Book Review + Giveaway: The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

My Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publication date: August 28th 2012 by Balzer + Bray

Blurb:  Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

From debut novelist Sangu Mandanna comes the dazzling story of a girl who was always told what she had to be—until she found the strength to decide for herself.

My Review: 

In The Lost Girl, Sangu Mandanna weaves together a story of love,loss and freedom,the kind that every living person has.Taking figments of ideas from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and then using them to create concepts of her own,the author does a truly wonderful job in writing a stunningly original debut novel.

What impressed me the most was the way she used Shelley's ideas to make her own new ones instead of just doing a complete re-telling of Frankenstein.Trust me,I have seen enough classic re-tellings gone wrong so from this aspect,The Lost Girl was actually a ray of hope to the new trend of modern re-tellings.

Yet,I wasn't so sure about the narration of the story during the time when the setting was in Bangalore.To other readers it might not mean much but as a native of the Indian subcontinent,I must admit that this felt a bit...um,how do I put it,unoriginal(not sure if that's the right word,though). Instead of making all of the narration in English,she could've mentioned that all the talking was being done in Kannad(that's what they use in Bangalore,right?). The only time she pointed this out was when Eva was paying off the rickshaw pullers.But then again,this might have made it even messy so maybe not mentioning it was the right choice,though I'm not so sure.

Also,if the author thinks of writing a sequel(which would be an awesome choice ;) ) maybe a bit more Indian-like names should do the trick?I'm not sure about Sasha,Neil and Amarra.They don't sound very Indian to me.Ray's off the hook since he happens to be half French ^^.Maybe she could use mine or even my nickname Dhara.(Shamelessly self-promoting)It'd be so cool to have my name in a book!Eeep! XD But anyways she'd better think about writing a sequel because if she leaves this as a stand-alone she's going to break my heart for giving such a sneaky ending to the story.

Now just to make everyone jealous,I'm going to admit having an autographed hardcover of this book thanks to Pam@Jellylovesbooks and Sangu Mandanna herself.

So if you haven't read this yet,I'd suggest you to run to your nearest store to grab a copy.It'd definitely be worth the money. :)

Other voices:
 "The Lost Girl, filled with unexpected twists and tough decisions (and two sexy boys who don't want to want the girl), provides a captivating read which you can't put down till you reach the last page."-Maliha,bestie and classmate who borrowed the book.

Giveaway!!!!

So guys,thanks to RHIndia,here's an opportunity for you to win a copy of The Lost Girl.The people at RHIndia are really wonderful,especially Rukun,who's been really nice to me.Trust me,I know how hard it is to be nice to me since I'm a bit,er,disorganized and indecisive.Which explains why Rukun and I have been emailing each other for more that a week to settle things.Honestly,I marvel at her patience.So,moving on,here's the copy you'll be getting if you win:

Gorgeous isn't it?Yup,it's the U.K edition.Giveaway's open to anyone as long as they live in Asia.For all the rules,please check the Terms and Conditions on the rafflecopter widget as I'm too lazy to type all of them out again.This ends on the 27th of October.Good luck on winning! :)


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