🚷 Review – No Trespassing by Brinda S. Narayan 🚷

Genre: Psychological thriller

Rating: 4.5/5.0

How I found this gem: 

I review books for a local newspaper and don’t usually get to pick what I read. That’s how this book fell into my hands. 

Spoiler-free Synopsis :

When tragedy strikes, how far would you go to get to the bottom of the truth? Finding out the truth is an arduous task, especially when you have no allies and your own people do not believe you. Throw in some repressed childhood trauma and it’s the perfect combination for delusional behaviour and paranoia. Brinda S. Narayan weaves a brilliant web that traps your attention and completely consumes you.

The story revolves around Vedika and her family that moves to a new gated community, called Fantasia. A series of oddities are seen in the behaviour of kids in the community that escalates to the unfortunate death of Vedika’s child. Ruled out as an accident, the reasoning does not sit well with the mother who investigates a little further, leading her to a shocking conclusion that her son was murdered in cold blood.

Review:

At first glance, the cover didn’t seem all that appealing to me. Personally I don’t get why that was chosen as the cover for the book. It has no connection whatsoever with the essence of the story. 

However, like the saying goes, never judge a book by it’s cover.

Set in a slightly dystopian social environment, Narayan shows us that elite communities are necessarily not as glamorous as they seem and illustrates a potentially dark side to urbanization. She has definitely done her ground work and has demonstrated a few powerful millennial issues throughout the book. 

One of the best things about this is how real the characters seem. Narayan has done a spectacular job of defining and shaping her characters. The different layers each individual has makes them interesting to read about. While the work is purely fictional, one cannot help but relate to these fictitious characters on a deeply personal level. 

Book-based movie? 

Uh-yes, please!!! 

No Trespassing is a gripping tale that will get your heart racing, written with an expertise that is hard to find in Indian authors these days. It’s a stunning work of fiction that would make a fantastic feature film. The story has all the elements needed to make it terrifyingly good. The non-linear narration that goes back and forth in between timelines, paints a vivid picture in your head. It leaves you craving for more. This clear cut narrative is also why this could be made into a movie that would surely have the audience on the edge of their seats. 

Re-reads-?

Probably not, because it won’t be the same.

Mosaic-of-the-Soul