Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsSerious Read
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 31 May 2019
This is my second book by Preeti Shenoy. The first one I read was "Love a Little Stronger" that was a wonderful light read. I enjoyed the humor, emotion and feeling shared in those stories. And Preeti is one of the bestselling authors of India, so I didn't want to lose the chance to read the next book by her which was a sequel to "Life is What You Make It", again a national bestseller. I happily accepted the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
"Wake Up, Life Is Calling" is a story of Ankita. She had troubled past. She recently came back from a mental asylum, she was admitted there due to Bipolar Disorder. Her parents were her biggest supporters. The story started when she joined the course of creative writing. She made 2 friends from her class and started living normally. Her phone-friend/school friend or I would say her long-distance boyfriend suddenly entered her life. She was annoyingly enjoying her life when something unexpected happened to her which brought back troubling memories back to her. The last third of the book shows her struggle from the phase.
Frankly speaking, I found the book is inline or may be inspired by "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo. Don't get angry with me but I was not able to finish "Veronika...". Somehow I was getting too many negative vibes from that book. Something like that happened to me when I was going through the phase of Ankita's struggle. The reason I sailed through was limited options and 15 hours journey. Also, Indian background helped me to go through. Once I was done through 2nd third, I was enjoying the book. And before I know, I reached the last section. Yes I finished the whole book in one day (6-7 hours)
My observations
1) Though the book is written with good intention and motivation in mind, for people in depression I would advise either finish the book (if you start) or skip it. If you leave it in low of Ankita's character you may get more depressed.
2) The book is written for mature people with the proper thought process.
3) To make sure, the seriousness of the subject won't affect the reading pace, Preeti has used simple language and straight storytelling.
4) I haven't read part 1, if you want to read it first then do it. It will be helpful.
5) Nice and colorful cover design.
6) I didn't like Parul's behavior in the climax, the way she was portrayed in the beginning I thought she would be mature enough to support Ankita.
I know many people said good words about the book, I felt depressed (even though I was not depressed at all) while reading the book. And that's why I am not able to give more than 3.5
