A review by joeesomething
Chosen Spirits by Samit Basu
4.0
This is such a beautiful dystopian book set in the near future, in India with a lot of elements that are relatable to the everyday Indian!
Dystopia is pornographic, Olamina. You see it and shiver but it's also kind of fun because it's happening somewhere else, to someone else, you know? It requires distance. Some of us are actually sitting in the fucking middle of it and we may never learn to care in time. This isn't dystopia. This is reality.
The world building is great, the plot is well paced and the happenings are too real. I would have loved to give the book 5 stars, but the end is a bit open ended which means......SEQUEL!
They say they've seen all this before-the fear of speaking out, the fear of people around you, the fear that you'd wake up one morning to find you'd lost everything- no bank account, no citizenship, no job, no rights. It's fear they live with, just like the fear, in their twenties, of a terrorist bomb in every market, every empty car, back when terrorists and the government were on different sides. Letting this fear get to you, letting it dictate your actions, isolate you, leech away your life... those were the things they have learnt to overcome.
If you are an Indian and love dystopian novels in general, this is the book for you!
A great initiative by Samit Basu as there are not many dystopian novels set in India.
In conclusion
When is the sequel coming out?
Dystopia is pornographic, Olamina. You see it and shiver but it's also kind of fun because it's happening somewhere else, to someone else, you know? It requires distance. Some of us are actually sitting in the fucking middle of it and we may never learn to care in time. This isn't dystopia. This is reality.
The world building is great, the plot is well paced and the happenings are too real. I would have loved to give the book 5 stars, but the end is a bit open ended which means......SEQUEL!
They say they've seen all this before-the fear of speaking out, the fear of people around you, the fear that you'd wake up one morning to find you'd lost everything- no bank account, no citizenship, no job, no rights. It's fear they live with, just like the fear, in their twenties, of a terrorist bomb in every market, every empty car, back when terrorists and the government were on different sides. Letting this fear get to you, letting it dictate your actions, isolate you, leech away your life... those were the things they have learnt to overcome.
If you are an Indian and love dystopian novels in general, this is the book for you!
A great initiative by Samit Basu as there are not many dystopian novels set in India.
In conclusion
When is the sequel coming out?