‘I would love to see what you would come up with in the Sequel!!’
She texted me the above expectation or a challenge, if you will, as a part of her private review of Love Swipe Blackmail. She? A book reviewer, but also a compulsive good-book lover, something that I realised the very next day after our first meeting.
I had the happy chance of meeting her at the 2024 World Book Fair in Delhi on the 17th of February 2024 where she visited my publisher’s stall looking for mystery novels by Indian authors. She came looking for novels that suited her palette, and to be honest we were elated to get a good book reader coming in. We are still a small, hard-working publishing house. So while we may not draw the crowds, but those who know about us, look out for us, and that is a good place to be in.
But this blog is about her, not us ????. The fact that she finished reading the novel in a day, and texted me after, kinda told me that she is indeed a voracious reader. And it is not just about her review of my novel, but the way she connected with it, that will always standout in my memory. Let me explain.
A part of her private review is as follows: ‘I wasn’t expecting too much from this book, you can say (I) judged the book by (its) cover????.’
And another part says: ‘The little banters of friends, their bindings and the way you started the story I just finished it one reading! Which I was not doing quite often these days!’
And I must share one more part of the private review: ‘And as a person in my 20s I can totally relate to this dating App games????’
You see a novel doesn’t belong to the author who writes it. It doesn’t even belong to the publisher who publishes it. It belongs to the reader who reads it. And that is why a novel is only as good a reader finds it, and by extension, an author is only as good as s(he) is in the minds of her / his readers. An author is only a creator of his work, it is the reader to whom the work belongs! Now please do not charge me with misinterpretation of the law. I am saying this in the context of novel – reader relationship.
In her private review, she told me what can be improved about the book, what she found so relatable about the narrative that it kept her going, shared her views about dating app games, and softly challenged me about the sequel. I hope you now get what I meant by saying that the novel belongs to its reader, not its author! When Love Swipe Blackmail and all my forthcoming works make it to the list of most liked Indian suspense novels, and I find a mention amongst the most well-read Indian thriller authors, it will be thanks to my readers like her. She? Anshika. Anshika later published a detailed review on her blog, and a teaser, a review, a collection of excerpts, and very recently and pleasantly surprisingly, an atrangi post on her handle. So what is with ‘Her Musing Verse’? It is her sanctuary of thoughts and stories crafted by emotions. Check it out!