The reason why I chose this book for review was the vibrant cover. It was so well-designed that I hoped that the story would be as good as the cover. But I think I went in with too many expectations when compared to what I actually got out of it.
Until Love Sets Us Apart starts off with Aadi, a writer and an MBBS student, trying to find out details of a murder case so that he can put it in his next novel. But what he and his friends find out chills them. How can a beautiful love story quickly turn so gory? What exactly happens and how the entire story pans out forms the rest of the story.
While the story, as you go page by page, wasn’t as appealing to me, looking back at the story in hindsight gives more detail than I had expected. The character detailing becomes clearer towards the end, and I think that’s not a bad thing. The kind of love portrayed between the two protagonists is rare and the stuff of dreams. And to see it flourish was a sort of guilty pleasure for me.
I say ‘guilty pleasure’ not because I’m cynical and such a love doesn’t exist. It is because I liked reading about Rohit and Aisha’s love story despite the not-so-great writing. It is full of clichés that could have been done away with. Cliché phrases that are badly placed and don’t need to be there. Plus, there are quite a few inconsistencies in the story that the author needs to hammer out.
The one thing that I do not agree with that the author declares in this book is: Injustice is best combated with non-violence. That is not how it works, in my opinion. Gandhi might have started that against the British but even then, it was unfair on a number of levels, even if it got us our independence. But this is just my opinion.
Aditya Nighhot is 20 years old and has a long way to go. If his first novel can evoke so many emotions, imagine what a little honing and sharpening of his skills can do. Hopefully, whatever story he is writing next will have all the elements in a better order than they are in this one. There’s a long way to go for the young author and he has to make sure that he only looks forward and not repeat the chinks that are in this one.
Until Love Sets Us Apart is an easy read that you can finish in one sitting. Ignore the clichés and you will probably enjoy the book.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Until next time, keep reading and add melodrama to your life. 🙂
The Melodramatic Bookworm 