The Last Link by Manisha Malhotra | Book Review

First of all thanks to HBB to send me the review copy of the Last Link by Manisha Malhotra.

I do accept review copy; you can read my review policy before sending the book.

The Last link by Manisha Malhotra is a fantasy story based in — I forgot—sorry, but it is Hollywood.

A place where there is cheesecake factory. I read the Last Link by Manisha Malhotra in exchange of honest book review.

I must say that I read this new-author-books with a tough mind.

But no one has given me a reason to not to. Every other book I read of engineer or MBA turn writer is same.

This one was better than most.

For the first half, I could not help but thought that I am reading something good. But the second half was not that good compared to the first one.

The end is terrible.

Okay, here goes the review of the Last Link by Manisha Malhotra.

First Link of the Last Link

For my first half ends with the end of chapter 3, and from there the downfall starts.

There is a girl, Ann, a physics major or PhD scholar, I do not know, but she is doing a research, on a topic which is difficult to understand. I could understand what Ann is studying, but that was not important to understand the story so I left that.

But it was good to read the description and details of the character. Ann really likes physics and her enthusiasm is visible in the book.

That made me like the first half.

Manisha Malhotra did not say that Ann like physics, she showed it to us. She expressed it through Ann’s perception of the world.

Ann’s lives the world through Physics eyes; she makes meaning of the event and objects through the physics concepts.

I liked the character of Casey, the best friend of Ann.

Even his boyfriend, as a passing character, does not look that shallow.

But with all the positivity, there was a minor drawback in the Last Link by Manisha Malhotra. It has mentioned that Ann was a geek, and not very popular in college.

Is not it contradicting, because her best friend forever is a girlfriend of a footballer, and she sits at the table of football players in the cafeteria?

Why Ann, an uncool physics geek, would be allowed to sit with cool athletes. It is against the stereotypes.

I guess.

Second Link of the Last Link

The second half starts with chapter 4, where Ann just returns to her with new knowledge of her powers.

She is reading Geeta and David’s notes. But from now my physics geek turns into a devotee of Hindu Mythology.

She admires every information David and his gang provide her without asking many questions. I mean she asks, that is her character trait, but she does not counter ask.

What happens:

  • Ann: David, I do not understand this.
  • David: A long philosophical answer wrap in a religion foil.
  • Ann: I see everything clearly now, Thanks, David.

While the story shakes, in The Last Link of the Last link, the writing becomes better.

Maybe the reason is that the second part is more of theory and philosophy that provide a stage for showcasing the writing.

Breaking the Last Link by Manisha Malhotra

What breaks the Last Link for me?

The end.

It is like getting exciting about the cake you left in the fridge and finding out that your brother has already eaten it. It is sad and disappointing.

I was expecting some action; the antagonists promised me that they are ruthless and strong. Kai, Andrew, Lexi, I was rooting for them to give a challenge to this Heroes.

In the end, they die in one page. Not too cool.

The heroes or the Elements do not have any plan, nor Ann was completely ready, but they won easily. Without anyone dying.

Then again, I did not understand the motive of Vices.

What were they even planning?

Make a zombie army. In the same city, the Elements are staying.

They could have gone to another city or country to that mind-control with the machine they were doing.

It is not like that they would be unable to find another radiation emitting machine.

Is the death of Casey necessary?

It is okay, it is not a spoiler, and you can see it from infinity that only purpose of a nice best friend is to die.

If you are here, it means you must have read enough books to see it happening. Or one day or another I am going to write a Fantasy book blueprint that I have seen in many books.

The best friend, or the person that is near to the protagonist, dies to create a spark inside the protagonist, to provide him with a motivation to fight evil.

Nobody wants to fight with bad people these days until they are directly harming you.

In the Last Link, opposite happen, and in a way this is good. I was surprised. Instead of pouring herself into the practice and learning, Ann decides to leave everything.Woah!!

This is more realistic than a person turning sky upside down to revenge his best friend. She blames herself, of course, and asked David for the way out.

But can’t, because she is, as you know is the last link of the Elements. That is okay, she does not contribute much in the fighting. Her focus was her research and presentation and believe me, that part where she tries to give her presentation under the attack was my favourite moment.

I mean yes, this is what college does to you, it makes you horrible person.

There might be the end of the world going on, but if there is a college presentation, you cannot take the risk to ditch it. What if the World gets saved !!!

Mind Readers and Essence

About these two, I will talk separately in short.

Mind Reading. It bugged me a lot and it is a major hole in the story.

A MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASIVE  HOLE.

How does a girl can sit with two boys and a girl who can read her thoughts? HOW ?

Nor does she hang out with them; she does pool party with them.

Does not she get self-conscious?

Where is her anxiety?

Does not she care that every person in the room knows what she thinks?

As far as I know, it is unable to control your thoughts.

If a girl is sitting with a boy or vice versa, there is a big possibility that at some point one or the other person might have a thought about the other person in a sexual way.

This is natural.

Ann has the crush on David, which means Davis know that, and that means everyone knows that.

Ann knows that they all can read her mind, which means she knows that everyone knows.

There is no secret that is hidden from her new friends, and she still hangs out like everything is normal.

Then there is Essence, a concept that bounces over my head. At starting of the book, we get to know that she can see the colour of Essence.

When did it start? Is she freaked out when it happened or she just accepted it like it is nothing?

Is it disturbing to live while looking all the essence? If she can control the mind to some extent, as she confessed, why not Ann make her crush approach her.

These Essence things create lots of question in my mind.

I do not know if it is a series or the book is complete. But there are lots of question that could be answered if there will be a sequel.

Do I Recommend?

Last, of all, I would say that this book is better than many new Indian writer’s books, in term of writing, and ideology too.

Research has been done on Hindu Mythology by the writer, maybe she read all of it, or listen to it from her family, but It is clear that she has knowledge of what she is saying.

The storytelling will improve with the practice, and as I already said that writing was okay.

It was simple. No prose or neither any fake attempt of prose, anyone can read this book.

Any age-group.

If there is a sequel of The Last Link, I will read it.

I need the answer to many questions.

Book Quotes
The Last Link

The last link by Manisha Malhotra is a fantasy book, where Ann, finds out her power, achieved spiritual level through other Elements and defeat vices.

URL: https://www.bookaapi.com/book-review/the-last-link-by-manisha-malhotra/

Author: Manisa Malhotra

Editor's Rating:
2

Faizan Fahim

Hello, welcome to this blog. Just writing reviews of the book I like. Also, favorite quotes, poetry, memes, sometimes other topics too, but always related to literature. So join me on Twitter to talk to me.

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