Book- Voices of the Silent Creek
Author- Vikkas Arun Pareek
Genre- Fiction (Feministic tale)
Publisher- Nivasini Publishers
Blurb-
Shanti and Bhano are from a small village of Rajasthan. Shanti is calm and composed as expected from an elder daughter. She is married soon and her fate is written. But what makes her married life so hard?
Bhano is quirky and energetic. She finds the wrong and tries to mend things. But is that easy enough for her?
Arti is a city girl. She is away from the chaos of mad village life. Her life is nothing less than a fairy tale. Then why she is in deep despair, which makes her helpless?
What happens when the three leading ladies collide in life? Will they bring good fate for each other? Or does destiny has some different tales to be penned beneath their veil?
Title-
Ok so the title is literary having little connection with the real story. There is a strong part in the story that revolves around the natural ambience. You can’t judge from the name what’s the story is about. A good start for sure.
Cover-
The cover is very unique as it represents the naive outlook towards everything. The story and the images produced for the first click goes hand in hand. Also the dark side in the lives of people is well balanced with the two extreme colours of the frequency band.
Characters-
The book has abundant characters, suiting things perfectly. Every protagonist has a complete set of supporters and antagonist around it. The narrator has tried his best to take out the best from everyone. If we talk about the leading ladies, Bhano, Shanti and Arti, they have ruled every page, every chapter and every turn. But the good part relies in raising the antagonists. To point out some, we have, Bheem Singh, Parshuram and in some way, Mohan Lal. Picking up some favourites, Shanti, Bheem Singh and Bhano surely gets the top ranking.
Narration-
The narration being in third person suited the novel very well. The chapters were divided perfectly, no hitches. Easy narration made the novel a quick read, without much thoughts and extra queries arriving in mind. But on second thoughts, it can be termed as plain. Readers who like complexities while going through the story might consider it as a setback. There were times when you could predict and the author gave the readers full power to get in his head. If strongly weaved, the story could have been a little less “heard”.
Review-
The story starts at a very beautiful point. It leaves you spellbound, making you stick to the deep end. The girl, Shanti is all set to leave the house of her parents. What she experience nearby and how she takes her life is really pretty to notice. The author has done a wonderful job in making things so imperishable. But then things start drifting, in an expected manner. You wait for some turn to be new and unique but sadly things turn to that old corner.
The chapters shift setting. What luck that Bhano, Shanti’s sister is trapped too. The author has tried to show the distinction in these two sisters from the very start. But do things really fall according to one’s own self. That’s where the newness falls in the story. It’s almost half book when the incidents seem a little fresh. The violence reaches a new mark. Through a reader’s point of view, the tale of pain is really refreshing because it gave a new fragrance.
Extra efforts if would have been given then there were chances of more subtlety. For example, the vision of creek follows the path but it just vanishes after few chapters. You can spot it later only, that too with limited part but surely a strong one.
The part that is unlikeable is the unequal share of the leading characters in the story. Bhano gets the maximum share and Arti gets the least. Also, Arti’s part is really ill-treated. It seems its added just coz it was necessary to mend the end. It didn’t seem that convincing. The story catches pace only in the ending chapters, as the suspense relies on them.
So in total, the novel can hold you only at the end and a bit in the start. The middle portion is bleak and plain. The story is written in a nice way but the incidents are not that convincing. They seem heard. But yeah, feministic novels do have such incidents which sound heard, so it wouldn’t be fair to judge the story completely on that basis. The best part is the characters which do wonders in making the chapters seem so real. All in all, a nice and light read.
Eye-catchers-
· “Only if she knew... This was just the beginning.”
· “I see strength, I see it belong to me and I belong here.”
· “...he seemed so close as if he lived inside her head.”
Turn-on’s-
The part that Shanti’s father plays is really the best one. His character can’t be judged. What he needed from his daughters is really unknown. And I found in him a really infected father of today’s Indian family who wants to support their daughters but something holds him back, strongly. It really seemed relatable.
Also, the likeable thing of novel is that it showed three very different ladies. In the story we have a lady who doesn’t have a strong spine, a lady who has a spine but couldn’t do anything and a lady who have enough guts to let things happen.
Turn-off’s-
The blurb, cover and title sound very promising but...
Editing errors were easily noticeable.
Editing errors were easily noticeable.
Recommendation-
Love feminist novels? Then Voices of the Silent Creek can be in your reading list of this year. It is quick read so if you have started reading and looking for an easy pick then this can be in your shelf.
You can contact the author by using these links-
· vapbooksfeedback@gmail.com
· Twitter handle- @vapmail16
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