Book review – There’s Something About You

Author – Yashodhara Lal

Publisher – Harper Collins

Genre – Fiction

Pages – 254

Price – Rs.175

Sneak from the cover

This is not your typical boy-meets-girl book. Okay, they do meet, but there are some complications.

The Cover

The cover is enough to evoke readers’ interest. Sea, sand and she…lost in her own thoughts, as he approaches her. The cover says, “She was in enough trouble till he came along.” For a moment one wonders who is he – the one who is to solve her problems or the one who created them.

My View

I had heard praises of Yash’s first two books – Just Married, Please Excuse and Sorting Out Sid however, I hadn’t yet been able to get my hands on any of these. So when I was offered to review There’s something about you (TSAU), I was all excited to find out what is it about her books that makes them bestselling.

After reading the book, I feel the mantra is Yash’s ability to create characters and situations that readers can totally relate to. TSAU is the story of Trish. 28, single, overweight, disturbed pretty much describes her. Many of us surely would have met a Trish or two in our lives and page by page, one can’t help getting attached to the protagonist.

Trish isn’t the boring 28 something desperate to lose weight and get married. She lives life at her own terms, even though the terms are plagued by a destiny that oscillates between floating and sinking. Every time her heavy self gets sinking, the fighter in her struggles against all odds to keep afloat – be it pushing against people to fit her heavy frame in a crowded lift, maintaining her Bandstand pad at the brink of bankruptcy or managing her schizophrenic father and a depressed mother.

Despite the odds, Trish is a fighter, even if it means endangering her life to save a depressed soul from committing suicide. After a bitter separation from her employer, financial troubles force her to accept an agony aunt column with the same publishing. However, she does that too at her own terns and the readers are bowled over by her characteristic sarcasm of her responses and the column soon becomes a hit!

Just when unemployment, financial and personal crisis hits Trish the most, Sahil enters her life like a gush of fresh air. His own 35 year old self hasn’t been doing too well however, whenever Trish and Sahil meet, sparks fly, literally, as Trish claims…(lol!). Every meeting of theirs is fun to read and you look forward to the next one. One wonders if together, they will be able to untangle each other’s lives. But then, many parallel plots make their way which somewhat dilute the essence of the story – Trish’s over friendly neighbour and the death in her house; Trish’s schizophrenic father and the shocking family revelation. Towards the end, one keeps on looking for more relevance and hidden messages in the additional plots and the twists.

Grab the book for a rather unusual account of the Boy-meet-girl story. TSAU will make you laugh, cry and think a lot about the uncertain thing called life and relationships.

What I loved about the book

·         Readers’ questions and Trish’s responses are real fun to read, for we really don’t get to read such stuff in our regular publications

·         The writing style is drag free and one enjoys to read how the relationship blossoms between Trish and Sahil

What could have been better

·         The sub plots towards the end could have been managed better to give a clear meaning to the readers.

·         The reader expects more from what happens to Trish and Sahil’s relationship at the end.

My rating

2.5/5

About the Author

Yashodhara Lal is a marketing professional and a mother of three children, apart from being a bestselling author. Her first book, Just Married, Please Excuse  is a hilarious account of marriage. Her second novel, Sorting Out Sid is the story of a man having an early midlife crisis and, consequently, a divorce. Yashodhara blogs at yashodharalal.com

This is review for Indiblogger. The views expressed are my own and under no influence.