Review of Suchita Agarwal’s “The Gunslinger” #BlogchatterEBook

Recently, I released an anthology of my travel adventures, “Tales From My Travel Treasury: An Alliterative Anthology” (download here), in the Blogchatter E-Book Carnival. As part of the carnival, I reviewed two travel books- Dr. Richa Mina’s and Sinjana Ghosh’s. When I finally needed a break from the travel writing, I picked Suchita Agarwal’s fictional work “The Gunslinger” for my third review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Master’s degree in International Business has given Suchita Agarwal an edge in her chosen career path of content creation, strategy and campaign management. However, writing is her true love, as she believes words are where the magic is!

THE PLOT:

Lola Beaumort Verde, a young girl of indeterminate age, is on the run from assassins who have murdered her parents brutally. Her maternal uncle Romeo is with her, ostensibly for protection, but he isn’t of much help. When she saves the life of a gunslinger called Hunter, he swears to protect her from impending death at the hands of her parent’s murderer- the evil gangster Lincoln Eastwood.

THE COMMENTARY:

I really liked Suchita’s posts from the recent A-Z Challenge, where she wrote fictional myths and tales. The ones I read were chilling to the bone and thought-provoking, and I had expected her book to be similar. However, the e-book is very different.

Growing up, my library largely consisted of my father’s old books. He was a huge fan of ‘westerns’, a term used to denote popular literature that glorified a fighting culture. I attempted to read the Louis L’Amour’s and Zane Grey’s once or twice but never enjoyed the genre. What I thoroughly enjoyed, however, were historic romances. Suchita’s book reminded me of both genres.

Though her story about gunmen and gangsters was not really my cup of tea, I liked the subtle romance that developed alongside. A quick build-up to the denouement also worked in its favour. The story is interesting, replete with twists and turns that will surprise the reader. Each character is well-etched, though some are better developed than others. The chemistry between the two protagonists, Lola and Hunter, is the real strength of the book.

Suchita is a talented writer. She ably creates a credible atmosphere, ensures all sub-plots neatly tie together, and attempts to give colourful personalities to each character by assigning them accents and distinct characteristics. The last of these is tough to do, and she loses the accents at places or sometimes changes them. However, the attempt is admirable and some editing would clear that up.

In fact, the only feedback I can offer Suchita is to edit and re-edit till it reads like a full-fledged book and not a draft. She has a way with words, a fertile imagination and the necessary creativity required to write a masterpiece. While reading the book, I wished that the story was more fleshed out and not piecemeal. I was flummoxed for more than half the book about who gunslingers were, as the profession is explained only in Chapter 17. However, I feel that good strong editing will address all these issues.

THE VERDICT:

I enjoyed the book as a fast-paced and interesting story, and highly recommend it to people who enjoy the ‘western’ genre of literature. Even those that aren’t familiar with this genre, will find the book very readable. I look forward to a longer, more concrete version of this story some day from Suchita, and I am sure it will do well as popular fiction.

This review has been written as part of the Blogchatter Book Review Program.

*This is not a sponsored post.

**Copyright in the content belongs to nooranandchawla and cannot be republished or repurposed without permission from the author. Infringement of any kind will invite strict legal action.