The Disappointing 5 by Bobanga (Book Review: 3.5*/5) !!!

43^rd Book of 2020!

 

So, the festival of Diwali turned out to be great irrespective of the precautions and measures that we had to undertake due to the spread of pandemic around us. Every year, on Diwali, along with decorating my home, I also assure that I end up reading a little as this is the day when Goddess Lakshmi is expected to visit our home. And as we know, Goddess Lakshmi comes only where Goddess Saraswati is respected and adored. So, this time I completed reading the book named “The Disappointing 5” written by the debutante, Bobanga. This book is of around 240 pages and it is all about the teenage stories which are not published often these days.

 

The book talks about the lives of five teenagers who are also very briefly introduced in the synopsis of the book as well- Akash Malhotra, Dhruv Kapoor, Sunayna Mahapatra, Bindya Shah and Robin Alberto. All of them have some kind of secret or some pain that they keep hidden with themselves without sharing it with anyone – even with their best friend. This is what makes each of these characters interesting and make them protagonist in their own way. After a long time, I have landed upon a book which has characters formed and played so well that you will find each one of them having their own identity and none of them get overshadowed due to over exposure given to any other character.

 

I must say, characterization is the strength of this book which keeps you hooked to it as a reader. How all of them are fighting their inner battles talks about the kind of stress and mental health issues the modern kids have to deal with. This is more of a contemporary issue than just a story as every day, you will find teenagers and schoolkids taking extreme action due to the burden of their inner battles.

 

The book also talks about many issues or concerns towards which we should give our attention. The book starts with a girl describing her pain as to how everyone sees her just as an object and keeps her name only because she is beautiful and she has to say NO to multiple proposals she get in her school. How a boy gets bullied by a strong boy after his sexual orientation of being gay gets revealed. How painful it becomes for the person to live each day with a fear that what if this gets revealed. Also, the fight against parent’s view about this is another challenge which is also spoken in depth later on. The trauma of getting pregnant before marriage and legal age is also mentioned which I am sure must be happening with teenagers these days.

 

The book also highlights how children’s psychic gets affected because of the environment at home. How the role of parents and their toxic relationship among themselves or with child affects the whole mentality of the kid and shapes their character. In one of the chapters, we are also told as to how the patriarchy dissolves the whole aspiration of the women after marriage and she has to literally beg in front of her husband to be able to do something of her own will. The book also gives us light upon the issue of child trafficking and how it transforms the whole maturity level of the story in the book is applaudable. I am glad to see the author’s maturity in embedding this social issue with the story and basing the whole anti-climax and climax with it. Reading the whole part was such a roller-coaster experience.

 

The narration of the book is very simple and you won’t feel any difficulty in going through the story. The language is very simple and this shall be good choice for all the beginners to start their reading journey with. The 1^st half of the book is a completely teenage thing which school and college going crowd will surely like whereas the 2^nd half is more about the thrilling aspect which is interesting for people of all the age group. The latter part of the book is actually a page-turner and you would want to know what happens next. Author has written the same in very Bollywood-ish manner including the climax but as a desi, it worked for me as my imagination levels were breaking the roof time and again. Haha!

 

Now talking about the drawbacks of the book – I must say the biggest flaw of the book is its typos, grammatical mistakes and editing. You will find many such incidences which shall make your reading experience irritating at times. Secondly, the binding is done in such a way that you will find it tough to read the left-hand pages as last word of the sentences gets hidden in it. Story-wise, the book is fine and I believe author could have done more with the dysfunctional arrangements of the families which is not considered much even though it is one of the pointers in the synopsis.

 

Overall, this is a fine attempt and you can pick it up if you want to read something light yet effective. I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5.

PURCHASE THE BOOK HERE

 

Thanks.

 

WRITING BUDDHA