Book Review-Confessionally Yours and Frankly Spooking

          "I use Grammarly's plagiarism check because copy-cats can never replicate the success and popularity of the original!"

Title-Confessionally Yours
Author-Jhoomur Bose
Publisher-Penguin(Metro reads) 
Pages-216
Source-Personal Copy 

            ‘Confessionally Yours’(published by’ Penguin’ in their ‘Metro Reads’ series) is the kind of  book which is not meant to be taken seriously.After all,I picked up this book as I was looking for a light,entertaining book to read during my two hour commute to Mumbai.The book turned out to be a light read(chick-lit) indeed but what is entertaining?Well,only in parts!

            ‘CY’ is essentially the story of Polly Sharma,a junior probationary staff in a weekly tabloid.She is constantly harassed by her boss(Leena a.k.a. ‘Comma’,who is a bitch by the way)because of her inabilility to write ‘quality stuff’ for the tabloid.To add to her woes,Polly feels that her husband(Siddharth)doesn’t love her as she hasn’t conceived even after 10 months of marital life.In short,her life(both personal and professional) is totally messed and that is when she gets an offer to write an ‘expose’ on an anonymous blogger who is the toast of the season.Loosely based on some real life incidents(even the title of this book has a striking resemblance to a real life blog),the novel traces the life of Polly Sharma and her struggles to break free from the ‘door- mat tag’ which seems to have stuck to her eternally.

           The basic problem with the book is that there is nothing here which we haven’t read or seen before.Most of the twists fall flat and so does the writer’s attempt to take a satirical look at the life as a journo in a tabloid. The references to Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan’s titillating blog (the compulssive confessor) and her first book deal are difficult to overlook.At times,I even got the feeling that this book wouldn’t have seen the light of the day if miss reddy’s blog hadn’t been there at the first place.Moreover so many things are left un-explained(what was the connection between Trishala and Leena?,why did ‘her friend’ try to sabotage Polly’s career?)but then as I had said before,this is one book which is not meant to be taken seriously.

Verdict-Mediocre stuff!But if you are desperately looking for a half-decent desi chick-lit,you can still give this a try! Rating-2/5

Title-Frankly Spooking

Author-Sriramana Muliya
Publisher-Harper Collins
Pages-230
Source-Personal Copy

            'Frankly spooking' is a rather forgettable anthology of horror stories written by blogger-turned- author Sriramana Muliya.The sole reason for me buying this book was the good press that this book had elicited.Even a couple of bloggers had written really nice things about this work of horror fiction. The fact that this is one of the rare occasions in which an Indian writer had decided to try his hand at writing horror fiction,made me all the more kicked up about this work and I couldn’t resist ordering a copy of this book online.(though I really felt that it was a bit over priced at 295 INR!).But I am sorry to say that the book left me sorely disappointed.First and foremost,’Frankly spooking’ never really succeeded in scaring me.What’s even worse is that Icouldn’t find anything which was even remotely original about any of the stories in the book.In an attempt to spook the reader,Sriramana inadvertently packs in every other horror film clichés(agreed,the tales don’t have a woman in white saree making her appearance every now and then,but I never said ‘Bollywood clichés’,did I?)  and thereby lets down the discerning reader( horror fiction fanatics).Most of the stories and even the situations used in them reek of familiarity and have a been there,read that feel to it.Though there are about two dozen stories in the book,I felt that only two had some potential(‘team player’ and ‘blogosphere’) but that too were spoilt by bland,un-imaginative and abrupt ending.

Verdict-On the whole,’Frankly Spooking’ was a big disappointment.The author deserves praise for attempting something new but not all great ideas translate to desired results.What say you?Rating- 2/5.

-nikhimenon