CHARACTERS: 3/5
WRITING STYLE: 3/5
CLIMAX: 3/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3/5
Writing your first book can always be a difficult task. Not having the experience of narrating a story can be a lot more difficult than one might believe.
It is very important to structure the story in a way that will keep the readers interested. But since the debutant writer does not really know his/her audience, it can be a bit difficult to decide how to go about it.
Some try the time-tested college student who became successful in his love life formula, while others go for more exploratory topics.
Madhu Vajpayee has chosen to write on a variation that combines both types of plots in her book, Seeking Redemption.
The story is about a girl Meera, who’s finished her MBBS and aims to do her post-graduation. However, there are many forces beyond her control that are interfering with her plans.
A combination of family pressure as well as politics makes life difficult for Meera. She also comes across two men who have a lasting effect on her, Aman Sharma and Abhay Bharti.
Meera faces many problems, but all of them help her in discovering herself and it is a journey that is compelling and thought-provoking.
While most Indian book covers are not given the focus they deserve, the same cannot be said of Madhu Vajpayee’s “Seeking redemption”.
Not only is it classy, but it also provides the intrigue factor to the reader, who would be more than interested to see what Seeking Redemption is all about.
The storytelling is in itself very good, with the events portrayed in a well-structured way, leaving the reader in doubt or confusion as to the sequence of events, and also makes the reader invested in the book.
However, a major drawback of the book is the numerous editing errors that the reader has to encounter while reading the book.
There are quite a few grammatical and sentence construction errors that could certainly have been done away with. In fact, one comes across these errors in almost every second page, which is not a good experience for the reader.
Also, in some places, the reader gets the feeling that the author has moved from one scene to another a little too abruptly while the introduction of a few characters could have been done with a bit more effort to integrate into the story.
But it is a credit to the author that in spite of all that, the reader would not feel the need to stop reading Seeking Redemption.
No doubt first-time readers may be put off, but seasoned readers would certainly continue reading as the story in itself is very interesting and the author does not let the reader down in that.
The different events involving Meera, Aman and Abhay are well portrayed and makes the reader curious as to how it all pans out.
It is very clear that the author is talented, and if the errors could have been worked upon, this certainly would have been a far better book than it already is.