This is Me, Mayil

Mayil #3

by Niveditha Subramaniam & Sowmya Rajendran

Fiercely fun, madly morose and prone to spontaneous combustion — this is Mayil Ganeshan at Not Yet Sixteen. Much like before. But edgier. Her diary (or is it her autobiography, she isn't sure) becomes a rabbit hole and a roadmap to writing her way through life as she sees it. Older and bolder, the unstoppable ‘Mayilwriter’ rants in rhyme, ponders in verse, and doodles in between.
For every moment of clarity, there are others filled with anger, confusion and self-doubt. But Mayil keeps her chin up and decides that she will never put her pen down.

With the laugh-out-loud humour, seriousness and honesty of the popular and award winning Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! and Mostly Madly Mayil, this third in the series is another exceptional, unputdownable, must-read book for teens and anyone else.

123 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Anagha Gopal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfectly captures the late-teens vibe without having to narrativize it all. Our Mayil has had a break up (her very first) & is figuring out how to deal with it, along with dealing with about a 100 other things - including changed friendships, spoken word competitions, coming to terms with having treated people badly in the past, her grandfather's illness, her mother wanting to take a solo trip, and her crush on her neighbour.

There is a discomforting (and possibly scary) bit in the middle where Mayil's best friend Ki is blackmailed by her ex boyfriend, but I liked how the book dealt with it. Situations like this are often sensationalized in movies, TV, and the news and this book offered a refreshing narrative.

Also the shipper in me wanted Mayil to finally date VS but this book is very true-to-life so I get why that didn't happen. ALSO nowhere does it say or imply that this is the last book - I just hope my suspicions are true and this is the last book FOR NOW. I am not done getting to know Mayil, and I hope the authors aren't either!

[Shruthi Kamalahasan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely totally loved this book and I want more of Mayil and her poems🥺❤️

[Gayatri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to the prequel, where Mayil had turned 14, she has matured a lot in the span of a year, as this book picks up when she is 15.

The subtly patriarchal undertones in family, friends and society's expectation was really highlighted in this one. Be it Maya (Mayil's mother) going on a solo vacation, her bikini, the way Ki blames herself and is afraid to tell anyone despite her having done nothing wrong - the commentary is not glaring and preachy, but it understatedly asks the questions.


Some of the parts that I felt I wanted to highlight because I have had the exact same thought:

Aradhana is this huge Vijay fan. I am not. First of all, why does he talk like his lips have been stapled? His movie Pokkiri was on TV last week and Thamarai and I were watching it with Thatha. There's this scene where Asin is gymming and Vijay and his friends are watching from outside and imitating her. Asin complains to the manager who tells them to buzz off, but then Vijay tells the manager, "Aren't they doing all this exercise for us, so we see them?"
BLECH!
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"Benson will fight for everyone's rights but he needs someone to serve food for him in his own house. Typical."
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If a guy does something bad, I don't immediately say ALL boys are like this. But I've seen them do this so often. ALL girls are bad at sports, ALL girls are good for nothing, ALL girls want to look pretty. It's worse in movies.

Sad housewives' stories are better in comparison.

[Tanvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

They have written a lot of poetry in this book and I really like some of them. I want everyone to read this book at once.