Official Review: Freaky Chakra by Priya Prabhakaran
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Official Review: Freaky Chakra by Priya Prabhakaran
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Freaky Chakra" by Priya Prabhakaran.]
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I must say, I was NOT TOO SURE about this book at first. I had signed up to review it because it was written by an Indian, and set in India, and I was intrigued to learn about modern India through a fun novel, written in my own language.
OK, not quite my own language. The first impression the writing style makes on this American reader is that of a string of clichés and catch phrases that are … well … not quite right. For example, “eerie guy” instead of “creepy guy;” “show the right cheek” instead of “turn the other cheek;” “twisting in his grave” instead of “rolling over in his grave,” and many others. This style of writing shook my confidence in the book at first … but guess what? This is an Indian book. It’s not written in bad American English, it’s written in presumably good, modern Indian English. That became clearer as the book progressed, and the language just became one more part of my induction into Indian novels.
The first chapter, though, almost had me giving up on the book. It’s narrated by a high-school girl, and is pure Clueless, Mean Girls, and any other cheesy high school movie about cliques that you could name. The most popular, super-rich girl in this Indian high school is throwing a rooftop party at a fancy hotel. The nerdy-but-smart girl narrator wants to go (though she dislikes Ms. Popular) because her crush will be there. And so it goes, with just about every kind of teenaged foolishness you can imagine … right up until the surprise twist in the very last sentence of Chapter One that made me realize this was a book with a PLOT, and made me want to keep reading.
I pressed on. In the ensuing chapters, as the plot circles away from the teenagers (then back again), we start to encounter Back-to-the-Future-like moments, where the same scene is revisited from multiple points of view, with a little more being revealed each time, in a way that makes the reader say, “Oh! I see.”
By the end, I was happy to have read it. The book is short, cleverly plotted, with loose ends tied up and cosmic justice done in ways that will make you laugh out loud. As for Indian culture, there are occasional references made in passing such as “he paused to kiss his mother’s feet” that remind us we are in another culture. Not being Indian, it was occasionally hard for me to follow some of the details of the politics, money, and the rules of cricket, but not in a way that made it impossible to enjoy the plot. Setting aside the language issue, which I am not competent to judge, I rate the book four out of four stars for its terrific, funny plot.
***
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OK, not quite my own language. The first impression the writing style makes on this American reader is that of a string of clichés and catch phrases that are … well … not quite right. For example, “eerie guy” instead of “creepy guy;” “show the right cheek” instead of “turn the other cheek;” “twisting in his grave” instead of “rolling over in his grave,” and many others. This style of writing shook my confidence in the book at first … but guess what? This is an Indian book. It’s not written in bad American English, it’s written in presumably good, modern Indian English. That became clearer as the book progressed, and the language just became one more part of my induction into Indian novels.
The first chapter, though, almost had me giving up on the book. It’s narrated by a high-school girl, and is pure Clueless, Mean Girls, and any other cheesy high school movie about cliques that you could name. The most popular, super-rich girl in this Indian high school is throwing a rooftop party at a fancy hotel. The nerdy-but-smart girl narrator wants to go (though she dislikes Ms. Popular) because her crush will be there. And so it goes, with just about every kind of teenaged foolishness you can imagine … right up until the surprise twist in the very last sentence of Chapter One that made me realize this was a book with a PLOT, and made me want to keep reading.
I pressed on. In the ensuing chapters, as the plot circles away from the teenagers (then back again), we start to encounter Back-to-the-Future-like moments, where the same scene is revisited from multiple points of view, with a little more being revealed each time, in a way that makes the reader say, “Oh! I see.”
By the end, I was happy to have read it. The book is short, cleverly plotted, with loose ends tied up and cosmic justice done in ways that will make you laugh out loud. As for Indian culture, there are occasional references made in passing such as “he paused to kiss his mother’s feet” that remind us we are in another culture. Not being Indian, it was occasionally hard for me to follow some of the details of the politics, money, and the rules of cricket, but not in a way that made it impossible to enjoy the plot. Setting aside the language issue, which I am not competent to judge, I rate the book four out of four stars for its terrific, funny plot.
***
Buy "Freaky Chakra" on Amazon
Latest Review: "Adventures in space & fiction fantasy" by Robin G Howard
