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July 9, 2020

My Rating - 2 out of 5 stars
Publisher - Self-Published
Genre - LGBTQ/Fiction
Publishing year - 2020
Language - English
ASIN - B089MC6FSZ
Pages - 125


LGBTQ Books

My Review - 

Silk Threads is a debut book based on a high school gay romance written by Partha Sarathy. Pride was last month, and I read four books on LGBTQ continuously, including this one. The prologue emanates heartbreak and new beginnings for the main character, Han. The story revolves around the struggle of characters to find love and their sexuality. 

Han transfers to a new school to save himself from bullying. Here he met Aiden, Noah, and Liam. Han struggled with low self-esteem and hid his sexuality in the new school. While Aiden feels something for Han when he meets him for the first time in a classroom. Han's nature is quite open, but he keeps his feelings to himself due to his past experiences. Aiden feels Han's behavior is weird at first but soon falls for him. 

Noah and Liam are childhood best friends; they even share the same birthday date. They both have feelings for each other, but their way of showing and Liam's way of thinking create trouble in paradise. Aiden and Noah are reckless, while for Liam, things like what society says or thinks to mean a lot. Being gay is not easy for Liam; he believes these thoughts are evil and a devil's act.

The other characters, like their parents, teachers, and classmates, play a flat role. The father figure is not in a picture, except, in the end, that too feels like just to give the story a dramatic turn. Han's mother showed as an affluent and independent lady who actually cares for his son. Liam's mom turned out to be an activist, but where was she when her son corporally harmed himself? 

There is not a single likable character in the story, maybe because of the narrative. Partha Sarathy has written the story with Han, Liam, Noah, Aiden, and Aaron's (Han's love interest in his old school) POV. It didn't work for me at all; whenever I start forming a connection with one character, the author dives into another person's point of view. Also, the characters lack depth. 

I understand that being gay doesn't feel safe, and society turns its back on them, so they need the desire to be discreet or live in denial, which explains Han and Liam's act. While Aiden's persona feels straight, shallow, and annoying. He dropped the violin club and joined the chess club to spend more time with Han. For him, he made a great "sacrifice" and continued saying about it for a long time. Like I sacrificed my violin for Han, so he should understand that or accept me and so on. 

I also have problems with editing, and it is not just about the grammatical thing. In one place, chapter thirteen comes after eleven, and then the twelve, and after that, fourteen. So, the whole sequence is like 11-13-12-14. It breaks the flow of reading. 

The author tries his best to deliver a romance novel, and I like how he describes the atmosphere. It was mesmerizing, and I felt like I was there. I also admire his efforts in writing a gay love story; the overhasty steps of boys are also portrayed well. But he needs to work on character development and narration style to create a much better novel in the future. The book is best suited for teens looking for a fast-paced story. 

Grab your copy from - Amazon IN Amazon US

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