Review by flocy92 -- Elastic Girl by Olivia Rana

[flocy92]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Elastic Girl" by Olivia Rana.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Elastic Girl by Olivia Rana is a story of hope in the most devastating and hopeless of situations. The reader gets a glimpse of the horrific and vaguely known working`s of the darkest parts of the underground world, a culturally rich novel of the tough Indian slums, and the monsters that prey on the innocent and unprotected. The novel follows the story of Muthu, a little girl, in the Indian slums, with a naive and brave spirit. Odds were stacked against Muthu since birth, but she goes through all the situations thrown at her with uplifting spirits. When she`s faced with different kinds of monsters however, will Muthu survive or will she succumb and take the easy way out?

I enjoyed reading about the Indian cultural in the novel. It shows the culturally rich aspect of Indian society, and life in the slums, and the tough situations that families endure. Interesting culture; of marriage, how girls should be bought up and educated right in order to be desirable and find a future husband, to traditional medicinal herbs of healing, the cultural food delicacies known to the Indian culture, and the different gods that are central to Indian culture. This cultural abstracts are an interesting incorporation in the novel, and will captivate anyone who is interested in foreign cultures.

The novel uncovers some quite gruesome things that happen to the helpless and unprotected, especially women and children. It is a little too dark for me knowing that the story has events that do happen and could happen in reality so; it is unsettling to read about in a novel. Otherwise, it`s informative and tells about gruesome things that unfortunately do happen and could actually happen in reality.

There are a couple of grammatical errors. All through the book there was bold lettering that does not seem to emphasize anything important in particular, so it was a bit confusing when reading through the book. There are also a couple of words with spaces in between, and also a couple of double words and phrases.

I loved the plot of the story; the various characters are interesting and captivating. There are however, some of grammatical errors as stated above, but the book is worth the read. I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting book with an honest depiction of reality.

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Elastic Girl
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[Abigail R]

I think Olivia Rana did a great job of showing the importance of the education of young women. The difference between the lives of Muthu and her sisters, Safa and Belli, is drastic! However, I wonder if it is because of her life selling roti bread on the streets and being disliked by her family that she had the strength to continue on through life despite hardship after hardship. Had she been in school, would she be so resilient? Had she been loved by her family, would she be so brave to keep going or would the sudden lack of love and care crumble her?

Thank you for your review. I also loved Rana's rich cultural writing. I learned so much from this emotional book!

If you're interested, this is my take on Olivia Rana's Elastic Girl:
viewtopic.php?f=114&t=77601

[Italiansweety1982]

I just read this book. A good read, well written, but some parts were hard to get thru.