Feral by Laxmi Hariharan: a review

“A many lives story” – this is what attracted me towards the book. It was at first glance that I wanted to read this book. It had something in it that not many books have. Among the many books out in the market, you would feel like going back to the book and knowing what it has to say. This novella by Laxmi Hariharan, titled “Feral” is the first book of “A many lives story” which is basically a series by the authoress. After the bright colours playing in the cover of the book, I decided on reading what the book had to offer. The blurb of the book had me hooked to it.

According to the blurb- He was her destination. She just didn’t know it. When Maya leaves Luke to go in search of her blood family, nothing prepares her for the secrets she uncovers about herself. An intense, shifter romance, set in Bombay. A standalone novelette in the Many Lives universe.

Taking from where the blurb left off, this story is set in Bombay of the probable year 2034. Our characters of the book are very interesting to note. The beginning of the book is very strong and there are only two ways where you can go after reading the beginning. Either close the book immediately or be attracted to the book and go ahead to read it. For me, it was the later. As I kept reading the book I felt that the book has a lot to offer and so has the whole series of the book.

Coming to the story I would like to say that being a novella, this story was nice. Well, a speculative fiction trudging the lines of fantasy, supernatural and all these elements brought into a future and probably place of whose today we know a lot about, makes for a very interesting and promising premise. I believe that a book is good or bad depending on the characters more than the story. Of course the story has to be good but the characters should be strong too. It is about Maya who leaves her everything to search her origins, her real family and then stumbles upon something that changes everything.

Sounds super, right? But wait! There is much more than what meets the eye for the book. What happens when Maya goes out in search of her origins, her real family? What happens when she stumbles upon the truth? All this is mentioned in the book. You need to read it to find out what it has to offer for all the readers. This book is not for everybody. Not for the serious readers, for sure. But for the readers who like to read fantasy, you need to grab a taste of this book.

Now, the characters. My favourite was character was someone who had very little to do in the book but is still, somehow, a central character. The character I am talking about is Jai. He had this strength in him that made me feel for the man. I totally understand Maya in this perspective. Maya was a character who was well formed and she always knew what she wanted to do. Luke was also another character which had a lot of flesh and blood in him. There were a few more characters but one character that takes away the spotlight has to be of that of Maya’s mother (?).

If I have to speak of the flaws of the book then I have to mention the fact that in order to keeping the story a novella, crisp and short, the authoress missed out on a lot of what it could’ve been. As a reader, I wanted more details, more texture in the whole book. A super fast read, I finished it in a blink of an eye. The fact that there are teasers to the other books in the series at the end of this one makes sure that the readers stay glued to it and I am really waiting for the next one. 

There weren’t any grammatical errors in the book but if I have to speak of the writing style I would mention that there were some places where the characters seemed a bit too mechanical. A bit more emotions inside the characters would’ve brought out the best of them. For me, this book is surely 3.75 out of 5. Looking forward to more from the series and by the authoress.