afterwards has a go at Shruti for being a ‘whore’ and asking for it. I hope I don’t need to explain why this bit screams the opinion of a MAN more than a woman. Really, everything at all about how Packard wrote those multiple rapes, their aftermaths, and the emotional (or lack of) development proceeding them, was just awfully done. This guy has no clue how to write women at all, and certainly no idea of the damage rape does to someone’s life.
3. Ethnic Representation
All four of the main characters are South-Asian apart from Steve. Not one of them represents anything of South-Asian culture aside from a few dictionary terms of clothing or food. I learned absolutely nothing about what it means to be a South-Asian girl growing up in the UK at all. Even when half of the book was set in India, I learned nothing at all except some names of some more Indian foods. Packard’s ‘show don’t tell’ issue is gratingly obvious when it comes to representing ethnic minorities in the UK, but even more obviously lacking when his characters are actually touring their ancestral countries. Really, these characters could all have been from anywhere in the world and it wouldn’t have made any difference at all. Authenticity is not in Packard’s dictionary.
And the worst thing is, I think he’s fully aware of these shortcomings in this novel. I’ll talk more about the meta-creative-writing-workshop ending later, but this is relevant here: ‘my own story’s been, like, taken away from me again by a bunch of white people and turned into something that I don’t want it to be, and I don’t think I’ve got the power to wrestle it back under my own control, or actually I don’t want to have to fight to make people understand my own story of my own life. People should just accept it because I said it, and it’s true.’
This does bring up an important issue of cultural/ethnic/racial appropriation, and racism and how minorities are ignored by the white west. This would be a lot more valid if it wasn't actually just coming from a white man who is missing the point about why POC actually say things like this. The problem with it is that Shruti’s entire rant about the criticisms she receives for her story aren’t about any of those issues, it’s simply about people picking out actual issues with her/Packard’s shortcomings in their writing and not reading the story the way she wants it to be read (ie: sympathy for herself and hatred for her rapist while her readers are much more concerned by the family she watched get murdered and the one survivor she just left behind to potentially get murdered too). If this was an actual autobiographical account, there would be further discussion needed. But this book is ridiculous in basically everything it does, and really Packard has appropriated these cultures and voices himself to check a publishing tick-box and have a vehicle to whine about his own poor writing using the voice of someone he believes can just demand themselves heard because of who they are, which tells you everything you need to know about what Packard understands about the real lives of everyone he fails to represent in his book. Packard is a white man, and he’s written a shoddy book that poorly represents the working class, women, and not just one but two different ethnicities, a multitude of experiences outside of his own experience, and then he has the arrogance to try and make all that seem intended and clever by taking his own criticisms and making those criticisms part of his characters’ experience too. My brain hurts just thinking about it.
4. Plot and Believability
The plot of this book was just stupid, and it just seemed to escalate further and further into the nonsensical the longer it went on. A plot-summary will probably make the lack of believability easier to understand than my ranty uggghs.
11-year-old Shruti’s struggles to not get put into foster care by doing stupid thing after stupid thing (and the author’s terribly unrealistic depiction of the UK’s care system) that actually does end up with her being placed in foster care. Next, 12-year-old Meena’s smart plan to get Shruti out of foster care is to burn down her nasty-uncle’s carpet shop. (Because that’s totally logical?) When that obviously fails, we skip a few years where we learn nothing at all about Shruti’s experiences as a foster kid, and Shruti’s getting herself into Meena’s university and halls through ways the newly-created Data Protection Act would have forbidden. Then Shruti plans a trip to New Zealand, and because she wants to force Meena to not back out (as she only agreed to it while drunk), Shruti ensures that all the tickets are unchangeable and non-refundable, and doesn’t actually remind Meena about it until a day before. To help things along, she also steals Meena’s passport to get her visa and also steals her clothes (because breaking into ‘friends’’ rooms is totally normal/acceptable behaviour?), and when Meena does actually back out, Shruti jets off like identity theft is easypeasy. Second half of the book turns into a poorly-directed remake of Lord of the Flies, with none of the realistic psychological development and all of the insanity and violence of an R-rated Scary Movie. Meena (presumably with Shruti’s passport?) meets Shruti in India for a secret holiday out of the blue. They spend longer getting to the island than it takes for Shruti to become a millionaire after escaping. They meet Steve, Meena’s boyfriend, who promptly brutally murders a family, including a 13-year-old boy, while Shruti watches, apparently not bothered by it. Steve tells Shruti all about the ‘community’ he wants to create on his island and asks her if she wants to join, and because she’s stupid and has forgotten she just watched him beat a child to death, she says yes. After that, Shruti becomes a slave, is raped, beaten, starved, and abused. She gets one speech where she rants at Meena and sounds more intelligent than she has in the entire book. Meena has a baby and both die horrifically in childbirth (with still virtually no emotion from Shruti), and then Steve and Shruti argue and play a weird game of trying to outwit each other (Shruti wants gold, Steve wants to get free and resume his lordship over everyone) and eventually Shruti steals a boat and the gold (leaving grandfather of dead boy to Steve’s wrath) and sails the entire way from some Island near Shri Lanka to Southampton, despite having no boat/sea/navigation experience at all. She then sets up a stall and develops a business and launders all her stolen gold through it, so of course becomes a millionaire. She then has a good old rant about the criticisms her awful writing receives in a creative writing class when all she wants is, and I’ll quote it: ‘is for people to read my story, and to see what these characters did and maybe get involved in the plot, and then talk about how evil Steve was and how much they hate him, and how they feel sorry for the ‘Shruti character’.’
5. The Meta-Ending
I can’t imagine anyone experiencing something like what Shruti supposedly went through as ‘plot’. Plot is created, thought up, it's A-B. It screams author intervention, not the real thoughts of someone presenting their life as fiction. Also, she types up some of the stolen letters of the grandfather she ditched on the island and is angry he receives more sympathy than she did (he watched his son and grandson get murdered!!). She’s not shown to really give much thought at all to the life she abandoned him in, what might be happening now, his emotions and trauma. No guilt, shame, worry, nothing. Just jealousy his story means more to people than hers.
Shruti might have had some decent character growth through her ordeals if Packard could actually write emotion or understood at all what the trauma of being raped and witnessing brutal murders actually does to a person, but alas, nada. He’s caught up in his own inability to write, and tacks on this meta ending in a terrible attempt to make it all seem deliberate and clever. But it doesn’t feel clever, it feels as stupid and as insulting as everything else in this book.
This ending is mostly a whiney list of complaints about criticisms received in a creative writing workshop. Having been to many workshops myself, these comments were actually the only really believable parts of the book — they felt like they’d really been said. And damn, they are so true. They talk about the moral issues/illogicalness with character behaviours that are never addressed by the author/character, use of racial stereotypes, lack of believability, lack of authenticity in any kind of research as well as ethnic representation, lack of character depth or development. It feels like criticism that Packard might have received himself, especially as he comes from an MFA Creative Writing background. It’s maybe good evidence that good writing can’t really be taught after all, and that even some of the people teaching those courses have no clue what they're doing either.
The only point to this book seems to be Packard’s frustration that white people should be able to write about POC if they want to and that their stories mean as much. Which, yes, I half agree with. There are plenty of white authors who write about and in the point-of-view of POC well. But there’s the condition: you have to do it well. There are ethics to writing about people groups, races, countries and cultures, and experiences that you are not a part of, and all Packard has done is jump on the underrepresented/diversity bandwagon like a joyrider and crashed it into a metaphorical wall. His arrogance is astounding. It’s the kind of book that makes me seriously doubt the publishing industry has any idea what it’s doing anymore. It is, however, rather amusing to find out that most of the reviews quoted on the book cover are also just the good-ish bits of bad reviews.
November 30, 2018
An unusual book. It reminded me of Lord of the Flies, in its plot, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night Time, for its language. Difficult to think of other comparisons. Maybe Life of Pi for its unusual-ness, if that’s a word. The first half of the book covers the main character’s childhood and adolenscence, growing up with her Indian mother and uncle and then being placed into foster care. The second half takes place on an island, and I won’t spoil the plot about how it plays out, but it’s harrowing and left a deep impression on me. The best elements were the plot, which is a page turner, and the characters, who were realistic. The language takes a bit of getting into, its like leaning a different dialect. I got into it after about 5 pages and stopped noticing it after about 10, but this may prove tricky for some readers.
December 29, 2015
Received this book as a first reads giveaway from goodreads. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.
Overall rating : 1*
Characters : 1*
Plot : 0*
Writing : 3*
Believability : 0*
I don't quite know what I've read, and why the heck I completed it. I feel like I've awoken from a dream and I'm trying to put into words what's just happened, but it's so crazy, and disconnected, and it makes completely no sense. But you try explain to someone the storyline and you sound like a crazy person. But you carry on anyway, and it all is just mental!! I think I need to stop thinking and sleep.
Overall rating : 1*
Characters : 1*
Plot : 0*
Writing : 3*
Believability : 0*
I don't quite know what I've read, and why the heck I completed it. I feel like I've awoken from a dream and I'm trying to put into words what's just happened, but it's so crazy, and disconnected, and it makes completely no sense. But you try explain to someone the storyline and you sound like a crazy person. But you carry on anyway, and it all is just mental!! I think I need to stop thinking and sleep.
February 6, 2016
I dont quite know where to start with this book. It follows the life of Shruti from a young girl until she is an adult. The overuse of the words 'I'm like' and 'cos' really spoiled this book for me. As it got very annoying after the first few pages. Thanks to Netgalley, Little, Brown book group UK and Gabriel Packard for ARC in exchnage for review
February 4, 2016
This book intrigued me, it was really fast paced and I found myself staying up to read another chapter. The author had a really unique way of telling the story. I loved the way it was written and it flowed really well! One thing that really annoyed me was the over use of like and there was so many ands!
The main character is called Shruti. From the very beginning I thought she was a little strange but I did feel so bad for her when she was getting bullied.
I didn’t like Meena at all. I thought she was super stuck up and full of herself but I felt like she had this strange way of trying to protect Shruti.
At the beginning I enjoyed reading about India and its culture. I thought Shruti’s uncle was such an idiot and I didn’t like the fact that her mother was putting everything in front of her daughter. When her uncle calls the police and makes Shruti look like the bad one, I was so mad!!
As Shruti got older and was applying for university, it started to become clear that she had a very obsessive personality. These obsessions probably stemmed from her mother abandoning her.
When Shruti booked the New Zealand holiday for her and Meena, I was just thinking ‘What the hell are you doing?!’. It was totally irresponsible and crazy but I loved it haha!! And then at the airport, I was thinking the same thing. Shruti always seems to dig herself a big hole!
I did feel like the plot fell apart in the middle. It seemed the whole course of the book changed. It was still good but I did get rather confused with what was going on.
What Steve did to Shruti was so awful and I was so mad at Meena for letting him do it and for bringing her to the island. Not going to add spoilers to my review but towards the end it just got even more messed up!
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars because I did enjoy it but I felt like the plot was rather muddled and the over use of ‘and’ really bugged me and I felt like it ruined the book for me slightly. It was still a really good read and I’m glad I read it!
The main character is called Shruti. From the very beginning I thought she was a little strange but I did feel so bad for her when she was getting bullied.
I didn’t like Meena at all. I thought she was super stuck up and full of herself but I felt like she had this strange way of trying to protect Shruti.
At the beginning I enjoyed reading about India and its culture. I thought Shruti’s uncle was such an idiot and I didn’t like the fact that her mother was putting everything in front of her daughter. When her uncle calls the police and makes Shruti look like the bad one, I was so mad!!
As Shruti got older and was applying for university, it started to become clear that she had a very obsessive personality. These obsessions probably stemmed from her mother abandoning her.
When Shruti booked the New Zealand holiday for her and Meena, I was just thinking ‘What the hell are you doing?!’. It was totally irresponsible and crazy but I loved it haha!! And then at the airport, I was thinking the same thing. Shruti always seems to dig herself a big hole!
I did feel like the plot fell apart in the middle. It seemed the whole course of the book changed. It was still good but I did get rather confused with what was going on.
What Steve did to Shruti was so awful and I was so mad at Meena for letting him do it and for bringing her to the island. Not going to add spoilers to my review but towards the end it just got even more messed up!
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars because I did enjoy it but I felt like the plot was rather muddled and the over use of ‘and’ really bugged me and I felt like it ruined the book for me slightly. It was still a really good read and I’m glad I read it!
February 4, 2016
Overall an interesting read that has left me with mixed feelings.
We meet the main protagonist, Shruti, as a young girl living with her mother. Unexpected events turn this little girls life around. Shruti's life becomes an amazing rollercoaster of emotions and totally unexpected adventures. I did wonder at one point whether the poor girl had mental issues, although I think it is just a case of innocence and the need to be loved that caused Shruti to stumble into total disaster and despair. Definitely not for everyone, as pointed out by some other reviewers. However if you keep an open mind, I'm sure you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Many thanks to Netgally, author Gabriel Packard and publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced reading copy in exchange for a honest and unbiased review.
We meet the main protagonist, Shruti, as a young girl living with her mother. Unexpected events turn this little girls life around. Shruti's life becomes an amazing rollercoaster of emotions and totally unexpected adventures. I did wonder at one point whether the poor girl had mental issues, although I think it is just a case of innocence and the need to be loved that caused Shruti to stumble into total disaster and despair. Definitely not for everyone, as pointed out by some other reviewers. However if you keep an open mind, I'm sure you'll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.
Many thanks to Netgally, author Gabriel Packard and publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced reading copy in exchange for a honest and unbiased review.
February 13, 2016
Thoroughly enjoyed this fast paced, page turning book. The plot was unexpected and I found myself saying, 'Really? Could that happen?' a few times, but decided to suspend disbelief and go with the flow. It paid off.
At first I wasn't sure why the writer felt qualified to use the voice of Shruti. Sometimes it grated on my nerves and I wasn't sure he was getting her 'language' right from my experience of people I've known like Shruti. Again I was able to overlook this and keep going.
The writer successfully created tension and intriguing situations. I felt the characters easy to relate to, even the ones I thought a little far fetched. I think if you approach this book with an open mind you'll like it as much as I did.
At first I wasn't sure why the writer felt qualified to use the voice of Shruti. Sometimes it grated on my nerves and I wasn't sure he was getting her 'language' right from my experience of people I've known like Shruti. Again I was able to overlook this and keep going.
The writer successfully created tension and intriguing situations. I felt the characters easy to relate to, even the ones I thought a little far fetched. I think if you approach this book with an open mind you'll like it as much as I did.
February 9, 2016
Interesting. Packard adopts the vernacular of Shruti, a British Indian girl, and the novel falls into two halves: Shruti's trauma-strewn childhood, with the awful bullying, rejection by her mother and her vile uncle - and the meeting of Meena; then, her time in NZ and the bizarre entrapment on the island, with Meena and Steve. The voice is distinct (but the 'I go', 'I'm like' explanations are really annoying - Why not 'I said'?). In many ways the book is completely implausible - but perhaps that's the point. It has energy and is extremely fast paced. I look forward to reading others' reviews.
December 24, 2022
Not at all what I expected. This is a very dark novel that touched on many difficult topics (neglect, rape, slavery, abuse). We follow a young British Indian girl who latches onto a classmate after her family abandons her. Her obsession with the classmate ultimately causes her to follow her to India where the story takes a dark turn.
None of the characters were likeable, and while the narrator was sympathetic at times, I mostly just wanted to shake her and tell her to get her life together.
An interesting story, but large bits beggared belief, and the whole story was tough reading.
None of the characters were likeable, and while the narrator was sympathetic at times, I mostly just wanted to shake her and tell her to get her life together.
An interesting story, but large bits beggared belief, and the whole story was tough reading.
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