My Review-
Sometime during a chilly winter’s eve I was walking
the familiar crowded streets when a book had caught my attention. It was the end
of the month and all that I had was 200 bucks in my pocket. Without a second
thought I went ahead and wasted it on the book that then appeared like a
wonderful, wonderful piece. That evening I went back home and begun on the book.
On the first page itself, I sensed it. I sensed that it was a bad buy. I had
gambled my money and lost it. That particular night I swore never to lay my hand
on a vampire book again. I still am the one who posts sarcastic jokes not just
on social networking sites.
Four years later, I broke the promise and decided
to review this one. I saw the cover and I yelled to myself, ‘Heck! The cover is
tacky!’ But nevertheless I had to at least try to read it before I gave up. So
yes, the story begins in NYC where a vampire hunter Anu Agarwal has that one
person whom she dearly loved is dead. She resolves to seek revenge and that
leads her to New Delhi. What she finds out on landing in India is that this is a
land where danger lurks in the air. One does not need to be bit and get his or
her blood intoxicated to end up as a dead piece of meat. On the other hand Anu
has an aunt who is devoted to get her married or at least into a romantic
relationship. But Anu is simply not interested. All that could ever interest her
is the mystery of the death of the only person she loved and that secret mantra.
Tantra, is Anu, the protagonist’s journey to find the much desired, powerful
mantra.
First of all as I already stated, I hate vampires
and I hate the blood-sucking. Secondly, the cover is ugly. I mean the black and
the blue is a lovely combo but the graphics work ruins it all. The concept
though a little clichéd is interesting only because the setting is in India. It
is unrealistic too provided there is no history that vampires have had in India.
Nothing about the literature convinced me on the same to be honest. Anyways but
the story had a really fast pace. There were no grammatical errors or should I
just say that the author has flawless knowledge in terms of grammar which again
is my preliminary concern when trying out a debutante because of the simple fact
that the market is flooded with such books with too many typos and horrible
grammar.
As a character Anu’s aunt pleases me the most. Her
nature is of a typical Indian aunt, irritating and haughty. I love her for she
comes as a breath of fresh air amidst the traditional action-packed vampire
hullaballoo. I absolutely adore how the author has incorporated tantra and
mantra, two of the most powerful weapons of Indian mythology into the foreign
concept. The book gives away too much and yet doesn’t elaborate enough when it
needs to. I’m afraid that is where it might lose most of its readers. A book,
especially when part of a series, has to balance both the suspense and the
requisite knowledge. That is the basic essence of it. If you give away too much,
no one buys the next book and if you don’t elaborate on the essentials, no one
buys the other books in the series either. Either you destroy the series for the
readers or you don’t create enough interest. However, this is only the first
book in the first series by a debutante author. Nothing is lost if he learns
from what mistakes he has made and chooses to correct them in the next
installment.
