The Poison of Love by K R Meera (Translated from Malayalam)

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🅾🅸🆂🅾🅽 🅾🅵 🅻🅾🆅🅴 - by K. R. Meera

Original: Meerasadhu (Malayalam) 

Translated by Ministhy Nair

Read for:

* March Prompt - She Writes for #letsreadmalayalam #readingchallenge by @bookwormandherchild

*Prompt: for #champacareadingchallenge by @champacabooks

08 - with less than 200 pages

22 - written by and translated by a woman

𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 😐😐😐/5 

I cannot use stars for this book. 

𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜: manipulative behaviour and extreme vindictiveness.

𝗠𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄:

Tulsi is a bright student with great prospects, coming from a respectable and loving family. And that's until she meets Madhav (a journalist) through her friend Vinay. Everything in her life from there focuses on him - like he is her lodestar. 

She elopes from her engagement (with Vinay) to be with Madhav ….and here begins the story of a 'Meerasadhu'. 

Somewhere this relatable story of a girl in love, a wife , a mother changed into vindictive poison (as indicated by title - expected) of retribution, revenge and madness. The plot is loosely based on the love Meerabhai had toward Kanha.. making him the center of her Universe but twists it in the most toxic of senses.

𝗠𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:

K R Meera has done a good job highlighting the toxic, male ego and the twisted way our society works to normalise that male behaviour. 

BUT, and that's a big one - The author herself through this story, nor in her afterword, mentions or encourages women to remove themselves from a toxic environment. Nor does she call out such behaviour and take positive steps to self heal and move on. 

Agreed, this is fiction. But when the author says people walk up to her and relate to the character, a word of positive influence is necessary, given the toxic solutions Tulsi found in the book. 

I'd sure have liked the book a bit more if the author could have used this relatability factor to influence positive change in society.

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