To begin with, cliché as it may sound, but I feel compelled
to describe the book so; this book is unputdownable! Read it at one go and
would not have wanted it any other way.
The first thing that struck me about the book was how
high-tech it was. Fast-paced story, edgy descriptions notwithstanding, the book
gave me a good lesson or two about how hacking exactly happens and how I.T.
security in the virtual world actually functions. For someone who is not exactly
a technology addict, if an author can make me read all this, and enjoy it, and
not be overwhelmed by too much tech; I would think it is a rather big deal!
The characters are well-defined too. Owing to personal
experience, I can totally vouch for the appropriateness with which the delicate
nuances of family interactions among an urban household and the cousin from the
distant town have been depicted. The book also has its rather movie-like
moments of teenagers just about exploring ‘liking’ each other and bonding with
members of the opposite gender. Thankfully, they remain warm, cute without
getting over the top or melodramatic.
The only thing that didn’t particularly appeal to me was the
whole mother almost dying of cancer angle. I felt it was a little too filmy and
dramatic. Especially not being able to afford medicines and all of that.
However, it did nothing to digress from the story and seemed to fit in anyway.
As a professional in the field of marketing, I really
enjoyed reading the power tussle between the production, research and
development and marketing team. It was very close, very real, and pretty much exactly how it works in real life.
For some odd reason, the more I read the book, the more I
felt a little disturbed about how vulnerable we all are to information leaks
and security breaches. And the more I read the book, the more I realized why
technology companies, banks, and other big companies are so hung up on security
to the point of noting down the manufacturing number of your laptop and
ensuring they have a record of every single electronic device you enter with
(experience talking!)
Rackets, smuggling, border conflicts, lack of
infrastructure, lack of facilities, stress of the corporate work life, jugaad, bending
rules, outsourcing and its ways, this book tacked a whole lot of every day
issues. And painted a fair, non-dramatic, honest picture of each, wherever it
was relevant in the tale. I say kudos because it was a fiction book, meant
purely to thrill an entertain but ended giving me a some interesting information
too. And I went on Google and read up a bit too, to get a better idea.
I am usually not a big fan of that one last chapter that books have, which is basically tying up loose ends, going a week or a month or a year in fast forward and talking about how each character ended up. I don't like it because it makes it more than obvious that the book is ending now. Not a feeling that a happy reader would particularly enjoy. But even then, when I got to end of Breach, I kinda missed it. So I don't yet know if I am for or against them, but it would suffice to say that in this book, it was missed. It ended...just like that!
And last but not the least, don’t get me wrong, I mean to
sound neither sexist nor feminist, but I felt a special kind of happiness when
I saw this written by a woman author. Technology, the business and numbers
game, security; these aren't exactly domains that are considered a forte of the
ladies, who are more often than not expected to write love stories and more
emotional tales. (This is just what I feel, and I could be wrong, and would be
glad to be, actually!)
So I just wanted to give Amrita Chowdhury a big hug and say,
“Kudos! You Go Girl!”
The wannabe author in me was actually touched while reading
the acknowledgements and said a silent thank you to all those people for helping
Amrita out and sort of telling me that if I was determined enough to go down
the author’s road, there is a possibility I could bump into nice people out who
might be happy to help!
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