BOOK REVIEW OF- Twisted
By- Shravya Gunipudi
Paperback: 254 pages
Publisher: Notion Press; 1 edition (2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1947349090
THE PLOT IN BRIEF-
It is weird that I still meet my mother almost every day. I am 35 years old. But that is not why it is weird. It is because nobody else has seen her since 18th September, 20 years ago. Because, that is the day she died.” Meet Ria, the charming woman with an edge. Her life is nearly perfect. Or so it seemed, until one fateful day an accident wipes out parts of her memory. Suddenly, she starts to experience strange visions involving repressed childhood Memories which send shivers down her spine. A man called ‘Anuj’ whom she can’t remember. The sadness that led to her mother’s sudden death. Answers that her husband Jay refuses to share. Secrets begin to resurface and Ria is left with no option but to confront her own fears. Twisted is a tale of love, family and friendship, where bitter memories and shocking truths drive everyone to the point where they have to decide – Will the relationships crumble to dust or can love really conquer all?
THE TITLE-
We often say that never presume to know a person based on the one dimensional window of the internet. A soul can’t be defined by critics, enemies or broken ties with family or friends. Neither can it be explained by posts or blogs that lack facial expressions, tone or insight into the person’s personality and intent. Until people “get that”, we will forever be a society that thinks Beautiful Mind was a spy movie and every stranger is really a friend on Facebook. Twisted is a tale which twists reality with memories. Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about every day, too many new things we have to learn. But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.
REVIEW OF THE BOOK-
I recall a quote which said to think of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell, as if you were really there. After all you really were there at the time, weren’t you? How else could you remember it? But here is the bombshell: you weren’t there. Not a single atom that is in your body today was there when that event took place. Every bit of you has been replaced many times over (which is why you eat, of course). You are not even the same shape as you were then. The point is that you are like a cloud: something that persists over long periods, while simultaneously being in flux. Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Ris’s character was designed similar to this fashion, very beautifully. The memory- that persists for a long time, the character- which is instantaneous.
I loved the way the author has brought in the context of childhood in the plot. Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn’t disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don’t value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life’s bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it’s been sung? The dance when it’s been danced? It’s only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. Love, too plays a central theme of the plot. The characterization of Anuj gives us the glimpse that there is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment
And finally the theme of memory does steal away the show. We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality. We confuse the world as talked about, described, and measured with the world which actually is. We are sick with a fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas
To know more Ria, please order your copy from https://www.amazon.in/Twisted-Shravya-Gunipudi/dp/1947349090
RATINGS-
Overall I would like to rate the book 45 on a scale of 50.
4 stars out of 5
Originality of the plot and sub plots- 9/10
Net emotions in the story- 9/10
Usage of words and phrases-9/10
The title, cover and the illustration-9/10
The net impact on the readers- 9/10
Reviewed by-
Sayan Basak
Kolkata
