The reviews have been a bit scarce the past couple of months, mostly because I’ve been too busy reading. But I did review these two for Goodbooks.in:
The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong by Shweta Taneja
Having been part of the generation that grew up on a staple diet of Enid Blyton, one does sometimes miss a good old straightforward mystery story. While this is not to gloss over the attendant problems of Blyton’s work, those simple stories about a gang of kids catching thieves, finding stolen stuff, solving ‘safe’ crimes are sorely missed. It’s not that this genre has not been attempted in Indian writing – it has and numerous times, but it is a tricky one to get right. Thus, it was with the anticipation of getting my teeth into a juicy mystery that I approached Shweta Taneja’s The Ghost Hunters of Kurseong.
Manan by Mohit Parikh
Adults who spend a lot of time debating about the appropriateness of reading material for children are going to have a field day with this one. More about that later; for now, let’s focus on the fact that Manan takes a slightly different approach to one of those staples of YA fiction – yes, we mean the coming-of-age tale. Mohit Parikh’s debut novel reads more like literary fiction rather than a young adult one, and that isn’t necessarily a compliment. Nor is it a criticism. Well, it’s complicated.
~PD