Book Review: I'm Not Twenty Four

Book: I'm Not Twenty Four... I've been nineteen for five years

Author: Sachin Garg

Pages:  224
Price: INR 100

About the book:
A story written from a girl's perspective,  I'm Not Twenty Four is Sachin Garg's first book. 

The story is set in Toranagallu, a village in Karnataka. It's about Saumya, a Delhi girl who due to her unisex name lands up in a job typically meant for men and in place she has never heard of. The challenges involved in the job are nothing like what you would expect an MBA student to face. 

Saumya juggles between her thoughts - to continue with her 
emotionally taxing profile or to be a quitter which seems like a practical decision in this case. After all, seeing horrific deaths day after day and informing the concerned families is not an easy task. And then when you are probably the reason for the 'accidents', would you continue? 

But then comes a mysterious hippie who has something about him. Will he help her decide to move out with his move-on theory? Or will stay back with her? 


Book review:
The first half of the story goes very slow. A couple of times I did feel like picking up some other book, but then I went on to read as the author promised that the story will take me to a world I never knew existed. Was it worth it? Well, it did pick up pace and become quite interesting in the fourth (last) part. 

The main characters are:

• Saumya's B-School roommate and friend Vartika
• Her batchmate Amit who hgets place in the same company - Lala Steel, Toranagallu
• Malappa, a fun-to-be-with person and smart guy, who joins Lala Steel along with Saumya and Amit
• Shubhrodeep Shyamchaudhary aka Shubhro, an interesting guy with an interesting story

During the induction meet, Saumya and gang meet Shubhro (in Hampi) who knows all about the interesting places in the isolated area. Shubhro's story is very interesting - he basically stays in various places across the world for exactly ninety days each. On the ninety first day, he moves on to another city! 

Saumya ends up being a part of the Safety Department and her boss Ashish Rao tells her that she will have to work with him in the Reaction Team of the department. This essentially means she will have to rush to the scene in case of untoward incidents, take the necessary steps and worst, inform the mothers/sisters that they have lost their sons/brothers in a gruesome accident! Who wants a job like this? Malappa and Amit's profiles are obviously less tougher than hers! Hence, it's but logical that she intends to quit sooner or later.


During her tenure, Saumya visits Malappa in the Blast Furnace area, but her visit proves fatal for him! The description is gruesome, but it seems necessary.

She eventually decides to leave for good but then Shubhro lands up in Toranagallu. Attraction takes over and she is left confused again. Now will Shubhro extend his 90-day plan he always sticks to or will he stay back for her? Or should she go away with him? The way Shubhro's disappearance and his explanation for it is handled is pretty interesting. 

Sachin's hand-written note on the first page of the book compelled me to read it through. It was a very nice gesture too! Except for the first half, it was an overall interesting read. Shubhro's story actually is very unique and makes one think at least once to try out his lifestyle. The last blog part looked a bit stretched.


The writing style is simple and you do not need Thesaurus at any point. However, the spelling, typo and punctuation errors could have been avoided. How can you misspell the main place in the story, the place that is the base of the story? The first mention of the place is Torangallu and from thereon it is Toranagallu! 


Still, you can go for this book. The price is justified. And so are the number of pages.


My rating for I'm Not Twenty Four... I've been nineteen for five years: 6.5/10

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This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program by blogadda.com.