1 February 2018

Review #697: Fear Is the Key by Juggi Bhasin



My rating: 1 of 5 stars


“All I have is me, myself and I and we are all getting really tired of each other.”

----Carl R White


Juggi Bhasin, an Indian writer, has penned a mildly intriguing thriller called, Fear Is the Key that revolves around the disappearance of a start-up company management executive from the company owner's party thrown by the owner himself at his own apartment, who was in a relationship with the girl went missing strangely from his flat at the peak hour of his office party. And when no clues or no amount of investigation by the local police detective could not bring back his girl, he decides to take the matters into his own hands but little did he or anyone knew that truth and reality can be really weirder than anyone can ever imagine.



Synopsis:

'A bitter winter wind blowing outside spoke to me. There was no one else. And then it struck me. She might have truly disappeared! Sometimes, you get a sense of these things . . .'

It's been one hell of a tough week at Yummimages, a digital infotainment site, with controversies seeping into the politicking within the office. To calm things down, Rahul, the founder, plans a party at his home. His goal is to set things right between his fiancée-to-be, Simone, and his business partner and close friend, Suhel. With the party in full swing it's time for Rahul to have 'the talk', but suddenly Simone is nowhere to be found.

As all investigations come to naught, Rahul takes matters into his own hands and soon has a few suspects lined up. It's just a matter of time before he knows the truth. But reality can be so twisted, so bizarre, so utterly unbelievable.



Rahul has started up his company called, Yummimages along with his college friend, Suhel, together who have braced a lot of accidents and mistakes in their lives during their time in IIT. But
now company turfs have become a real hurdle for Rahul, manily because Rahul's girlfriend, Simone, is at war with his best buddy, Suhel during the time when Rahul's company is all set to go public.So to calm things down, Rahul plans a party at his posh Gurugam apartment for all of his colleagues, and within no time, the party turns wild and Simone goes missing, more like vanishes into thin air. Rahul hits rock bottom with Simone's disappearance and decides to tale the matters into his own hands. Soon Rahul starts tracking Simone's phone, which leads him up to the doorstep of three male low-lives who might have exploited her in the past. Strangely for the newly appointed psychiatrist, Tanya, Rahul's suspicion and his story has a darker shade that is highly twisted and can be life threatening for her. But above all, can Rahul find out the truth or will Tanya fall prey to the ugly truth?

Well sometimes you do need to read terrible books because only then you can develop the ability to judge and be impartial while writing reviews. The reviews under this book on Goodreads are all fake, except one unbiased review. I do not understand how come reviewers find it cool to write fake reviews thereby misguiding readers. If you're a reviewer, then it is your responsibility to speak the truth. I can not fathom how can one say that the book is unputdownable. Pretty much after reading three chapters from the book, I felt myself throwing this book against the wall. But since I love reading and respect authors, no matter how terrible their books are, yet I kept on reading to see how far the author is willing to go, in order to join the dots forcibly.

Neither the writing style nor the characters or even the plot has any slight element of thrill or realism that can keep the readers glued to its story line. I really had to struggle with the book a lot, especially, near the end. The book opened really well and strong, I felt hopeful that Rahul's journey is going to give me chills, especially with that prologue, but sadly right after two chapters, the story turned into something really dull and illogical mostly. The dialogues are unnervingly boring to its very core. The plot makes no sense to me. And I would urge readers of this book to not to post a fake review on Goodreads.

The writing style didn't strike me at all, moreover, a common thriller has so many layers and elements in its plot, sadly this one had none. All it had was lot of explanations, which has no relation with the mystery. Also the concoction of the mystery has failed drastically in this book. Sadly, by this point, I'm cursing myself on not being able to pint out one single good thing about the book. Even the book cover doesn't make sense. Even its name failed to send a shivering chill in my body.

The characters lacked growth. It is obvious from the way the author began unfolding his characters, that he wanted them to look twisted and complex in the eyes of the readers, but that too failed somewhere down the line. I do not know what purpose Suhel's own backstory served in this book. Suhel is a background character. Simone too seems to be a background character, since the limelight stayed strictly on Rahul till the very end. And all the female characters are labelled as an object of sex. The book is painted with extreme level of sexist remarks. So its better to avoid it.

God knows, how some female reviewers on Goodreads found it too be so compelling. Do you know even know this Indian author has made a mockery out of the female species and their bodies?

In a nutshell, I won't recommend this book to anyone.

Verdict: There are other great Indian writers and their books to look out for.

Courtesy: Thanks to the team of Writers Melon for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
"Who am I?" asked Spiderman in the hit movie and believe me however old we might be, many of us still struggle with that question. I am, however, very clear about who I am not. I am not a person with a straight line career like a doctor or a chartered accountant. I am a person who has dabbled in many things, whether by accident or design, but surely with some degree of success.
My detractors would say that "he has a rolling stone career" but those who appreciate me would say that he is a 'self actualized person'. After all how many people you know have been a television reporter and anchor, stage actor, marketing services entrepreneur and event manager and not to forget a mental health counselor, good husband, sensible father – all roles carried out with a high degree of success.
But my biggest test is yet to come as I stand at the cusp of fulfilling a lifelong ambition: to become a writer of serious note. And my first work of fiction called 'The Terrorist', a Military Thriller, is published by Penguin Publications. This is the first step towards my journey of fulfilling my ambition.
Career choice number - is it four or five- would probably be the most challenging to date. So folks you can take your pick and decide whether I am indeed a rolling stone or a seriously evolved individual. And hey I forget my current interest in poetry, but relax that is not a career option, well not as yet anyway!
Visit him here


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