#688 : Aspen Leaves by Dhivya Balaji : Review

 

Aspen leaves is an anthology of stories on three different genres. Each story belongs to a particular genre with each story assigned a color reflecting the tone and mood of the story. 

Having been privy to the Author's style of writing from a very young age, it didn't surprise me that the 'writing' and 'language' part of the book was nothing short of perfect. The actual plotting of the stories is a different ball game. Of the 10 stories, I felt 3 were a little predictable - Predator, The Lake, and Eternal. However, they were still thoroughly enjoyable to read. 

As an avid reader, an ideal mix of a great book would be 60% good writing and 40% good plotting - This is just a personal preference and by no means a "standard of judge" a book. Undoubtedly, the writing  scored full 60% given I love the writer's formal style of writing without the usual usage of local jargon. While local language words are needed to make the story relatable to the setting, I cannot understand the purpose of using them on every other line given the primary language of writing being English. 

While almost everything is perfect - a couple of peeve points - The title doesn't resonate the story or the concept of colors though the writer has justified the title in her note. The cover could have been a little more stereotypical instead of looking like a collage of images, though it does relate well with the story. 

My  favorite story from the anthology would be "The Note" - the story has a close resemblance to life of the Ex-CM of TN, Late Ms.Jayalalitha - the writer cannot have penned a better story as a tribute of sorts (I know for a fact that she is inspired by Ms.Jayalalitha)

The book is worth spending time on if you prefer to read byte sized stories written in perfect English. 

Do buy your copy on Amazon (or it's on KU)