Due to the excessive flooding of chic literature in the market, this genre is slowly losing its sheen. Still few books are not only surviving but emerging as champions. Sadly, this can’t be said about Act of God, authored by Nitesh Sain and published by Good Times.
For spoilers, there are not one but many. The story begins with a hero whose heroine is dead, one can start feeling the pain and anguish of the guy. But soon his pain started getting on nerves and irritating. Initially the writer gives a hint, that this book might be about rebirth or central character’s spiritual journey but as the plot unfolds, some other story comes up. Also, in the beginning I kept on wondering why everyone is blaming the guy for the girl’s death, but as the plot progress things became more hazy and chaotic. By the time one finishes the book, he is still looking for a substantial reason behind this accusation.
Partly the book also resembles Ravinder Singh-I too had a love story. The plot is pretty similar apart from the family feud twist.
The book goes into flash back, where our central character Ritesh recalls all the memories, which he has spent with Rituji. The problem here is, that there is nothing unique about those memories. Instances of their first meeting or any further meetings, fails to leave any impact. At any point of time, one cannot relate to the characters. For spoiler number two, their love become too sugar coated, with dollops of I love you icing. According to me if while reading, you feel like skipping the pages or putting the book down. Then, trust me the book and the author is doomed. And Acts of God can be easily read, while skipping pages.
Small town love story is generally loved by the masses, due to the chastity element, but it shouldn’t be blatantly highlighted. Another point which put me off, was at one point of the story, Ritesh slapped Ritu. Forget about me, majority of today’s generation do not like guy’s who are into expressing love by being physically violent.
On the scale of 5, I will rate the book 1.5.
