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Unbroken
So okay, I’m a monster.
But look what I have to deal with--my brother is a frightened little freak, my father is selfish and ill-tempered, my mother is an ignorant doormat and my friends are just plain irritating. And I'm in a prison surrounded by them all, with nowhere to escape.
People insist on seeing the worst in me. So, I show them the worst.
But one day, something happens ... and suddenly I see what these relationships and people (however annoying) mean to me. I’ve been a monster for such a long time now, I've almost forgotten what it's like to be human.
What if it’s too late?
But look what I have to deal with--my brother is a frightened little freak, my father is selfish and ill-tempered, my mother is an ignorant doormat and my friends are just plain irritating. And I'm in a prison surrounded by them all, with nowhere to escape.
People insist on seeing the worst in me. So, I show them the worst.
But one day, something happens ... and suddenly I see what these relationships and people (however annoying) mean to me. I’ve been a monster for such a long time now, I've almost forgotten what it's like to be human.
What if it’s too late?
- GenresTeenYoung Adult
183 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 12, 2017
6 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 24, 2022
Akriti is in the eleventh standard. She studies in Chennai International Public School. She loves sketching and listening to music. She isn’t all that bothered about her studies, always nodding off in class and barely managing to pass. She hates her younger brother Ranjith, a do gooder and teacher’s pet. She thinks her Amma doesn’t understand her and her Appa is only concerned about her (lack of) focus on studies. She is apathetic to her friends, Preethi and Karthik. She doesn’t care where her life is headed and isn’t interested in what life is like outside her room. Just a teen being a teen, right? Except that Akriti is in a wheelchair due to an accident and will never walk again.
Akriti keeps people at bay with her scary show-me-sympathy-and-I-will-crush-you image. So anyone who is worried about being slighted and offended (both of which are activities she takes great pleasure in) will not come within two feet of her. She uses her situation to behave badly, knowing fully well that she won’t be reprimanded harshly for her actions as people pity her. Mocking everything is her way of getting back at life and maintaining the upper hand. She takes the people who care about her for granted. Having lost something precious she thinks she doesn’t have to care about anything.
What happens when life takes a turn and someone close to Akriti is in danger? Will she wake up and smell the coffee, or continue sleeping with her eyes closed shut, acting like she didn’t care? Akriti is an unusual protagonist. You don’t want to root for her in the beginning and she doesn’t arouse pity as she doesn’t give off the vibe of being a damsel in distress. By the time the book ends she will have wormed her way into your heart and you will be rooting for her, hoping she finds a way back to herself.
Conveying the worldview of a wheelchair bound protagonist is a challenging proposition for a writer. I haven’t come across many protagonists who are in a wheelchair in popular fiction, except Will Traynor in Me Before You but he isn’t the narrator there. Nandhika Nambi’s Unbroken is that rare book where we get into the narrator’s head and see the world as she sees it. The author has done a stellar job in showing what the protagonist’s life is like – her trials and tribulations without ever arousing pity.
For those who have suffered loss, who have felt that they have been singled out and dealt a blow by life and thought everything has been taken away from them, Unbroken shows that it is always your choice to get back up, to live with dignity, accept life for what it is and choose to be happy in spite of it.
Akriti keeps people at bay with her scary show-me-sympathy-and-I-will-crush-you image. So anyone who is worried about being slighted and offended (both of which are activities she takes great pleasure in) will not come within two feet of her. She uses her situation to behave badly, knowing fully well that she won’t be reprimanded harshly for her actions as people pity her. Mocking everything is her way of getting back at life and maintaining the upper hand. She takes the people who care about her for granted. Having lost something precious she thinks she doesn’t have to care about anything.
What happens when life takes a turn and someone close to Akriti is in danger? Will she wake up and smell the coffee, or continue sleeping with her eyes closed shut, acting like she didn’t care? Akriti is an unusual protagonist. You don’t want to root for her in the beginning and she doesn’t arouse pity as she doesn’t give off the vibe of being a damsel in distress. By the time the book ends she will have wormed her way into your heart and you will be rooting for her, hoping she finds a way back to herself.
Conveying the worldview of a wheelchair bound protagonist is a challenging proposition for a writer. I haven’t come across many protagonists who are in a wheelchair in popular fiction, except Will Traynor in Me Before You but he isn’t the narrator there. Nandhika Nambi’s Unbroken is that rare book where we get into the narrator’s head and see the world as she sees it. The author has done a stellar job in showing what the protagonist’s life is like – her trials and tribulations without ever arousing pity.
For those who have suffered loss, who have felt that they have been singled out and dealt a blow by life and thought everything has been taken away from them, Unbroken shows that it is always your choice to get back up, to live with dignity, accept life for what it is and choose to be happy in spite of it.
July 19, 2017
Irreverent, yet humane. Even while fuming about Akriti's callousness, we manage to laugh. Familiar tale, with Indian settings. Author captures a schoolgoer's worldview quite crisp & interestingly. Only unexplained Tamil word used frequently is 'paavam', which PROBABLY means 'poor thing' or 'poor baby'. The brother is overall an unconvincing character. If THAT were managed a bit better, it'd be as good a coming-of-age novel as they come.
June 14, 2019
Quite anoying voice, and a really abrubt ending.
Story is about normal teen who got into a weelchair by accident and is just being a annoying little brat.
I have no clue if there is a clue to this stroy, as my audiobook was finished and it sounded like it was somewhere halfway the story,.. However, as the book is only 176 pages long, this could actually be true...
Story is about normal teen who got into a weelchair by accident and is just being a annoying little brat.
I have no clue if there is a clue to this stroy, as my audiobook was finished and it sounded like it was somewhere halfway the story,.. However, as the book is only 176 pages long, this could actually be true...
February 18, 2019
Phenomenal
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews