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Book Review: #IAm16ICanRape by Kirtida Gautam.


Book: #IAm16ICanRape

Author: Kirtida Gautam

Pages: 637

Read On: My Kindle

How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days

Plot Summary: To destroy great EVIL, GOOD has to shed tears of blood.

Rudransh Kashyap is a self-made billionaire and man of high moral fiber. His life is shattered when he returns home one day to find that his prodigy, his 16-year-old grandson, Aarush, has been arrested and accused of a brutal gang rape. It is easy to say, “Kill the Rapist” but what if the accused is your child?

This case takes an unprecedented turn when Aarush’s identity is made public on social media. Rudransh finds himself living a nightmare as he fights against tremendous odds to get justice for Aarush, to save him and to bring him back home… But what if the unthinkable is true? Can Rudransh save his grandson, or will he end up fighting a different battle altogether?

General Thoughts: This book was sent to me by the author for a review. The title grabbed my attention and I was curious to see how this book dealt with a topic as sensitive as rape and the juvenile justice system. The book was given to me for free but it has in no way affected my review. The opinions and thoughts are all honest.

Things I Liked: 

1. The premise was the book was very interesting and at this moment in India a very important and relevant topic. Sadly, rape has become a word we hear too commonly in the News and even our daily life. 'Famous' rape cases, their verdicts and the controversy surrounding them are common topics of discussion and debate. I was curious to read a book set in this situation and read about a family dealing with their child committing a hienous crime.

2. The book is told from multiple perspectives- 14 perspectives- and it was done well. It wasn't confusing or jarring but it worked for this book.

3. The structure of this book is interesting too. It starts in the middle and then jumps back and forth in time to give us the whole story. I liked this aspect of the book.

4. Because we get their perspectives and chapters from their point of view, we get to know the characters of this book very well. The characters are also well-fleshed out and seemed real.

5. The book was set in Bangalore, a city I love and lived in and I liked visiting it via this book. :)

6. There is a lot of psychology in this book. I liked this because Psych is an area of interest of mine and something I studied (I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology) so books with a dash of pscho-babble are always enjoyable for me.

7. Ditto with sociopaths/psychopaths. I enjoy reading about sociopaths and how they function, manipulate and act always make for very interesting reading material.

8. This book is hardcore. It doesn't shy away from showing gruesome and twisted things and was hard hitting and intense in parts.

9. The pace of this book was largely fast and I kept turning pages (well on my Kindle) to see where the story went.

10. The whole media-circus that follows a rape case and the public interesting in the story was shown very well. 

Things I Didn't Like: 

1. My biggest and very significant grouse with the book was the writing. I didn't enjoy the writing at all. I am someone who can bypass bad writing if the story is riveting and the plot interests me. I am not very finicky when it comes writing I don't always go into a book expecting Murakami levels of genius- that is unreasonable! But I expect correct grammar and spelling at the very least. This book had grammatical errors and typos. The writing was also choppy and disjointed and the dialogues in some places didn't seem real. The writing style was a serious, serious letdown.

2. This book was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy tooooooo long!!!! It dragged on for a fair bit and could have used some sharper editing.

3. The pace drops in the last half and the book goes from being psychological thriller to something else altogether and my interest waned a bit at this point.

4. Though I liked the psycho-babble in the book, I did think it was a tad bit much. Some parts of it felt like one was reading a psychology textbook!

5.The word 'postulate' was used over 200 times in this book and it was beyond jarring!

6. Some things in this book ( I don't want to give spoilers) were a bit far fetched and hard to believe and unrealistic. 

Rating: 3/5

This book had the potential to be great but it's writing, slack editing and length were massive letdowns!

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