Length - 530 pages
Trigger Warning : Rape
The Beautiful Sky by Harshwardhan is a story of Vian and Amyra. The protagonist of the story is Vian but Amyra is a big part of his life since she is his love interest, so this is her story too. Vian and Amyra are in a happy relationship and are about to get married, but a week before their marriage, Amyra is gang raped and Vian is brutally beaten up. Amyra survives the rape, but she is extremely traumatised. Vian and Amyra’s relationship is shattered after this horrific incident. However, Vian wants to help Amyra at all cost and he decides to do everything he can. His own destiny depends on this. Overall, this book has elements from different genres. The story has a heavy focus on hope and healing.
This story has English narration, a lot of Hindi dialogues and a good amount of Hindi Shayari. This was for the first time I read a book that conveyed the story in this manner. As someone who understands Hindi, this was not a problem for me. It was a very different experience overall. However, the lack of uniformity in terms of the language was a bit disconcerting.
This story handles a very sensitive topic like rape and it can be a triggering experience for certain readers. It definitely triggered me, especially because the descriptions were quite detailed. Those parts were difficult to get through. Other than that, Vian being the protagonist, is very sensitive towards Amyra and tries his best to be there for her. He is shown be understanding and caring. So, this topic has been dealt with a lot of care.
There is also a lot of romance and drama in this story. This book moves back and forth in time and we get to read about Vian and Amyra’s relationship and how it started and the challenges that came along the way. In addition to that, this book talks about the struggles Vian and Amyra face individually. Vian is a poet and a writer, but he faces quite a few setbacks in this regard as he tries to do these things professionally. The pressure faced by Vian from his family regarding a stable career and the pressure from Amyra’s family to get married are relatable to read about. This book talks a lot about mental health as well which is a relevant topic in today’s time.
Since Vian and Amyra are together, there are also many intimate scenes between the two of them. And these intimate scenes have written explicitly. If one likes reading steamy romances, this won’t be an issue. And if not, then this can be a bit uncomfortable to read.
I liked how Vian is such a diligent believer of law of attraction and how he never loses hope and always tries to visualise what he wants to achieve. He has a positive and a hopeful personality and that was good to read about. Vian’s friendship with Pratik and Pranay was heartwarming. An unexpectedly interesting part of the story was Vian’s relationship with a book called ‘ A Good Boyfriend is a terrible ex-boyfriend’ by author Pran. Both the author as well as the book are fictional. However, this book is very relevant to Vian’s story as we get to read the quotes from this book in The Beautiful Sky from time to time. These quotes were quite amusing to read as well.
This book is 530 pages long and isn’t a fast paced read. It’s surely easy to read but a lot happens in the story and it moves across time and as a result, it borders on being a slow read. My interest and investment in this story increased slowly with time and I was fully invested in the story after 230 pages.The writing style is very informal and conversational. A lot of profanities and slangs have been used in the story. Apart from that, the book is lacking in refinement due to lack of proper editing in terms of grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and sentence construction.
In conclusion, The Beautiful Sky by Harshwardhan is a story of love, hope and healing. It made me go through a myriad of emotions. It made me triggered, it made me sad yet made me smile and amused me as well.
Get this book here
0 Comments