Book Review : When She Smiled

The book “When She smiled “ is the debut novel written by Ritoban Chakrabarti, is  a story of a teenager boy who finds his destiny hidden behind a ‘Smile’. The front cover of the book is well designed and attractive which tempts the reader to start off.

 

Book : When She Smiled

Plot:

The story is set up in the backdrop of mesmerizing Shivalik  ranges in  Shimla which is well known for its picturesque beauty. The story revolves around a fifteen year old boy,Mrityunjoy Roy ,who returns from the Sainik school to join his previous DAV school  and was delighted to meet his buddies after a long gap. He is a boy who likes to participate in almost all kinds of competition, has the passion of doing something different and is a day dreamer.

Here, he meets a girl ,Akansha who is the most beautiful girl in the school and is captivated by her smile and gorgeous eyes. Slowly the teen love takes a leap when she joins Roy’s tuition classes. They used to walk kilometers together to spend time with each other enjoying the beauty of Shimla. He always thinks of impressing her and drawing her focus on him. Her one smile would give him all the answers to his questions. The sweet innocent love story just takes lead mingled with myriad of emotions.

The other characters in the story are introduced very well. Roy’s parents were very particular about studies and disliked any kind of the extra-curricular activities .They fought on petty issues which annoyed Mrityunjoy a lot. But the pillar support was his elder brother and sister who were his role models and guided him in all walks of life.

Then suddenly a very sad incident just changes his way to approach life and he decides to move on .A smile that once made him crazy now lighted his path to success.

Likes:

• The descriptions about the scenic beauty of Shivalik, in and around Shimla are very refreshing.
• The poetry which Mrityunjoy writes on the request of his girlfriend, Akansha is the real strength of the book.
• The story is able to decipher a very good message for our youth ,that one should move on in life if things fall apart rather than wasting  time repenting, thus making the situations worse.
• The student life is portrayed beautifully .The competitions and the school fare just took me back to my goody school days.

Dislike: 

• The book just doesn’t keep the readers engrossed. There are dialogues that seemed repetitive. 
• I was not able to connect the speaker of the dialogues at times it was confusing as to who is speaking. 
• The ending was quite hasty and could have been more interesting and also came across few grammatical mistakes. 
• Few portions were explained in detail but as we reach towards the end the things are rushed and hence were unsuccessful to strike the right cord.

Final word:

The book is written in first person and is narrated by Roy. The language used is simple and easy to grasp.

The author seems to be a nature lover and portrayed the perfect picture of the exquisiteness of Shimla through his writing. This book could be a good pick to revive the memories of the teenager life and could be a one-time read sipping coffee in leisure time.

Book Details:

Name: When she Smiled

Author: Ritoban Chakrabarti

Genre: Romantic Fiction

Publisher: Notion press

ISBN: 978-93-84878-25-2

Pages: 217

Price:  Rs 215

My Rating: 3/5

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@ Meenal