Book Review: Finding Juliet by Toffee

Name of the Book: Finding Juliet 

Author: Toffee

Publisher: Srishti Publisher 

Star Rating: 4 stars 

My Review: 

‘Every time I tried kissing happiness, it came very close to me and then pushed me away,’ I said, looking at the glass of vodka in my hand..."

The above lines set the mood of the story. You already form an opinion of what lies ahead. You already get a glimpse of the characters you will be traveling along within these pages and you already know that this is a post-Devdas story...

Wrong.

This is the window to the world of Arjun. Where you glimpse an innocent boy, standing at the thresh hold of his virginity, confused by the confusing emotions playing around him. A boy who had to grow up when disaster strikes and rips his world apart.

Toffee is one writer who is very sure of his audience. The young college going crowd who are victims of their own confusion. Yet that is just one part of their personality. They have so much inner strength that you can but only marvel at their tenacious nature. Their bouncing back in life. And this novel is all about that.

Arjun has a weak heart. And by that, I don't mean in the medical sense. He falls in love very quickly - every time. To give him his due, it's mostly the girls who are ditching him but he is not one of those guys who will be lost in memories. I like that - a good lesson for the young Romeos out there. Finding Juliet is almost like a journey. A journey to find one's true love. Often we are searching for things out of our comfort zone, forgetting to look around us. But where love is concerned, destiny plays a very important part and Toffee has used it very effectively to bring together the two lovers.

Arjun and Shraddha...

That is the first love story. I liked Arjun a lot. His innocence was quite touching. An innocence which reminded me of my own 20's when the people around us start shaping our lives. Even I was surprised regarding the outcome of this love story but like I said before, destiny already had set the wheels of their life in motion and however much Arjun tries, he could not escape it.

In this section, I found the author's narration very filmy. His comparison of the protagonist's life with movies like 3 idiots and Dil Chahta hai makes you wonder how much influence the Bollywood movies had on the author. But that is the phase which we all have gone through. So keeping the age factor in mind, I thought it was very well projected.

Anjali...

The anchor in Arjun's life whom he had met when he was four years of old. From childhood love to escaping commitment. But throughout the story, Anjali remain his conscious. So what makes Arjun commitment phobic? Sometimes I found him downright idiotic who went about life crying over people whom he had lost rather than appreciating the one's he had at that point in time.

The main disappointing phase of Arjun's life was when he met the girls after Neha. One after the other proved his character to be very shallow. There was no hero like quality which made me want to read them. The guys any college going girl will meet in a canteen, who either will whistle at you or turn into a roadside Romeo. Love without dignity does not fascinate the reader in me.

But let's not forget the title - Finding Juliet. It's after all the protags journey in finding love.

Author's style:

Toffee comes across as a very bold writer and I like his writing style - young and peppy. But don't go about searching for literary context. It's a romance in which you will see the growth of a protagonist and that to me, as a reader, is very important.

Would I recommend it?

A one time read which will make you smile at places and grit your teeth at a few crude scenes. This is a raw romance, not a story of a dashing hero and damsel in distress. It's the story of the youth of today.