Life Is What You Make It

From the book blurb

Life Is What You Make It is a story about a young female protagonist whose life gets shaken by her destiny in a highly unexpected manner. Set across two Indian cities in 1989, the story begins when Ankita is shown to be reading letters that she exchanged with Vaibhav. And here onward, the reader is taken on a flashback story that relates the life of Ankita and how she ended up in a hospital.

Ankita is in her twenties and belongs to a conservative middle class family. Her parents are so strict that they do not even like her being friends with guys. She is a smart, career-oriented, confident, young, attractive, sweet, and happy go lucky girl. She has lots of friends and is wooed by many boys at her college. Her college life is what every youngster dreams of but Ankita does not underestimate the importance of studies as well. She secures a seat in a leading management school. She is one of the most happening girls in the college. However, at times she is haunted by some issues that she faced in her past.

Life seems to be sailing smooth for Ankita until one fine day when she is admitted to a mental hospital. Life suddenly snatches everything that Ankita had in her world in a cruel twist of fate. How did things change so badly? How will Ankita take this sudden blow of destiny? Will she survive it? Will she ever be able to live a normal life?

A love story at heart, this tale of unconquerable human spirit shows how Ankita does not succumb to her destiny and decides to fight back. It is an inspiring and moving account of determination and faith as Ankita challenges what destiny throws at her. It is a story that makes the reader question the very concepts of sanities and teaches the fact that life is what one makes of it. Moreover, the simple language and narration of Life Is What You Make It emphasizes that problems are never permanent and it is one’s spirit that can carve the path to one’s life.

Author

Preeti Shenoy is a multi-talented person who is famously known as a bestselling Indian author. Shenoy has authored three other books including Tea For Two And A Piece Of Cake, The Secret Wish List, and 34 Bubblegums And Candies. Preeti was born on 21st December in 1971 and studied all across the country in different Kendriya Vidyalayas. She was interested in writing since her childhood but became a full-time writer after her blog’s success in 2006. She started writing for leading newspapers and magazines such as The Times of India and Readers Digest. Her other talents include paper quilling, poetry, basketball, yoga, blogging, and pencil art. She was listed in the Forbes longlist of the most influential celebrities in India

Characters

Ankita, is a mix of beauty and intelligence. She is cheerful, romantic and friendly.

What I think

The cover page looks simple. But, the title attracts any potential reader and the book blurb further enhances the reader’s desire to read it.

The narrative is lucid and I loved the choice of words. There are several characters each tied to the protagonist’s life.

The best factor about the book is its less number of pages. Therefore, it doesn’t bore you. Also, it would not let you think what-am-I-reading until you finish the book. That’s when you ask yourself what you read and what was the purpose of book.

But...

The story doesn’t not do justice to the promising book blurb. Most part of the book is about a confused late teens-early 20’s girl who gets into multiple relationship. The book would have become what was promised if the focus was more on her bipolar disorder than the hormonal one.

This is a big disappointment!

More so because I read a brilliant The One Who Cannot Have first!

Should you read it?

This is an over-hyped book.

You can decide the rest!

Rating

2/5