CHARACTERS: 4/5
WRITING STYLE: 4/5
CLIMAX: 3/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5
I received this book review copy from Leadstart Corp.
Jufic Books, a brand under Leadstart, has been doing a tremendous job in terms of script selection and quality printing. I have previously reviewed one book by Jufic – “Marry Go Round”.
It was great and the same can be said for this one – Horseshoe Garage by Hitesha.
It has a simple and clean cover, a thrilling blurb and an amazing central theme – race cars.
Once I began reading this book and couldn’t put it down. Very few books have given such a pleasure of reading.
The plot surrounds an international racing championship, Neo-Racing, where the main condition for participation is a unique technology which has never been tried before.
The championship, until now, was only open to Europe and the Americas. When the management decides to open itself to Asia, they select India as the country from which a new team would be added to the championship.
Two friends, Sav and Rags, have dreamed of being a part of Neo-Racing since their childhood and when this opportunity shows up, they decide to grab it with all they got.
They pour-in all their savings, quit their plum jobs, go against their families and come up with a new car design to represent India in the championship.
To achieve this, they need a unique technology, loads of money to build the car, a team of 17 members to qualify for the race and a first position in the state and national championships.
In their attempt, they are helped by a wonder-woman, Naaz, a mechanic and a fourth-class-pass, who can repair and build anything.
Just by looking at their design for three minutes, she tells them that their design is not new and comes up with a new design of her own. The rest of the story is whether an underdog team of mechanics and dreamers can build a car which is new and fast enough to qualify for and win the Neo-Racing championship.
The narration style and the plot is a typical Bollywood script and has all the right ingredients to make it to the silver screen – smart men, pretty women, drama, deceit, romance, bad guys, rich & poor division etc.
The narrations when Sav, Rags and Naaz discuss the designs and implement it are very lively.
The races are a bit unrealistic but do not go beyond the imagination.
The author has done a great job in making me feel for the team and shed tears of joy for the underdogs.
The characters are simply awesome. Sav and Rags’ friendship is what everybody dreams of.
Above all the things in the book, I loved the character of Naaz. She is perfect in every sense; she is pretty, independent and she knows her cars.
Team spirit is brought to life in this book. I got the same feeling as watching “Coach Carter” or “Hurricane Season”.
Final verdict – Horseshoe Garage is a definite must-read.