| Book Title: Bloody Dreams Author: Gopinath Lakshmanan Format: Paperback No.of pages: 261 Published by: Optimus Engineers Genre: Fiction |
Book Title:
The book’s title ‘Bloody Dreams ‘is intriguing and mystic.
Book Cover:
The cover images, both the front and back of this book, are pretty interesting. The front cover has a dream catcher, an analogue alarm clock and a small vase with two red roses. The red roses depict love, so there must be a love story. The alarm clock has two meanings here; it shows the timeline and is alarming for the right or wrong time. The dream catcher, of course, is an indication of making dreams come true. Here, in the story, did the characters fulfil their dreams? That’s the story to be read.
The back cover is a beautiful collage of prominent women from history who made it big in their life, facing many challenges yet triumphing in their fields. The details of the women are provided in the end credits of the book. This is a thoughtful idea by the author and publishers.
Plot:
Rajeev is Radha and Rajan’s only son. Rajan is a wealthy businessman from an utterly patriarchal family and constantly mistreats his wife, Radha. This results in a lack of a harmonious relationship with her son Rajeev. Since childhood, Rajeev has been an arrogant kid and has grown up into a male chauvinist. Divya is Rajeev’s girlfriend, an aspiring Bharatanatyam dancer but is constantly oppressed by Rajeev. Her gratitude towards him for one reason holds her to continue the abusive relationship.
An incident makes Rajeev empathise with women all of a sudden. What is that incident? Will Divya continue her relationship with Rajeev? Will Rajeev ever understand his mother Radha and her ambitions? To know the answers, read this debut book by Gopinath Lakshmanan.
What I like:
1. The setting of the story
2. The layers where the story unfolds many issues that women face
3. The emotions felt by the protagonist during the transformation.
4. The paradigm change in the mindset of Rajeev.
5. Female protagonist Divya’s undeterred affection towards Rajeev.
6. Comfortable font style and size.
What I didn’t like:
1. A crisp and effective vocabulary instead of detailed explanations could have helped the story to look rich.
2. Few spelling errors that, while proofreading, might have been skipped.
3. There are places where a little more story if added, will make the twists more meaningful.
Characters:
The story has three main characters – Radha, Divya and Rajeev. Radha’s son Rajeev is Divya’s love interest but lacks empathy and respect towards women. His father, Rajan’s harsh and abusive attitude towards Radha, imbibed evil notions about women in Rajeev’s mind. The same gets reflected in his relationship with Divya. Apart from this, other characters – Divya’s friends- take space in the story when required but aptly.
The characters are introduced at perfect timing with a good back story. The scope, strength and depth of all the story’s characters help the reader to read the story further.
Narration:
The language in the book is quite simple and can be read by anyone. But at places, the narration was slow and dragging. As said above, crisp language might have helped. The story’s second half is racy enough, but a few more details at places would have been good. Although there are minor issues regarding the narration, the themes the author embedded into the story through the characters are interesting and thoughtful. Though it is a 261-page long story, some sensitive issues regarding a woman are well explained, which doesn’t burden the readers.
Language & Grammar:
Simple language with regular vocabulary is used in the story. Strong grammar is missing. In his following works, I hope the author will note this.
My thoughts:
With an interesting take on a married woman’s plight whose husband someone who ignores his wife but focuses on his son, the inheritor. At some places in the first few chapters of the story, the urge to slap Rajeev for his arrogance pops up. This shows the author’s writing skills. Likewise, in the second half, when an incident happens, and Rajeev enters into utter shock, his way of looking towards female being changes drastically but gradually.
Contexts like women not being choices in life, forced marriages, biased upbringing, women abuse, woman’s strong will, woman’s determination (Radha’s character showcases this) and many such women-centric conditions that prevail in the society are effectively shown.
Kudos to the author for taking up such a strong storyline in his debut work.
Who can read?
This book is for every fiction reader. It is recommended more for beginner-level readers and young adults. The story has romance, love, life, challenges life throws and virtues that every individual must develop.
How entertaining is the book?
The book is a good entertainer and can be read in one go.
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