My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Redeemers, the story of youngsters who masterminded a movement against corruption is an easy read. It has a tempting back blurb and a plot that is good enough for a blockbuster movie. I would love to see such books on bestsellers list rather than the ones portraying Modern India as so-called 'cool dudes' whose life revolves around partying, girl friends, pre-marital sex, boozing and the like. That said, this book falls short in many areas to be a best seller. Nevertheless, it is worth reading once.
As I had mentioned earlier, the strength of the book is its plot. Also, to think of children/youth as the target to solve corruption is a good strategy. Simple ideas such as this leaves me fascinated but the idea lacks brilliance when put across in words.
Talking about the flip side, first of all the incidents leading G4(the 4 friends are collectively called so, reminds of me of some summit!) to start a movement of such scale are not very impressive. I could not feel any pinch when G4 and their parents meet with the fabricated accident. May be it could have been more elaborate, a little more taxing for the youngsters and their family. Same is the case with the way the movement takes shape. The details are so shallow that it fails to create an impression. G4 admitting to the fact that they are direction-less but are committed to bring a change doesn't convince the reader, leave alone the people they come across.
Another aspect that troubles the reader is the writing. There is repetition of matter, shallow details and poor characterization. And the book cover could have been better!
To sum up, this book is neither a page-turner nor a 'read-few-pages-and-toss-it' kind. All it lacks is a little bit of drama for the kind of subject it handles.
I agree ... a better treatment of the subject could have made a lot of difference !!!
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