Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Title : Allegiant - Book 3 in the Divergent trilogy
Author : Veronica Roth
Genre : Fiction / YA / Dystopian
Publisher : Harper Collins India
Pages : 526
My Rating : 7.5/10
Reviewed For : Publisher

Blurb:

What if your whole world was a lie?

What if a single revelation – like a single choice – changed everything?

What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered – fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she's known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature – and of herself – while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice and love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

My Review:

Allegiant by Veronica Roth is the long-awaited finale in the Divergent Trilogy and perhaps the most powerful one in the series. I’ll admit it: When I first heard about this series, I passed it off as just another trilogy fitting into the currently trending YA dystopian stereotype and never had any high hopes from it. So it was with great skepticism that I went into Allegiant expecting not to like it a lot, but then 50 pages into the book and I was hooked. Very much like the first two novels in this trilogy – Divergent & Insurgent, this book too moves at a very fast pace making it difficult to put it down.

For the uninitiated, the basic premise of this series goes like this: It’s the distant future, and the world we know has metamorphosed into a different place altogether. The novel starts in the city of Chicago where the society is divided into five factions. Each of these factions is dedicated to a human virtue, a single type of behavior—those in Amity value peace, while the Dauntless are brave warriors. Members of Abnegation are selfless, while Candor values brutal honesty and those in Erudite hold intelligence dear. Our protagonist – sixteen year old Beatrice Prior (Tris) is born into an Abnegation family, however, she never quite feels comfortable in her family faction and has a hard time fitting in. On a given day each year, all sixteen-year-olds take an aptitude test that will tell them which faction they are best suited for. Tris shows equal aptitude for three factions: Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless which makes her a “Divergent”. Much to everyone’s surprise, Tris chooses to be a Dauntless in the Choosing Ceremony and that’s where the plot in Divergent really kicks off. Divergent moves at a pretty fast pace leaving the readers breathless and Insurgent is an equally amazing follow-up to the explosive debut by Roth. Allegiant picks up right where Insurgent left off and plunges straight into the action. There’s no recapping of the events of the first two books, which means the reader should definitely be very familiar with the basic plot and characters of Divergent & Insurgent before picking up Allegiant.

Coming to Allegiant, Tris and everyone around her is shocked after the old video of Edith Prior reveals that there exists a world beyond Chicago and that the Divergent should be allowed to explore it. Also, following the video, Evelyn becomes the self-appointed leader & is forcing everyone to live without factions. Looking at the chaos that their city has become, Tris and Tobias (Four) cannot help but think about leaving Chicago to move on into the world beyond and the endless possibilities that it can offer. Meanwhile, Cara & Johanna form a secret group called the “Allegiant” and recruit Tris, Tobias and their friends. The Allegiant make a plan to send a group of people outside Chicago’s borders to explore the world on the other side of the fence. Tris, Tobias, Christina, Cara, Uriah, Peter, and Caleb successfully leave the city. Their arrival in the world outside Chicago opens a new path for Tris & Tobias but what they discover here shocks and disturbs them in equal measures bringing home the realization that once again they must take action to preserve what they hold most dear.

First of all, right at the beginning of this series Roth did a pretty amazing job in creating and building the future world. This setting is an integral part of the story and there are a lot of questions that the readers may ask when Divergent commences – “How did the world get to this point? What drastic changes occurred that morphed the society to such an extent?” Well, here is the good news – Roth continues with the amazing job and answers all the questions in Allegiant. In fact, Roth pulls in the readers in Tris’s world and builds so much anticipation regarding the outside world, that as a reader I was on tenterhooks and was racing through the story to know what lay beyond. Secondly, the major highlight of this read is Tris, she is the backbone of these books and is what makes them worth reading. At the start of the series, she isn’t perfect – she is impulsive and short-tempered, but she grows so much over the course of the book. Though there are still some shades of the impulsiveness and angst in this volume, it just makes her more realistic. In fact, by the end of Allegiant she no longer seems like a sixteen-year old; instead she seems like an old soul, matured by her past. Through the course of the series, she has lost a lot of good friends and her family and is crippled by her own guilt and self-doubt. It's easy to empathize with such a strong character who also has her own weak moments. But she also begins to realize how many more she can loose and starts picking up the pieces to build a new world around her. She becomes strong and wise but it takes a lot for her to come to that point.

Another strong highlight of this series is - Character development. Even in Allegiant, Roth continues to develop her primary as well as secondary characters consistently as well as realistically. No character goes out of their way to throw a surprise moment, everyone acts in exactly the same way had they been people in the real world. However, that in no way makes the read a predictable one; in fact that is what makes it all the more intriguing. But the ultimate redemption of this series lies in the final twist, though it was despised by a lot of fanatics but I thought it showed a certain amount of boldness and maturity on the author’s part. Also, as I said earlier, the pace of these books is incredible; Roth does not hesitate to kill off characters or spring out a twist at every turn, thus recreating the entire storyline completely in a new way. Tris’s mother’s back story adds welcome depth to the story.

Coming to the letdowns, this book introduces Four as a parallel narrator along with Tris, which should have been exciting since it gives an interesting insight into his mind. But despite providing a fresh and alternative perspective, it fell short almost to the point of being bland. Also, the pace in this read is not balanced. The first few chapters roll along smoothly and then there is a sudden flurry of activity. Sometimes, it feels as if everything is happening in a blur, which might overwhelm the reader!!

So all in all, I thought it was a pretty decent read. It’s definitely interesting, if not what you are expecting. The choices that Tris & Tobias make have far-reaching impact in this read but they it is only by making these fateful choices they come to terms with the fact that their destiny is not something hypothetical; but it lies in the choices that they make. If you are looking for a fast paced read and haven’t picked up this series yet, you should definitely do it as soon as possible.

The Caretaker by A.X.Ahmad

Title : The Caretaker - A Novel
Author : A. X. Ahmad
Genre : Fiction / Thriller
Publisher : Harper Collins India
Pages : 304
My Rating : 8.5/10
Reviewed For : Publisher / First Reads Challenge 2013 / South Asian Challenge 2013 / IQRC 2013

Blurb:

A compelling thriller that introduces a new hero for our times: Ranjit Singh, former captain in the Indian Army, illegal immigrant in the heart of white America and caretaker to the rich and famous.

One harsh winter, Ranjit illegally moves his family into an empty, luxurious vacation home belonging to an African-American Senator. Ensconced in the house, he tries to forget his brief affair with Anna, the Senators wife, and focuses on providing for his family. But one night, their idyll is shattered when mysterious armed men break into the house, searching for an antique porcelain doll. Forced to flee, Ranjit is hunted by unknown forces and gets drawn into the Senators shadowy world. To save his family and solve the mystery of the doll, he must join forces with Anna, who has her own dark secrets. As he battles to save his family, Ranjit’s painful past resurfaces and he must finally confront the hidden event that destroyed his career in the Army and forced him to leave India.

Tightly plotted, action-packed, smart and surprisingly moving, The Caretaker takes us from the desperate world of migrant workers to the elite African-American community of Martha’s Vineyard and a secret high-altitude war between India and Pakistan.

My Review:

The Caretaker by A.X.Ahmad is a compelling read about a man who is trying to run away from the ghosts of his past but they keep following him, no matter how far he runs. In his debut work, the author has given us our very own desi yet exotic hero in the form of Ranjit Singh, who is – a Sikh, a respected and brave former captain in the Indian Army, a fallen soldier, an illegal immigrant & a landscaper trying to pass off as a common brown man in America, in exactly that order.

Ranjit Singh is a tormented man, tormented by the demons of his past. A former captain in the Indian Army, an awry mission forces him to flee from his motherland and settle down in the quiet confines of an island of Martha’s Vineyards in America. The narrative runs in two parallel tracks - one in the present where running away from a past, Ranjit is trying his best to create a comfortable life for his wife and daughter in the unknown land. However, deep down he knows that all his attempts at normalcy are failing as miserably as his relationship with his wife. The other narrative takes us in the past to Ranjit Singh’s glorious military career days where he was appointed as the commander of a squad in the Indian Army for a Top-Secret Mission. However, the mission goes horribly wrong & since then Ranjit is on the run with his family.  Fading away into anonymity, he becomes a part-time landscape worker on Martha’s Vineyard. Opportunity comes knocking to Ranjit in the form of a caretaker’s job for the house of a famous senator one winter. But what seems to be like a boon at first glance turns out to be a horrible nightmare in disguise as Ranjit realizes that there are dark secrets hidden in the Senator’s house and when he uncovers them, all that he has ever believed in his life will change forever.

If I list down the reasons to read this novel, then the first and foremost factor for me will be the protagonist – Ranjit Singh. Unlike the perfect caricatures that we come across in works of fiction, Ranjit is every bit of a flawed & complex hero as you or I can be. Tangled up in the past & taunted by the ghosts of his previous life in army, he seems to be apathetic at first glances. But as the read progresses, the author slowly chips away his hard exterior, one layer at a time, & exposes his vulnerabilities, his fears, his love, his regrets, his guilt & his emotional dependence. It is very easy to sympathize with him and keep rooting for him as the ground beneath his feet keeps slipping just when he thinks he is firm footed. Also, the flashback scenes provide a glimpse into his past and the reason for how he has shaped up today. Being in army, it is expected of him to adapt himself in any environment but even then, we see him struggling as a turban-clad Sikh in post-9/11 America who draws as much as attention as flak and suspicion for his turban & beard. Yet even in the face of these humiliating circumstances, he never loses his sense of identity as an Indian and a Sikh. He has his own flaws but underneath all of the mess that he is in, he makes some choices which define who he is & gains the reader’s appreciation. Needless to say, the author has done an excellent job of sketching and developing the character in a realistic manner.

The second best part of this read, perhaps for me, is that this novel explores many difficult issues. The most apparent was immigration issues which might strike a chord with many of us. The unsettling idea of settling down in an entirely new country with a totally different culture, the general desperation that stems from trying your best to blend with others and yet standing out amongst them because of your colour, and in spite of that retaining your heritage, traditions and religion because that is what identifies you - are some of the cultural aspects that the author has beautifully drawn out in this novel. Ahmad’s narrative has a distinct and beautiful poetic style to it. The descriptions he offers are vivid and transport you to the different worlds described in the book. Thus, in spite of being a fast-paced thriller, the read has a unhurried tone to it. Also, Ahmad has given the readers a rare glimpse into the Sikh religion and weaving the teachings from the Guru Granth Sahib into the read. For the unawares like me, this was a rare learning experience which I thoroughly enjoyed. Another highlight of this read was the development of the secondary characters & the various sub-plots. The author has done an amazing job at  carefully constructing & seamlessly interweaving the sub-plots which might seem like a jumble at first but at the end fit together perfectly like the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. The political history between India, Pakistan & the US, familial relationships, emotional vulnerability and some good plot twists are the other factors that make this an enjoyable read.

It has its own highs and lows but all in all, this is a very well-written debut with beautiful descriptions, engaging characters and a taut plot. If you are looking for an excellent page-turning thriller, then this might be just the one.

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan

Title : Those Pricey Thakur Girls
Author : Anuja Chauhan
Genre : Fiction / RomCom
Publisher : Harper Collins
Pages : 400
My Rating : 8/10
Reviewed For : MySmartPrice / IQR

Blurb:

In a sprawling bungalow on New Delhi’s posh Hailey Road, Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur and his wife Mamta spend their days watching anxiously over their five beautiful (but troublesome) alphabetically named daughters.

Anjini, married but an incorrigible flirt; Binodini, very worried about her childrens hissa in the family property; Chandrakanta, who eloped with a foreigner on the eve of her wedding; Eshwari, who is just a little too popular at Modern School, Barakhamba Road; and the Judges favourite (though fathers shouldnt have favourites): the quietly fiery Debjani, champion of all the stray animals on Hailey Road, who reads the English news on DD and clashes constantly with crusading journalist Dylan Singh Shekhawat, he of shining professional credentials but tarnished personal reputation, crushingly dismissive of her state-sponsored propaganda, but always seeking her out with half-sarcastic, half-intrigued dark eyes.

Spot-on funny and toe-curlingly sexy, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is rom-com specialist Anuja Chauhan writing at her sparkling best.
 

My Review:

 

Having read the Zoya Factor & Battle for Bittora by Anuja Chauhan, you can be sure of two things – first one is that you know from the start that the story will follow predictable patterns and the protagonists are going to end up with each other. Yet even after knowing the foreseeable happy ending, the factor that keeps you hooked is the absolute laugh riot that Anuja’s novel promise to be. Secondly, you can be sure that you are in for some major drama which is peppered with some good old mushy romance & some solid Old Delhi masala. And with her latest release, Anuja Chauhan gives you just that.

 

Justice Laxmi Narayan Thakur is blessed with 5 daughters, who are named alphabetically from A to E. However, each of them is as eccentric & as different from each other as the colours of rainbow. Amongst them, Debjani is the Judge’s favourite & the protagonist of our story. Debjani aka Dabbu is the quintessential fiery lassie with an absolute preoccupation for stray animals & losers. She has just started her career of being a newsreader at DD (not Door Darshan!! It’s DeshDarpan), landed up in trouble & is quite some damsel in distress courtesy our hero – yummy & delectable - Dylan Singh Shekhawat who is an investigative journalist. Obviously, we know that D-for-Dylan & D-for-Debjani are “The Couple” but what the reader really has to look forward to is the D-for-Dhamaal & Dhamaka that would be accompanying the plot!! Set in pre-liberalisation New Delhi, Those Pricey Thakur Girls is a typical love story with a few complexities, misunderstandings, clichés and a potpourri of characters each displaying varying levels of bizarreness.

For those who have read Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, Those Pricey Thakur Girls will bear a striking resemblance to the classic albeit with the backdrop of Delhi in 1980s. However, Anuja has given her own unique, hilarious spin to the classic elements & has churned out a desi laugh out loud encore. Undoubtedly, the most enjoyable part of this read is its narration which was brisk with equal parts of romance, sarcasm & drollness. Perhaps the best part about Anuja Chauhan’s writing is that she develops the secondary characters as good as the protagonists. The characters are very well etched & each has a distinctive voice of their own. However, I found the story a bit of a drag in few parts. The plot would have been a bit more crispier sans 30-40 pages. But since this is an absolutely witty & funny romp, you will breeze by the bulk of the book a lot more easily. Go ahead, reserve this weekend for this read!!!

P.S. Here’s some good news for fans of Chauhan - Coming soon is the second part in the series – The House That BJ Built...looks promising!!


(The review copy has been provided by MySmartPrice. This review is entirely my own personal & honest opinion. I do not receive any kind of payment or monetary gains for my review.)

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