Five Days: An Adventure

The book is a fantasy novel describing what the protagonist begins to live as the last five days of his life. The events that unfold, part real, part fiction take him, and the reader, to a world where everything is unreal. At several points in the story, you would wonder, as the protagonist himself does, about what is actually happening and what is imagined. It is in this weird space where the lines between the real and the dream world begin to get blurred. For the first half of the book, this seems okay. It was a bit too much for me at places, but that maybe because it takes a certain amount of wonderment to enjoy fantasy. Cynicism and skepticism do not breed a taste for the bizarre. The second half seemed a bit stretched. This is where it stopped being a quick read. The story became too much after a while and I was waiting for everything to fall into place and see a happy ending. I could see some portions where Pareek has drawn upon the works of others, although this may have been inadvertent. We do tend to get influenced by what we read. Elements from Harry Potter, Shiva trilogy, and the likes were visible to me. This may be my own reading or an intentional or unintentional writing by Pareek. 

I am impressed by the writing, editing, and imaginative skills of a young author. (I am also most impressed by his enterprising nature.) Kudos to all books that come free. And a thank you to Pareek for introducing me to his world of writing. 

I am quite overawed by the amazing opportunities that the world of digitization and e-commerce has brought to young writers. Looking forward to more imaginative reads.