The Divine and The Destiny | Meenakshi Raina | Book Review

The Divine and The DestinyPLOT: 3.5/5
CHARACTERS: 3/5
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
CLIMAX: 3/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5

Writing a story is at the same time, both easy and difficult. Contrary to popular belief, it is not as hard as many people make it out to be.

But at the same time, it is not as if anyone can pick up a pen, or in the case of our generation, a tablet, and start typing away.

With the proper plot structure and characters, necessary ingredients that are too often taken for granted, one can definitely tell a good story, irrespective of how mundane it may be.

Meenakshi Raina’s The Divine and the Destiny does just that. This is the story about Shereen who, along with her family, was forced to vacate their home in Kashmir just like all the other Kashmiri Pandit families.

This happens during the 1990s when there was indeed a mass exodus of people after violence from separatists threatened their lives.

This real-life event puts a good backdrop for the story, and it is essentially about how Shereen deals with it, while simultaneously trying to find the love of her life.

The Divine and The Destiny is captivating and will tug at the heartstrings of the reader.

The language used is also very simple and does not suffer from the common mistake of new authors trying to show off by using big words that the average reader would have trouble understanding.

The narrative ensures that the reader has no problem following the plot, which makes it enjoyable, to say the least.

However, the narrative can sometimes, if not most, become a bit too casual, and makes it look more like a personal story than anything else.

While the author may have a personal connection with it, it is important, in the interest of the reading audience, to keep it impersonal so that there would be a far greater effect when the story is being read.

Having said that, the author certainly has the talent, and with a little bit of work on the narration skills, can certainly churn more heart touching stories in the future.

Indeed, the story certainly has a good mix of facts and fiction, making it a good pastime as well as a history lesson.

Knowing what happened and what the people had to face during such hardships is important for people to know, and what better way to do it than with the help of fiction?

I certainly hope Meenakshi Raina does research a few other such events and gives us another warm book to read in the future.

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