Dear Isheeria Healing Circles Reader & Fellow Book Lover,
Welcome to the Book Review of : Rafflesia The Banished Princess
The Book Blurb:
RAFFLESIA The Banished Princess The curtains draw up. Lights are dimmed. The musical is about to begin. As the beautiful princess descends on stage, the mythical creatures from her kingdom come alive. Flickers of brilliant colours blaze across as mesmerizing music pulsates from one corner of the theatre to the other. A fairy tale is about to unfold… As young children, we often come across things that stay in our hearts forever. For Appu, it is a fairy tale about a beautiful princess.He lives with her in a world filled with the magical creatures from her kingdom until the real world beckons. A reluctant Appu steps into it as a striking young man and struggles to find his place. What follows is an evocative tale of love and loss, friendship and betrayal, as the story travels through the snow-peaked mountains of Arunachal to the golden deserts of Jaisalmer, the tulip gardens of Holland to the lush greens of Kerala. Does Appu find what he had set out for? The answer lies in Rafflesia – The Banished Princess because in her story, lay his!
You can find the book here: Amazon.in Kindle Goodreads.com
The Author online here: www twitter instagram facebook
My Review: [sce emoji=”star”/] [sce emoji=”star”/] [sce emoji=”star”/] /5
First things first, I LOVED the book cover, there is something about a light eyed angel with a Japanese fan (uchiwa) done in a combination of monochrome & sepia which is just intriguing!
The Book is the story of Appu, and his journey & his fascination with a book called Rafflesia ( & I too spent the whole time reading, wondering about the connections and links between the two). The book is also about friendships and relationships.
This is the first story by the Author Gautam and is quite interesting. The language, writing style and concept are good .I did feel however that it wasn’t very well thought out, or maybe there is a sequel in the offing!
For Appu is described as the chosen one – but what is he chosen for?
Spoiler Alert – Detailed opinions on book events follow –
An interesting thing about Appu is that everyone, and I mean everyone in the book likes him and is drawn to him, except for his wife Jharna![sce emoji=”facepalm”/] Who leaves him within days – with an excuse and without an explanation!
One of the beautiful facets of this story is that for each character, the author has given snippets of their personal lives – this made the characters come alive.
One of the best scenes was when Appu’s friend, Rahul attempts to commit suicide!
Usually in a story the narrative would be focused on Rahul, but here, the author Gautam has taken an interesting approach and shown Appu’s side of the story. The side, which very few people talk about, the story of the people who get left behind.
Appu realises that he, and every one in Rahul’s life (except for the person due to whom Rahul wanted to commit suicide in the first place) were inconsequential! He realized that for his best friend, he actually didn’t matter & this left him quite shaken.
At this point in the story, I paused too – and reflected on how truly interconnected we all are. How the decision of one person taken in their own personal silos, affects each of us connected with them – irrespective of whether or not they are cognizant of the impact!
Appu, who lives in the modern world with old world values, asks the eternal questions –
“Why is it always me? What have I done”
To which Rahul replies, rather aptly: “…because you are very special baba. and God has his own ways with the people he loves”.
The character Sujata sums it up beautifully, when she says:
“You don’t always get what you want. But you should never give up.
Life is like a white canvas, you should never stop painting on it.
Because, miracles do happen.
Rafflesia The Banished Princess, is quite an interesting read – though a simplistic story, but then, that is how life is.
May you dream of books & words,
Ishieta
on: goodreads
‘I received a copy from Writersmelon in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.’
