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232 pages, Paperback
Published June 10, 2018
Review:
2.5 Stars.
I am always wary of Contemporary Indian Romances because they set such exceptionally high standards in terms of dating and love, which is a far cry from the truth.
Following the similar line of clichés that have been served to us before is Till the End of Forever. I can’t say that I disliked this book, because I did like some aspects. I thought the latter half of the book was very well written, and even the pacing increased as should be the case with a romance thriller. I liked how it ended, with letters and emails. Ayaan’s ideas on God and his eloquence in terms of writing his life narrative, all of these were very well handled.
“The generation of thousands of years ago didn’t know why things happened the way they did, so they believed what was written in these books.”
Unfortunately, that’s about all the good I could muster from this book. Onto the negatives now. I really did not like the characterization, almost all characters were cut outs, not dense and only there to serve a purpose. There was no depth in their tasks, and the only depth Avani and Ayaan had were their shared sense of family feuds, that they were done wrong/blamed when they were younger. That is really not a point of connection for a reader, which completely segregated me from the novel and made it more fictitious than it actually was.
The second aspect is the writing. Don’t get me wrong the writing is good but the way it is employed is not. There is a very sensual scene in the book which is glorified to no extend. I mean, if this is supposed to be second person, I am sure no human being talks like that while feeling love/lust. Then there was that fluctuating narrative point. The italics “yes he can, bitch” and “you’re a witch you will kill him someday” were so random? What was the point behind this? Self deprecation, but who was saying these things? Do they come from Ayaan’s consciousness or Avani’s?
Avani as a character was hugely problematic for me, not only was she slut shaming herself through the entire novel, she even bothers to get back with a certain someone, even after she is allegedly “in love” with someone else. Also the sexual tension within the characters was zero, straight off the bat you could tell that they were definitely not meant for each other. It was physically hurting me to watch them get on with their lives, together. Also Ayaan’s staple “everything is an illusion” is a bit ironic considering in Hinduism, Krishna is a bearer of this ideology. So, like I said before, lack of characterization was just screaming at me from across the page.
I know I’ve been harsh, but I would not rule out the novel completely. No matter what, I was invested in what happened next in the story, and as a thriller it did do its job. If only it was more psychological and gore-y and less on the romance side of things, it would’ve been a huge hit for me.
"We’re the souls broken. We’re the hearts shattered. There is no face in this world that hasn’t reeked of dry tears on the strokes of midnight."