“Well begun is half done.”
” Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Keeping the best to the last.”
Author has lived up to these proverbs/ sayings through his book ‘A Life to Die for’. The book is a Contemporary, futuristic, literary, philosophical and psychological thriller with a lot of shades and layers with numerous subplots and needless to say characters.


The plot begins when Aryaman, an Independant Kashwars  Force militant saves an eighteen year old innocent girls from a monster of a human whom she calls Baba. The bruises on her body serves as the proof for the physical and sexual assault she was subject to by the monster or the Evil kind as the girl says. She considers Aryaman a Prince who has come to save the princess from the Evil king. An excllent artist herself, she gives a portrait of her Prince and the Evil king which facilitates the investigation. Thenceforth Aryaman’s aim of an independent Kashwarg takes a backseat and providing justice to the girl becomes his life’s aim and he sets out in search of the monster who subjected her to the cruelties. From the point a bizarre, intellectual and literary journey starts for the readers. The plot takes a sharp uphill curve from the narration of the monster’s life, whose real name happens to be Atmaj Parikh.


The poetic journey is beautiful and author has tried to tell a lot through the book but since there was a lot happening, there readers gets confused at some point and if I cite my personal experience, I would say that I was exhausted after a point. The first half of the book is exemplary and reminded me of Kite Runner. The places Siran and Zayakistan are analogous to India and Pakistan while Kashwarg, Jambola and Srinathnagar to Kashmir, Jammu and Srinagar. Likewise we can see a lot of analogous terms and names throughout the book. Why author chose to use those fantasy lands for the tale is a mystery. Since the story was taking place in 2034, even if the real name were used there was less chances for any controversies, if any.


The character of Adil seemed to be the strongest for me. Eventhough Aryaman is the protagonist, Adil’s character was crafted better and developed more compared to that of Atmaj or Aryaman or the girl for that matter. The girls is just a base to build the story from and at some point the readers might forget that there is such a character in the book. Yet another character that entices the readers is that of Alvira. To avoid any spoilers, I am not citing the details of the same.


The cover of the book could have been designed better to give the book an overall appeal because neither the cover nor the blurb stands up to the quality of the book. Now if the book is taken as a whole, it is a roller-coaster experience for the readers. The pace fluctuates intermittently.


Overall the book is a endearing reading experience but for the fluctuating pace.