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My Review of 'It Must Have Been Something He Wrote'

I’ve just finished reading ‘It must have been something he wrote’ by Nikita Deshpande, and I’m immediately sitting down to review it on my blog.

The cliché goes ‘Never judge a book by its cover.' In this case, the book has a lovely cover, and if you were to judge the book by it, you would imagine a humorous read. And you would be spot-on.

‘It must have been something he wrote’ is India’s answer to The Devil Wears Prada. Giving readers a peek into the world of publishing, this book is a must-read for all bibliophiles and writers interested in the craft.

Whether it’s the boss in the novel who says ‘This team is a family of gut-tearing birds of prey. Think of me as the mother eagle. I’ll kick my babies off the ledge if I have to. The question is – are you an eagle? Or the sparrow that gets eaten up by the eagles?

Or Amruta, the protagonist, who says of good books, ‘I want to know if it does something to you...'Like, when you’d read with a flashlight under the blanket as a kid, because you couldn’t sleep without knowing what happens next in the book. Or when you’d carry a book around to every class in college, even though you had already read it a million times, because that book is like your…emergency flotation device.’

Or the similes peppered throughout the narrative:


‘Rahil did a short, stuttering version of a laugh that sounded like an old Bajaj scooter starting up.’

Or, ‘She shook her head, like a dog trying to shake off fleas.’

Or, ‘Two weeks slipped from our hands like kite strings’.

the author comes up with interesting turns of phrase.

And not halfway through the book, you find this gem from a drunk heroine, “As an anti-piracy software, I said. That’s a simile! A direct comparison to something is called a silly-me.’

I’m tempted to give Nikita, the author, a nickname of my own – the queen of similes. Yeah! You just have to read the book to find out original ways of writing similes, which are not only crafted well, but tickle your funny bone, too.

Her descriptions of nature, “Just around sunset, Lake Pichola gave us its Introduction to Alchemy class- copper waters turned to molten gold the moment the sun scraped the back of the hills.” are equally original.

The book is entertaining, more so for book lovers and literature students. The plot is suitable for a hugely entertaining Bollywood movie.

I’m so glad the author Nikita’s errant courier service finally decided to deliver this book to me after several failed attempts. I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on this book! And three cheers to Twitter Giveaways like the one I entered to win this!

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