The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal - Book Review
Have you ever read a book that can be turned into a great movie? What I mean by great here is not of a blockbuster type, but the eye opener one or maybe something that will mirror the society we live in? Well, I have read such book recently and that is The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal.
The title makes it easy to guess what this book is about. Yes, there’s rape trial, but that’s not all. There are very unique and different events in this story, with lots of twists and turns, that show the exact face of society we are a part of. This book talks about how we normalize the sexual assaults and increasing rape cases.
It's such a normal everyday thing. A brush here, stare there, a grope here and a pinch there. Nobody talks about it. Nobody even blinks.
Storyline
This is story where three friends Rhea, Hitaishi and Amrita decide to take a law into their hands and rebel against rape culture. Things happen their way but sudden turn of events reframe the story. These girls get the right support but as it turns out, someone else is punished for the what they did. There is so much in the story that I want to share but I cannot because it will be like giving out the spoilers. If I write something more about the story, I will just ruin the thrill of this book.
The rape isn't just that one time of sexual violence, women have to live with it long after it's done.
This books is about rape, violence against women, the way ‘we’ look at the rape cases and victims, the way rapists just get away. Another thing this book addresses is the power of money, media and politics in such cases. There are so many cases that remain hidden just because some rich people are involved or someone powerful is a part of the incident. Not to forget, we as a society, still support the thought process that the length of a woman's dress and shade of her lipstick decides her character. The story highlights all of it, everything effing thing.
" There are part of our own country, our own city, our own neighborhood we cannot go to specifically because of men. We will never fully experience the world at night, specifically because of men. We aren't able to walk freely on the streets in the broad daylight, because of men. Or wear what we want to, live by ourselves, take a promotion that might mean late hours, all because of men. And men keep raping anyway. " - Amrita Patil, one of the three friends .
Aren't these thoughts of each and every girl?
This book pretty much reminded me the talks I used to have with my college friends after seeing each and every rape case that used to surface over internet/ news app. This book has such conversations, a very practical ones. The arguments are clear and thought provoking.
What I loved about this book?
Perfect explanation of all the incidents and characters
Every argument and conversation is practical in this book
The message is crystal clear
The feminism is explained in a right way
Thought provoking conversations
The topic is dealt in proper and right way
The only thing that turned me down about this book is, while making the explanation of characters and incident perfect, the text just got very much longer, which consequently made book lengthy, especially the second half.
You should read this book if:
You have your own thought process
You don’t understand what Feminism is about
You love crime and thriller genre
You enjoy police and court drama
You are a feminist
You shouldn’t read this book if:
You prefer short books
You can’t read the sensitive content with trigger warnings
Overall, this book thrilled me. It is too good to be a debut novel. If you are looking for the recommendation for your next read, pick this book if you are interested in crime, thriller and mystery.