Today I am going to review Secretes sins and struggles by Kamini Kusum. It’s a collection of short stories, and 2016 has been treating me with brilliant short stories. I wish I had reviewed all of them on this channel but let’s start the trend today.
About the book -Secrets Sins And Struggles
So, this book has five stories, and there’s a particular theme of this book which further interested me. At the same time, I must tell you that if you’re a woman, there are more chances of you liking this book for that’s how the theme of the book goes.
The stories are struggles of different women with different evils of life. For example, the first story is about a teenager who somehow lands up in the flesh trade. It’s her struggle with this profession and her journey to get out of it.
Another story tells you about Shrawani who wants to be a bureaucrat but has an anchor that she needs to cut off. Then there’s Avni who is torn between friendship and love. There are Harsha and Geshna who have some big adventures with love.
As usual, I am going to keep the review spoiler-free but tell you about what to expect from this book and whether it’s your type of book or not.
Characters of Secrets Sins And Struggles
The first thing to expect is completely women-oriented stories. That’s why I suppose women will like it more, but then it always depends on your taste. Talking about characters, a lot of them seemed foolish and dumb. Now, I, like strong woman characters and it’s very unlikely that I would have liked this book, but I surprisingly did.
I think one of the reasons behind that is stories are so fast-paced that there are no fluffy words and instances. Just to the point stories written in as few words as possible. So, even when I might have not like something, I just didn’t stick to it for long enough time. I just wanted to keep going on.
There are many other characters in the lives of these women ranging from family, friends, and lovers and I just could connect with all these characters. It’s unusual and fantastic for you don’t get to have that kind of experience with a short story collection.
Plot
Every story in Secrets Sins And Struggles was different from the other… completely different and fantastic. Touching different subjects while still having a set theme is what impressed me. Also, I had a thought in my mind that while reading this, a lot of you may consider the stories bit unreal, like the way a particular character acts under a situation. I thought a lot about it and I pretty much have seen such things happening around me so; I can say those are realistic stories that you should read.
But I thought that the endings were just too perfect. These are those kinds of stories where everything falls in place into the end, and that’s one more reason why I like (but not like) the book at same time. I hate stories with loose endings. So, it’s NOT one of those stories. But then they ended too perfectly and quickly. But then again, they are short stories; they had to be like that.
One pattern you will notice in this review is whatever I may not have liked is still perfect on its way. I didn’t like how some characters acted dumb, but they had to be. I didn’t like how stories went so perfectly but then there were so many ups and downs that I can’t complain about one portion of the book.
Other Things I Liked About The Book
I liked how all the books have references to places in the state of Bihar which were refreshing for me for I could have a glimpse of a different Indian state.
Overall, it’s a fast faced book. It has stories with different plots but almost same them that you can consume in just one day. I read this book in just a few hours for I just couldn’t keep it down. It starts with a bang and ends with a bang. No dragging and boring stuff inside.
So, what I think is if you like such books that are to the point, fast, well written, have good stories (maybe conflicting for you but still good), then go for this book.
My ratings 4/5
