(Edited By — Priyanka Roy Banerjee); Amritorupa Kanjilal, Uttiya Roy, Sayantan Ghosh, Avishek Basu Mallick, Diptee Raut, Neha R Krishna , Ronita Maitra Bhandari, Vinitha Rajan, Sujata Rajpal, Arvind Passey, Purba Chakraborty, Archana Sarat , Abhishek Mukherjee, Deboshree Bhattacharjee Pandey
A Short Story Collection Based On The Stellar Works Of Budding Writers In India
A story you wish was NEVER narrated to an eight-year-old. Old letters of a dead father, what secrets could they hold for a long lost daughter? A chilly December morning and a lone gravestone — changed the day and someone’s life. A seemingly ‘ideal marriage’ in an old city smelling of love. An aging alcoholic superstar finding a magical cure for his incurable baldness. From middle-class Government quarter to a posh Neeti Bagh bungalow, was there a price for this!
Life would have been very different for the characters in these stories, but for the choices they make. Read these stories to know what they did with their choice. You many see a reflection of yourself. Spine chilling drama and suspense, quirky, funny and awkward moments, poetic love of hopeless romantics and a lot more is packed in the pages of this collection.
My take on this book
This is a collection of short stories compiled as one book ‘Jukebox’ which are selected from a nationwide writing competition ‘Melonade’ by writersmelon.com.
Short stories are my personal favorite given the time needed to complete reading against a full length novel. They are challenging for a writer to squeeze the story into a few pages and still engage the reader, so short stories are generally crisp and interesting.
This compilation has 15 stories and the genres are different for one another. A majority of them are dark, disturbing and sad stories; the writing is beyond perfect, prose a beautiful flow of words.
My most favorite is Monster by Amritorupa; an old father leaves back letters for his estranged daughter and how she discovers about her father, unfortunately only after his death. A very different, but very interesting storyline.
Next pick is Lizard Grass by Avishek which is a satirical take on an ageing super star’s struggle with loss of hair and a doctor’s adventures to help him regrow his vanishing crown.
Most others had a routine story or a very abrupt and unexplained plot which could have been improved. I personally felt not every story needs to shock the reader to impress them.
Overall its a good collection of short stories and a great effort from writersmelon to bring forward works of budding authors by providing them a platform to showcase their writing prowess. The writing of all the authors is awesome; only wish some of the stories had more engaging content. Hope to see full length novels from them in future.
My rating
3.5/5.