Choked

Let me begin this review with a confession. I looked upon at self published books with disdain. I thought that as no one was ready to publish their works, these self published authors paid money and got their books printed. But two self published books which I read recently floored me completely and changed my perception towards self published books. One of them was Diabolical and the other is Choked, which I am going to review in this blog post.

Choked is the story of a young industrialist from Bangalore named Aditya who has inherited his metal product company from his father. He is doing well, until one day a business tycoon by name Singhania takes his industry by deceit. Aditya is crestfallen. All of a sudden he is ousted from his own factory, that too unlawfully. Singhania wants to built a large township in Bangalore. Even the place where Aditya’s factory stood, will be included in the township.

Aditya has lost everything, but not his trait to fight against injustice. Aditya forms a buyers’ cartel on the facebook. He forms a community on facebook for all those who are contemplating to buy flats in Bangalore. They resolve that no one will buy a flat until the prices drop by at least forty percent. As a part of their strategy they decide not to entertain any marketing calls from the builders. They also decide that they will not make any enquires regarding the properties.

Aditya doesn’t stop at this. Singhania has a power plant too. Aditya manages to make the villagers of the surrounding areas of the power plant aware about the harmful effects of nuclear plants. Soon the small protest gains attention of media and is backed by an NGO. Once the media flashes the protests, the same assume greater proportion. Aditya also buys major stake in the company in which Singhania has his investment. He also makes great fortune by manipulating the shares of Singhania’s company with the help of a friend. Needless to say that Aditya gets much more than what he had lost.

I simply loved the book. I liked the concept of the book. Though it is the story of good versus evil where the underdog wins, it is new and refreshing. The writer has succeeded in maintaining the flow of the story very well. The use of facebook community for building a cartel is simply brilliant. So is the manner in which Aditya manipulates the shares of Singhania’s company. The writer has come up with believable characters. We all have supportive friends and colleagues like Aditya has. The editing is superb. I did not come across a single mistake in the book. This is a rarity these days. Even the books of big authors and publications are riddled with mistakes.

Now what I didn’t like about the book. The only thing which I didn’t like about the book is its tacky cover. The cover is anything but attractive. No one will feel like picking the book after seeing its cover. The protruding tongue from the letter O in the book gives a feeling like it is a humorous book. But they say don’t judge a book by its cover. It stands true for this other wise brilliant book. The book had such a great impact upon me that I wondered why no leading publisher thought of publishing it. 

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.