The House That Spoke by Zuni Chopra // Furniture Talking // Book Review

Name: The House That Spoke
Author: Zuni Chopra

by Faizan Fahim · Published 07/01/2023 · Updated 07/01/2023

The House that Spoke is the first book of the year 2023. And the starting could have been better. I did not know the book was written by a 15-year-old, or else I would not have picked it up. When I was reading The House that Spoke, I was getting the childish vibe, but I ignored it – thinking its happen.

This really is the imagination of a 15-year-old. Nothing concrete, but a filtered point of view framed around a classic story idea of chosen one.

Still, it is better than my thoughts when I was 15. But then again, there was Hinton. On a different level. I was stupid, Zuni Chopra was somewhat influenced by everything she read so far, and Hinton was writing about what was happening around.

Well, no need to compare anyone.

Undermining Humanity

There is this thing in fantasy – many writers try to show humans are not bad. There are powers beyond our control, and demons that make humans do evil. In the original form, humans are good.

Zuni is a kid, but many adult writers also think this way. It is one way of storytelling, though, but it feels so insulting to a tragedy.

Like if someone comes and says that Hitler was not actually bad, but he was possessed by an evil that made him do all of those things. Or 9/11 was the case of demonic spirits possessing the pilots of the airplane.

This is insulting to the victims of the tragedy, the survivors, and everyone involved in the misfortune event. They know it was done by humans. Humans are capable of the worst things that we can imagine.

So why do we create such narratives where the tragedy was usually done by the evils in the human forms? Some out-of-the-world creatures and supernatural demons.

It is because we do not want to be associated with humans that do the wrong thing. So we do segmentations. So we can say we are a different segment than the segment that did the wrong thing. But then there is a segment that does not believe in any segment. They say we all are humans; why divide humans into different segments? So how do they protect themselves from the bad things humans are doing? How to defend humanity?

Simple.

Blame the imaginary segment. Say the imaginary powers control the human. Lol. But it is one way of telling tales, and it is good.

Darkness vs. Light

To the core, there are only several stories. Everything is inspired by them. This one’s a classic good vs. evil fight. The chosen one, when he comes of age, defeats the evil power, avenging the father and saving the world.

Very simple. Very straight. Very good.

But there is an attempt to twist the end. Instead of defeating the darkness, the hero accepts the darkness and lets it be a part of the world. But under control. Saying that the darkness is not possible to defeat, but it will exist. One has to control it.

Which shows the pessimism to some level. A type of defeat, a tired look towards the world – which is not surprising as the story is coming from a Gen-Z writer.

Book Review

Story of The House that Spoke

There is a house that speaks to the girl that lives there with her mother. The furniture, lamp, chair, books – everything is speaking. Its beauty and the beast. But the beast is actually evil, and it will come to kill the house. The house here is the protagonist. A source of power.

It is not fantasy tbh when you actually think about it. When you live in a place for a long time, the furniture starts to speak. You can talk with a chair and sofa, and they reply. They become a part of daily life and help you live it. The energy of the house is different, and you cannot leave it without losing power.

There is this concept in many movies and books that the place is not your home. There is a push through the media to accept that a building is not your home. But your friends, your family, and your community are your home. Though it is right to some extent, a building and a piece of land are also equally important. The building is your home. The building has energy and magic that make it home. You cannot just take your family and start living somewhere else and call it home. Thor movie especially. You cannot change planets and say Asgard is where Asgardians are. Lol.

I believe this is because multi-mega corporations want you to detach from your land. Because of all the assets a person can have, land and home is the most important and solid one. And it is highly limited. There is only one planet, and we cannot expand the land. We can build flats with 100s of floors, but the land is not expanding.

Good thing this does not happen in The House. In India, the land is a super important part of any person’s life. We die and live for it. Selling it is like selling your honor.

Writing

Writing is good for some reason. It is childish, but it’s fine. Not bad, not good. Fast-paced, not enough character development, and unnecessary characters. But all is well.