Book Review: The Bestseller She Wrote by Ravi Subramanian

About the story: It starts with whining about Indian authors and their lack of expertise in giving the realistic feel to the plots. 9 of the 10 English literature readers will agree to that, actually all those will agree who have read at least one of the foreign authors. So the story starts with a high note that this is going to be different from regular Indian romantic drama which later turns into a Bollywood thriller. But aghast! It is the same old story and I moved forward with saying 'Not again'. The only reason I went further as the book had come for the review, else I would have left it after first fifty pages or so.

Aditya Kapoor, main character who is a leading Indian fictional writer and a banker at the same time was giving a talk at his Alma mater at the start of the book and where he meets the arrogant but wannabe writer, Shreya who currently studying in her first year of MBA course. The story is more than typical, where a great Indian thriller writer gets into an intimate relationship with a young wanna be writer, IIMB graduate and soon to be his junior at work. One more thing will say you again and again to drop the book is the character is loosely based on Mr Chetan Bhagat, IIM graduate, successful banker and the very famous author. First half is nothing but the masala romance with girlfriend and walking on the rope while managing the marriage and love life.

But I have to agree that the book gets a little better in the second half. A series of events happen which at least led me to complete the book to know the ending, though it was very much obvious. But I got involved to know where the series of events leading the author's life and how he will reach to the obvious ending. The style in which sometimes the author explains some obvious things and give some explanations for why the specific thing is happening in the plot is too obvious and it makes the read more boring. In the halfway, wife of the main character, Aditya Kapoor gets injected with an Ebola virus and you will really wonder why even this thing was added in the book as its not giving any add on to the story. And even more surprising is that she comes to life by defeating the virus which would have never happened this easily in reality. And if you judge the plot and the series of events planted in, even some severe curable diseases like Tuberculosis, or even an accident would
have done the job. But Ebola seems too fake there. Anyways as per typical Bollywood plot, first you will start loving the Shreya's character and would pray for some twist so that Aditya would leave his wife and would come to her. But then plot goes further and puts Shreya's character into the negative role and you can easily guess what's going to happen at the end!

My Review: There are just too many negatives. Aditya's character is loosely based on Chetan Bhagat which kills the expectations at the start itself. I had heard so much of the other books by Ravi Subramanian, but I am really disappointed with this one which makes me unsure of giving the other ones a try. Indian readers are fed up of the plots having IITs, IIMs, their half baked love stories and their success and failures. Chetan Bhagat has written enough on those subjects, which had received by the readers very well as they were very cheesy and crispy for the first time to read. But now we really need something different from Indian authors, especially authors like Ravi Subramanian.

Rating: 2/5

Note: I am reviewing ‘The Bestseller She Wrote’ by Ravi Subramanian as a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!