BOOK REVIEW SICK OF BEING HEALTHY BY MONISHA K GUMBER.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Monisha K Gumber is the author of immensely popular Teen Novels called SICK OF BEING HEALTHY and DYING TO LIVE. Monisha is an Army brat and has moved around the country during her childhood days. She believes that her background has made her more accepting and humble in life. She has many years of corporate experience till she decided to move into the arena of writing. She writes entertaining, simple yet inspirational stories that make a difference.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Problems are the part and parcel of everyone’s life and the one who tackles them with utmost perseverance and dedication emerges as the winner. That is what this book teaches every young girl out there. It is a journey of transformation and self love.

PlOT OF THE BOOK:

The plot of the book is super engaging. It is a beautiful reflection of a teenager’s life where one has to go through all sorts of additional emotions. The book talks about parental pressure to get perfect grades, one sided love affairs, self esteem issues, body image issues, diets and weight loss, peer pressure, cyber affairs, sex education among other things. Since the book has first-person narrative, we get to know all of Tara’s thoughts and feelings, troubles and issues from her perspective. And the author is spot on in capturing all that! The dynamics between the family members and that between friends is pretty realistic and that draws you completely in.

A number of beautiful quotes and instances are the “icing on the cake”. “Tara, a young teenager is blessed with a little bit too much of health for her own good. Desperate to get the guy of her dreams, she ends up playing a very dangerous game- a game that could cost her friendship, her peace of mind and even her life ! Actually that’s an exaggeration but yes, she does make some serious blunders in her quest for a perfect body to impress her one true love. It is an inspiring journey towards real health and happiness, handling some stunning, high achiever best friends and her parents who never seem to be satisfied from her work. Let down by her own sister and under constant pressure to do well in studies, she learns how to fight her confidence and self-esteem issues and emerge a winner in the end.”

Just like any other teen in their adolescence , Tara is in love with her dream man who ends up falling for Tara’s “perfectly fit”  best friend Dolly. Heartbroken and wounded with betrayal, Tara find’s solace online in the form of Rocko.And as the story unravels itself, we get to know whether Rocko is the right man for her? Or did she push herself towards one of the bigger dangers of the cyber world.

LANGUAGE AND WRITING STYLE:

The author has a very unique and humorous writing style which creates the light air in the atmosphere while you are reading it. As a result, you feel joyful and relaxed.The language used in the book is very simple and connecting which works as a bonus in this book. Apart from that, amazing sketches throughout the book will keep you glued to the book. The cover of the book is lively and portrays exciting emotions. The illustrations and sketches are pretty neat and add to the fun quotient of the story! In fact these pictures and illustrations are an integral part of the novel. The moment you pick the book, you’d feel the urge to read it. The narration was quite dragging at times, with a basic vocabulary. Which is quite a negligible aspect though. The novel is written in an easy and understandable manner. The narration is interesting and the illustrations in the book make it easy to read in one go. The language is simple and lucid throughout, and makes for smooth reading. The story is written in an effortlessly engaging style and brings to light the issues and troubles faced by the teens. However, the book is written keeping in mind a particular target audience thus, many adults or men might not find it relatable. The book however is little less in literary value and the vocabulary used is pretty simple.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:

Sick of Being Healthy is an interesting read dealing frankly with serious issues in a sensitive and a fun way. It’s a short story which can be read not only by teenagers but their parents as well as it highlights issues without being over-bearing and preachy. It describes harsh aspects of body shaming in our society and the depth of harm it causes to a young girl.Since the book has first-person narrative, we get to know all of Tara’s thoughts and feelings, troubles and issues from her perspective. And the author is spot on in capturing all that! The dynamics between the family members and that between friends is pretty realistic and that draws you completely in.

Kudos to Monisha Gumber for being able to perfectly pen down the point of view of a 14 year old as twice or thrice while reading the book I did doubt that a grown woman has wrote it. The way a teen girl sees things , the way she is eager about everything that’s changing, the way she goes gaga over a man, the way she wants him to be the one, every girl must have goes through that phase and the author has perfectly described that phase.

The book promotes a healthy body image and that’s what needs to be in the minds of the young who are still growing.It is an worth read and much more useful to the one who doesn’t believe in themselves, may be that’s what I felt after finishing the readingThe book fully speaks about a school kid who faces certain problems when others used to mock her because of over healthy and how she recovered from them.

What you will think when someone says about their school experience, yeah your mind will gets back to your school experience, alike that this book will help you to cherish your memories with stating all the day happenings from lectures to Best moments with friends and off course dating. There’s no mistakes I felt in author’s point of view and the way of storytelling. She tried her level best to give motivation and made it look possible in self help point of view.

Thus, i would defintely recommend this book to every girl who has ever doubted herself based on her body or looks. Although written for a specific target audience, I would still recommend this book to older females so that they can relive their teenage days for a while. Speaking about men, i think all men who wish to understand the unspoken dynamics of a girl’s life and her insecurity complexes must give this book a try.

Written by: Deepakshi Seth