My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3.5*
When I first heard that the title of Jyoti’s second novel was Lemon Girl, I expected a simple, feel-good romance, but I couldn’t be more wrong. It is not a simple love story of Arsh and Nirvi. Rather, it is the story of a girl’s journey of regaining her sense of self-worth and respect, after being damaged and wounded in the worst possible way. It is also the story of the care and persistence of a guy who helps her out of the path to self-destruction. At a time when our whole nation is discussing violence against women, Jyoti has boldly taken up the taboo subjects of incestuous rape and victim-blaming, which are topics no one who even skims through the news headlines these days will be a stranger to. The author certainly needs to be applauded for attempting these themes and executing them sensitively. (view spoiler)
Having read Jyoti’s first novel also, I can say that she has definitely grown as a writer- I found Lemon Girl more engaging than Dream’s Sake. The alternating first person points of view of Nirvi and Arsh worked well enough. Although I did spot a few mistakes here and there, probably typing errors, nothing too bothering nor enough to disrupt the flow of reading. Overall, a nice attempt by the author to present a love story while also highlighting the more serious and sensitive issues of violence against women and the deep-rooted misogyny that exists in our society.
the pensive soul 