Book Review: Suspended Animation by Shweta Ganesh Kumar

Pages :  116

Read on : Kindle

Goodreads Rating : 4.75/5

Review:  Lately I've been on a time crunch and if you are someone who is in the same boat as I am, you will welcome 'Suspended Animation' as a breath of fresh air. For several reasons.I'm a sucker for anthologies. Short stories to me are what summer flings are to most people. They pack so much in a few pages while keeping it simple.  I dream of starting my writing journey, IF ONLY someone approached me to contribute to an anthology. 

'Suspended Animation' as of now, stands to be my favourite.The stories are of ordinary people, like us, stuck in a loop or some memory or in search of something they desire, may be not aggressively in all cases, but still in a rut. It makes me reflect on some incidents that might have occurred in my life, even though they happened years ago, it still managed to imprint my mind and I found more reasons to bring them up in conversations with strangers. This book encapsulates those instances precisely!

The trick with short stories is that you really have to understand the theme behind the words. What the author is trying to convey. They mostly carry the air of emotion with as little description as possible. Focus has to be tight. Here are people who are still living in an unfinished memory, still anticipating closure or completion while time is zooming past by. Yet it is hard for the them to get out of this lull. There's waiting, for something, anything to happen, good or bad and the uncertainty running parallel. 

My personal favourites were all the stories that took place in Kerala, because Southern India makes gorgeous backdrops with added character and the one that takes place in Scotland. Anthologies are quick in reading nature, since they are so concise, the urge to keep going is very high. However, I do feel that one or two of the stories could be exempted from this collection, just to stay as close to topic as possible.

 On another note, it definitely is a highly relatable read, we know the characters, the people and situations very well in all our lives. I'll be re-reading 'Suspended Animation' for sure. Recommended to all.

 Final Rating : 4/5

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