Day 25 –Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Devakaruni

Is it wrong to have really high expectation from an author who has delivered some excellent books one after another?

My case of reading Oleander Girl was of high expectations not met. Having read the Palace of Illusion, I was expecting magic in this book too.

Frankly speaking, the book in itself is beautifully written. Each character is well built up, layers and layers of complicated personality wonderfully explained. Confusions, misunderstanding, fear, love, weaknesses beautifully portrayed, displaying the author’s strength in building characters. However, the story is not what could keep one from keeping the book down.

Adventures of the protagonists or the problems of the characters around her, none of the stories were really gripping. Incidents over incidents make it very sad until the last fifty pages. There are hardly any moments when you can smile while reading.

Though I liked reading the book but it wasn’t something that will really stay with me. It could have been more engrossing than it was.

A good book for weekend reading if you don’t let the problems of protagonists affect your mood. A 3 out of 5 for this.