We were complete opposites. She was a secret traveller, I was a dreamer. She was filled with experiences, I was filled with stories. ~ Goutham, Journey Across The Street.
Journey Across The Street by Madhusudhan R. is a fiction novel about two people, Rhea and Goutham, and how they fall in love.
The plot of the story goes like this: Goutham and Rhea have been living in the same neighbourhood for almost 14 years. Yet, they have been strangers for 14 years too. Why? Because of one childhood incident, which made them grow apart.
14 years later, Rhea and Goutham meet in an unconventional situation. Rhea, a chronic runaway from home, enters Goutham’s life, to give him an opportunity to dream big and better. To dream of something beyond a corporate job.
They fall in love slowly. But their love is endangered by the threat of Rhea going missing, and Goutham becoming the primary suspect. Can Goutham figure out the truth behind why Rhea has gone missing? Does he really know the motives of each and every person in his life?
What I liked about this book is that there are sudden flashes of brilliance in between the story. A paragraph here, a nicely executed plot twist there. You know, tidbits in the book were interesting. On the whole, naah.
What I didn’t like about this book, is a problem that I face a lot when reading books by newbie authors: They do not follow the ‘show, don’t tell’ principle in writing fiction. In some chapters, I didn’t naturally feel empathy or sympathy for the characters. It felt forced. In some places (mostly towards the end of the book), I didn’t even feel like thinking about ‘who could be the real suspect behind Rhea’s disappearance?’.
Also, some of the jokes in this book were too cheesy. Especially the name of the character Deekshith, and the jokes surrounding his name. Just. Plain. Weird. And don’t get me started on the dialogues between Goutham and his Film Club Friends.
I give this book a 3/5 star rating, and recommend it only to readers who want to have a quick fiction read. This book is only 156 pages long, and is a ‘put-your-brain-to-sleep-and-read’ kind of book.
~Amateur-Book-Reviewer
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review via The Book Planet PR.
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